Legal hypocrisy just the way I like it, smarmy.

Well, I've been working on cover art (heinous), editing (tedious) and the glossary (titillating) in between  painting the house, having a life, et cetera. In my free time this morning I happened to read the Seattle Stranger, where I found something I'm going to reprint here without permission.  I can't imagine it will piss them off.

"...South Boston, where today a priest was busted for a creepy child-sex-related crime. What makes this news, instead of just another Monday in the Boston Archdiocese: According to prosecutors, 39-year-old Franciscan priest Reverend Andrew J. Urbaniak was not only trafficking in kiddie porn, but was actively downloading child pornography when police presented themselves today at the South Boston rectory where Urbaniak lives and works. As the Boston Globe reports, today's bust at Our Lady of Czestochowa Church followed a two-month investigation by the Boston Police Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the State Police Crimes Against Children Unit. At his arraignment on Wednesday, Urbaniak will plead not guilty to charges of possession and dissemination of child pornography, and be ordered held on $10,000 bail."

You can read the rest of the article here:
        http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/last-days/Content?oid=14396911

Why copy and paste this ugly hank of news into the first post I've put up in a while?  Simple.  I'm outraged, just a little bit though, the tranquilizers help, seriously they do help.  Anyway what gets me here is that a f**king priest is caught downloading kiddie porn and held on Ten Thousand Whole US Dollars of Bail Money.

You can't even buy a new car with 10K.

Check this out, from the Boston Globe article on the case. 

http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20120801southie_priest_faces_child_porn_charge

Urbaniak’s attorney, Jeffrey Denner, told the judge, “He is a very decent man charged with very indecent activites. He doesn’t pose any danger, nor does he pose any risk of flight. He has devoted his life to good.”

Mr. Danner Esq. must be one hell of a lawyer. Which is to say he is a man with the moral latitude of Idi Amin. I love the part about 'devoting his life to good'.

Meanwhile, in other news, I happen to, ahem, know a fellow who was busted for the horrific crime of Growing Marijuana a while back. He was caught in the drug free wilds of Northern California, where as we all know, marijuana production and distribution are treated like the shameful, dirty felonies they are.

He was held on Five Hundred Thousand Dollars Bail.  

Franciscan Pedophile with access to children: 10K.  Pot Grower with access to potheads: 500K.

Hypocrisy: 1
A sensible legal system: 0

WTF?

How the hell is growing pot in a state where a person with the proper medical documentation can buy it out of a f**king vending machine fifty times more damnable than the traffic and "use" of child pornography.

For the record, I do understand the arguments of the anti drug angle about how dozens of pounds of pot will potentially ruin the lives of hundreds of children... blah, blah, blah... it's still not pedophilia.  Some crazed right wingers may even try the "marijuana production money is funneled into terrorism" argument.  Even if that weren't balderdash, pot still isn't kiddie porn.

I also understand that criminal procedure is founded on the principles of civil procedure, which is essentially a form of fiscal mediation between parties. Therefore, a properly cynical person can infer that the state is more likely to get five hundred thousand out of a grower than they are out of a priest who has taken a vow of poverty. (Not sure if Franciscans still do that... but they used to, either way I doubt the villainous friar has a half a million in his bank account.)

OK- I had to get that out.