Comments on: Reform-Minded GOP Prosecutor Targeted by Police Unions, Her Own Party

By: Thomas R. Griffith

Thomas R. Griffith — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:10:09 +0000

Looks like a few ‘Taxpayers’ get it. Only a fool would have no problem paying into an account that funds ‘mass round ups’ & mandates obtaining convictions of petty ass B.S. such as trace amounts and filming of public servants in public performing their paid duties. Sadly, as the products of the ‘Holmes Stable’ and ‘Rosenthall the Rotten’ die out, their legacy of corruption will live in empathy.

When the public allows lawmakers & police departments to implement laws that require the imprisonment of low level crimes vs. paying fines and/or short probationary periods, they get what they (the complicit) deserve. Sadly, the non-complicit suffer just the same. Mrs. Lykos may have an (R) next to her name but at least she is trying to de-fool Harris County & save the the taxpayer a lot of money in the process. Too bad her Post Conviction Integrity Unit refuses to consider Closed/Cleared claims of false arrests and subsequent wrongful convictions void of DNA. When and if she does, will determine the true color of her heart & office. Until then, cherry picking is equal to avoiding the whole truth and nothing but. Thanks.

By: A Surplus of Law » Right Thinking

A Surplus of Law » Right Thinking — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 05:42:17 +0000

[...] falsely convicted. They could be more like Pat Lykos, now facing a primary challenge because of her reforms. Or they could be shifted to the defense side, to ensure everyone has competent [...]

By: Goldbug36

Goldbug36 — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 03:11:21 +0000

Here in Illinois, it is so corrupt, they arrest some poor pot-smoking fool and promise to release him without charges if he will rat on some of his friends .. so he gets out the phone book and copies some names and addresses. Then the cops arrest these people, confiscate whatever they can from them, and send in a fabulous arrest report so they get lots of federal funding. Ain’t dat “War on Drugs” just special? Nah, Illinois isn’t corrupt; it’s just a Chicago rumor.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:00:07 +0000

I like how calling somebody a “moderate” is apparently a slur in Texas.

By: Maggie McNeill

Maggie McNeill — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:37:37 +0000

Slightly OT: It looks like Radley is having a positive effect over at HuffPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/conrad-black/supreme-court-michael-morton_b_1189021.html

By: CyniCAl

CyniCAl — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:19:30 +0000

Dave Krueger: “… you only have to look at the number of people still walking around free to realize the tremendous growth potential of the criminal justice system.”

Here you go, Dave!

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/200-million-people-illicit-drugs-study-finds-120123343–abc-news.html

By: tired dog

tired dog — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:02:54 +0000

Lykos reportedly did not give a Swanson relative a job. Note that Swanson and Berg are just minor functionaries in the county R party, legends in their own minds. The county chairman, at least now, states support for Lykos. And Anderson seems to view his time on the bench and at the DA’s office as one and the same job.
As for the cops, they can’t stand the loss of the numbers bumping easy busts, even if they’d eventually be downgraded to misdemeanors. Welcome to Harris County where you might beat the rap but it will be a hell of a ride.
I would like the straight scoop in the possibly defective drunk-o-meters, and whether or not Lykos’ assistant Palmer took the 5th to protect herself or to point more questions in Lykos’ direction. Palmer has been around the office long before Lykos took over…hmmm, and was at some point a judicial candidate if memory serves, wonder if Blakemore was her CONsultant too?

By: CyniCAl

CyniCAl — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:48:25 +0000

“… she says she wants to prosecute cartels, not crack pipes … The cops of course hate the policy because arresting petty users is a hell of a lot easier than arresting major dealers.”

Aha. Now it makes sense. She’s going after the wrong people.

Follow the money people. Cui bono.

By: HarrisCOFriend

HarrisCOFriend — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:17:39 +0000

Radley – There’s a dirty underbelly to this story if you dig deeper. In between Holmes and Lykos there was another prosecutor named Chuck Rosenthal. You may remember him from the scandal that took him out of office.

Rosenthal was one of the defendants in a lawsuit against some Houston cops who roughed up a guy for…you guessed it…filming cops in public. The lawsuit revealed a long string of racist and sexually explicit emails on Rosenthal’s computer and he resigned. Lykos came in as the reform candidate back then, and they’ve been gunning for her ever since.

One of the leaders of the charge is a local GOP bigwig named Allen Blakemore, who was Rosenthal’s old campaign manager and Anderson’s new one. Blakemore is an out and out racist who has perfected the tactic of sending mail pieces to Republican primary voters with menacing Willie Horton-style mug shots of black and brown people, and declaring his opponents soft on crime.

