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| Defendant? Or anti-hero? |
NEWS
ACCOUNTS FROM both of the major metro newspapers (Sun-Times, Tribune) indicate
the sheriff, who runs the county jail and criminal courts complex, wants to
identify the disrespectful inmates.
With
their names to be turned over to the assistant state’s attorneys who are
prosecuting their pending criminal cases. Their hope is that someday, those
disrespectful inmates will have extra time added to their punishments because
of their behavior this week.
While
several of the inmates awaiting trial in Cook County may wind up finding
themselves transferred to county jails elsewhere. They may wind up awaiting
trial in some rural county jail where their legal proceedings will be far more
complicated to carry out.
But
a little bit of inconvenience is being deemed as warranted for acting as though
Shomari Legghette were some sort of hero because of the half-dozen gunshots he
fired when Bauer tried to catch him Wednesday at the Thompson Center state
government building.
THE
NEWSPAPERS ARE going along with this tone – the county sheriff provided video
taken of a holding cell so we can see, and hear, crude images of the cheering
inmates as Legghette is brought past their cell en route to the courtroom –
where a judge decided that Legghette should await trial inside the jail without
the option of bond.
Now
I’m not saying I think these inmates were anything but buffoons in the way they
behaved, or that Bauer (who will get the full-ritual police funeral on Saturday)
is deserving of disrespect.
It’s
just that I wouldn’t expect anything but tacky behavior from jail inmates.
No
matter what legal basis there is for saying these men (including Legghette) are
innocent until proven guilty, the fact is that many of them are misfits from
the standard beliefs of our society.
WHICH
IS WHAT led most of them to actions that would bring them under suspicion by
police and prosecutors and cause them to have criminal charges pending against
them.
Besides,
there’s something about incarceration that would break the spirit of just about
anybody – surround yourself with enough misfits, and you’ll find yourself
starting to take on their ideals.
I
remember one time I was inside the Stateville Correctional Center near Joliet
(as a reporter-type person). As the group I was with was passing the
roundhouses, we could hear the inmates taunting us – letting us know they
regarded us as being as much a part of the problem as anybody else.
It
was execution duty (back in the days when Illinois still committed homicide in
the name of justice), and the inmates let me and others know we would “burn in
Hell” as much as anyone else for being a part of the ritual.
I
ALSO RECALL crude and vulgar threats shouted specifically at the prison
staffers – letting them know how they would be “f---ed up” by the inmates if
they ever wound up inside the prison proper.
With
that kind of mentality, it wouldn’t shock me in the least to learn that some of
the county jail inmates (some of whom are bound to wind up in the Illinois Corrections
Department eventually) would think cheers and applause would be worthy of a man
charged with the shooting death of a cop.
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| Could he be Cook County sheriff? |
So
to learn that aides to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart are saying the inmate
behavior is “disgraceful and despicable, just beyond the pale” has a familiar
ring to it.
Something
similar to that of Capt. Renault from “Casablanca,” when he uttered his
now-memorable line about being “shocked, shocked to learn that gambling is
taking place on the premises” of Rick’s Café. Both of them are worthy of an
equally insincere sigh.
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