The Right Coast

March 04, 2005
 
Judges should be safe
By Tom Smith

Judges need to be protected. This whole story is very upsetting.

I remember once or twice as I child sitting up with my dad, who was a state court trial judge, as he waited through the night, having been informed that some miscreant he had sent to the Idaho state penn had busted out. He professed not to be worried, but he wasn't sleeping either. The Boise police, whose favorite judge he was not, would cruise by a couple of times; other than that, it was up to him and his 12 gauge. I of course thought it was exciting, a view that would no doubt have changed had the murderer on the lamb shown up. Most threats against judges are just hot air from people who prefer their victims weak and looking the other way, but you never know. I now have two federal judges in the family, and the reports in this story about the U.S. Marshall Service are not particularly reassuring. It seems they need to be beefed up, probably better trained and paid more.

The murder of Judge Lefkow's husband and mother looks like the work of a white supremacist hate group. Unfortunately, there is a history of wacko white supremacist activity in Idaho, and growing up there in a family connected with the criminal justice system, you inevitably learn something about them. They are very evil, very dangerous people, largely based in prison gangs that extend across the country, as far as I can tell. It hardly needs to be said, but this act of terrorism against the judicial system is an attack on the rule of law, every bit as serious as islamofascist terrorism. Federal law enforcement should find out who is behind it, and eradicate them, root and branch.