By: qwints

qwints — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:19:09 +0000

There really is something to the claim that she is rude to people who work for her. I regularly read former Harris prosecutor (now defense attorney) Murray Newman, and he has documented a lot of pretty frustrating policies and errors that have nothing to do with criminal justice reform. For a summary of issues, take a look at this sarcasm-filled post: http://harriscountycriminaljustice.blogspot.com/2011/12/lykos-2011-year-in-review.html

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:10:10 +0000

Let’s not be too quick to judge. I can see how her DIVERT and trace case policies would draw fire. Anytime you slow the rate of growth in prison population, you reduce the need for new cops, courts, prosecutors, and prison guards. This is a jobs issue. Those people need to eat too, you know, and it’s not like there are a lot of other jobs out there for those who specialize in keeping the high-walled people farms stocked with fresh warm bodies. Anything that slows that process is bad, bad, bad!

Like the Hollywood movie industry, the U.S. just happens to be the world leader in locking people up. We don’t want to give up being the best in yet another industry due to the whims of some prosecutor who seems to think convictions and incarcerations are only for dangerous convicts and repeat offenders. From the tough on crime GOP and police union perspectives, you only have to look at the number of people still walking around free to realize the tremendous growth potential of the criminal justice system.

By: derfel cadarn

derfel cadarn — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:09:53 +0000

You know the GOP standard bearers would not wish to be associated with honesty and integrity. The police unions and officers are lowlife scum who find it much easier to harass the general populous rather than attempt to do any serious police work,cowards in body armor with big guns and no ethics. Are not we fortunate to be living in America today.

By: Dwight Brown

Dwight Brown — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:48:37 +0000

For an alternative view on this, I commend to the attention of Agitator readers Life at the Harris Count Criminal Justice Center, a blog written by a former DA who was fired by Lykos, and is now in private practice as a defense attorney. My personal opinion, as someone who is not a lawyer and who is observing this through the newspapers at a distance of about 150 miles, is that Mr. Balko is playing down the severity of the problems with Ms. Lykos's office, including the grand jury investigation into DUI testing. "Anderson has attacked Lykos for DIVERT, a program she created that allows the equivalent of deferred adjudication for first offense DWIs," And which is in direct violation of the law. I disagree with the law as written, as well as the way DWI is handled in the post-MADD era, but I do expect the DA's office to abide by the law until it is changed.

By: Cynical in New York

Cynical in New York — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:46:16 +0000

Lycos gets a “meh” from me for the following; 1. Government Gang Bangers hate her, 2. She still thinks the drug war is worth fighting

By: marco73

marco73 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:22:32 +0000

Every city and county in the US has some sort of federally funded task force in place to stamp out the “scourge” of drugs. The federal dollars roll in only when reports of arrests are compiled and rolled up to federal bureaucrats.
Everyone in the legal system from judges to cops to jail guards receive some federal dollars, from more court cases and more arrestees and more prisoners.
So what if we are putting away people for multi-year sentences for having residue in a crack pipe? As long as jobs, overtime, and pensions are funded, the legal systems works just fine.
Pat Lycos is messing with people’s paychecks. That’s why they are going after her. No one is naive enough to believe its about justice, or whatever they call it now.

By: EH

EH — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:03:47 +0000

Is that what it is, “there’s just no money in rape?”

By: Gojira

Gojira — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:18:33 +0000

*sigh* I love being from Texas. By god, we don’t take shit from anybody! ESPECIALLY punk black and latino guys who think they can do whatever they want with their bodies in their own properties! The audacity!

If only Rick Santorum can get elected, so we can extend the old Harris County policies all over the nation. As he himself stated, the notion that people can “do whatever they want as long as it doesn’t hurt anybody” is absurd and wrong.

Again, quoting Santorum, true freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever you want, it means, ““the freedom to attend to one’s duties to God, to family, and to neighbors.”. That’s right: the freedom to attend to your duties. God I can’t wait! And the best part is: even if he doesn’t get elected, BO and ROMNIAC3000 will continue the same policies, with the overwhelming support of the public! Bloodthirstiness FTW!

/sarc

By: el coronado

el coronado — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:08:58 +0000

Wasting your breath, Ryan. The city/county/state can’t seize a rapist’s car & house & bank accounts. Druggies and their lovely lovely seizable assets are manna from heaven, and Houston (and every other city in the country) ain’t gonna let it go. Then too, if a cop/cops were hypothetically on the take – fat envelopes coming in every week like clockwork – do you suppose those hypothetical bribes would be coming from rapists? Or drug guys?

By: Ryan P

Ryan P — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:56:19 +0000

In a county with thousands of untested rape kits, the argument is that we should spend more money and time continuing to send extremely small time druggies to prison rather than trying to solve all those backed-up rape cases?