I simply don’t buy the argument that Baker was compelled to challenge the judge’s releasing of Wilson to prevent an allegedly fatal legal precedent from occurring. And if he did feel that strongly about it, and knew he was questioning it in a way that would ensure Wilson’s release, he sure as heck could have done a better job explaining it. At the very least, the law, of all things, should strive to be just, and at the very least Baker’s decision to appeal his release looked for all the world like piling on.

Though it’s not as bad, since this guy was completely innocent, it’s not unlike the recent case of the guy who was in jail for failure to pay child support, and was kept in jail even after it was conclusively proven via DNA that he wasn’t the father.

When cases disrespect common sense and justice, it causes people to lose faith in the law; and Baker’s actions undermined the people’s faith in the justice system, and that to me is far more damaging than the legal precedent he allegedly was trying to prevent.

Having said all that, it’s just one factor that people should consider. It’s not like his major opponent, King Rat has been a paragon of virtue his entire political careers.

“but anytime we are willing to keep someone in jail who doesn’t need to be there, we are playing political games with people’s lives.”

Wrong. Two facts.

1. There are tons of innocent people in jail. Everybody knows it, from lawyers, judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys etc. The problem is that for the vast majority of these people, there is no practical way to get them out of jail because the system is imperfect. So, we “play politics” by favoring some “innocent people” over others, usually for political reasons. Genarlow Wilson, Marcus Dixon, and the Jena 6 are examples of cases chosen by activists specifically seeking to advance a political issue, mainly more lenient policing and sentencing. (Also, some folks were using Wilson and Dixon in particular to go after laws that are perceived as limiting teen sexuality, for basically the same reason that these folks oppose “abstinence education.”) It was easy to make the Wilson and Dixon cases into political and media footballs because it was depicted as cases of black boys put in jail for having sex, the Jena 6 case blew up because of the noose, and further all 3 cases involved star football players. But there are PLENTY of innocent people in jail that these same activists and media types won’t lift a finger to help because they can’t be used to advance a political agenda.

2. The idea that Wilson didn’t belong in jail is absurd. Wilson broke the law. There was a statute in place, and Wilson broke it. Are you going to say that because you don’t agree with the law, or because the law is unfair that a person who breaks it shouldn’t be punished? Do you have a chart or something that explains which laws we can break and which laws we can’t? Or which citizens have to keep all the laws and which have to keep some?

Look, this is a real problem in the black community … the inability to differentiate between activists/agitators challenging the system and people who hold elected or appointed office and actually have to RUN the system. It is the job of the NAACP or Concerned Black Clergy to decide whether a law is unfair and to challenge it. But if you are a government official, it is your job to follow the law. The judge who ordered Wilson be released overstepped her bounds. That was judicial activism, and she should be relieved of her place on the bench. I am sorry, but that is why so many of the cities run by blacks are so messed up. It isn’t that blacks can’t run a city. It is that the people who blacks elect are professional activists and agitators who lack the background or interest in running a city. Blacks take people who haven’t run anything in their lives but protest marches and elect them to city council, the school board, the mayor’s office etc. and when these types get into office all they know how to do or even care to do is make speeches. They have no idea how to put together a budget, manage a staff etc. That’s why the black community needs to elect more doctors, CPAs, high school principals, business owners, engineers etc. instead of rabble rousers.

Baker wasn’t elected attorney general to push Jesse Jackson’s agenda. He was elected to be the top law enforcement officer for the state, and he acted in that capacity in the Genarlow Wilson case. If blacks want activists instead of people who are willing and capable to do their jobs, then blacks deserve the leadership that they get in places like Detroit, on the Clayton County School Board, and during the Bill Campbell administration. Look, out of all of these NAACP types who get elected to office by the black community, name one that has introduced any real innovation, a new or better way to run a city, state or a school board. Answer: there hasn’t been. Either they don’t have any ideas, or they don’t have the work ethic or competency to implement them. Or they simply implement ideas originated by whites. That’s what the black community gets by electing all these Jesse Jackson wannabees while ignoring real leaders. If a guy from Black Enterprise’s top 100 business owners or executives were to run for office, he’d be labeled a sellout to the corporate interests, the NAACP and other black groups wouldn’t back him, and some professional activist would get elected instead.

The amazing thing: no other minority group does this. If Atlanta were an “Asian city” instead of a chocolate city, they would have elected someone with a Ph.D. in engineering who has been running his own successful business for 20 years to fix the sewer and transportation problems, not Maynard Jackson, Bill Campbell or Shirley Franklin.

Progressive whites in Atlanta will vote in the GOP primary to block that moron Oxyndine.

I’m gonna laugh my butt off when Barnes can’t even get through a Democratic primary.

I’m with Roy all the way. Bill Clinton’s support won’t matter to me one bit, and I voted for him twice. Oh how times have changed.