if it were boss tweed - and, of course, if tweed were a republican - we’d be hearing “tammany” all day every day. (”william tweed, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the new york tammany political organization ….”), yet somehow we’re being given the impression obama became a key player in the daley/democrat chicago organization by….accident? coincidence? happenstance?

or is it racist to ask this?

My “what?” came when I read Judge Katz’s “Almost every fiber in my being tells me that she is guilty of the charged crime, but a tiny, tiny little part of me has a question,” to explain the not guilty verdict.

Hmmm. Well, maybe this judge is just a stickler like that regarding reasonable doubt, even for citizens with no ties to the local government. I truly hope so. I’m stopping at the grocery on my way home, but I think I’ll skip the whole card-getting, cart-schlepping relay race. Just in case the judge I’d get has parts so tiny as to be non-existent.

There is plenty of government corruption out there to deal with, I just don’t see it here. Besides, if this was some big political thing going on, she would’ve already had her job back.

That’s why you would bring it to trial just to take a dive.

no….wait….

chsw

Not sure if the surveillance video would have made any difference here either. It sounds as if there was no dispute over her taking the groceries from the store to the car; thats all the video would do is establish that fact, not her state of mind. If the defendant gave a statement that she did in fact take the groceries from the store, then playing the video would have been redundant anyways.

I don’t know any more about this case than whats in the linked article, so I can’t really comment on the evidence. I know 130$ of groceries sounds like a whole shopping cart full of stuff, but seeing that she had 2 items that made up half that cost, we might be talking about just a small hand basket or so. If thats the case, I could ‘understand’ going to the car first to get the money rather than putting everything back or waiting in line just to tell the cashier you have to go to the car and get your wallet (thus wasting a bunch of people’s time). Certainly not the smartest thing to do, but was the criminal intent to steal the groceries there or not? Sometimes these situations just aren’t that clear.

But my main point is the failure of the prosecutor to give opening or closing statements in a misdemeanor bench trial or to play a video that shows facts that aren’t in issue isn’t really a ‘tanking’ of the case. Its SOP in my experience.

They “tanked” the case on purpose so the Judge had to find her “not guilty.” surprising, though, how blatant they were.

The Dick Daley political machine in action. It reaches its tentacles in all aspects of Chicago city and Cook county government. They aren’t even discreet after 50 years of gorging at the public trough.