Corruption in Kentucky: Local County Governments

It's by design that many Kyians do not have Internet. There's many Kyians who do not have running water, still shitting in outhouses, let alone Internet... but you know what? Those who have the Internet, dont give a shit about those who do not. Circuit court judges, district court judges, make $115,000 a year. $115,000 a year. And the median income in Owsley County is $10,000 a year. Circuit court judges are lawyers, have political power, plenty of money for whatever they need, all the insurance they could ever want, they make lucrative pensions, live comfortable lives, throwing poor ignorant powerless folks into jail... Capitalism makes sure there's a poverty class, by design. So I guarantee you, that the political establishment will be watching this. I have no idea if the people I'm trying to reach out to will hear this, but I guarantee you, the political establishment is watching. So...

All 120 counties in Kentucky are essentially made up of the same politicians. All of them have a Judge-Executive, Legislators (Magistrates or Commissioners), Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisors, Sheriffs, Constables, Jailers, County Clerks, Circuit Court Clerks, District Judges, a Circuit court judge, a County Attorney, a Commonwealth's attorney, and their towns have Mayors, Councilpeople, and maybe local police officers and some other positions I have forgotten. And every 4 years, all of these, virtually of them, are up for reelection, and many of them have no requirements, except residency requirements, and a filing fee. All it takes to run for office, is to have lived in your district for a year or so, you'll have to check out the specific residency requirements—a filing fee, and a signature. That's it. So, to run for office, really, all a Kentuckian needs is gumption and some courage. That's the very best way to prevent corruption in your county, to throw the bums out, and to replace them with good honest decent folks.

The way the American system of government is set up, is that we have 3 branches of government: executive, judicial, and legislative. It's set up that way so that we don't have tyranny, so that one branch doesn't hold absolute authority, for checks and balances. Many folks think the police work for the judicial branch, and it can seem that way, but they don't. Police officers are a part of the executive branch of government.

For Laurel County, the local executive would be the Judge-Executive, and of course, the Governor, who actually holds virtually all of the power in the state. County governments only operate at the behest of the state government.

So the way our local system works is like this:

The Judge-Executive is the one who enforces the laws... executive, they execute the laws in the county and make sure their laws are enforced. There's some disagreement over who has more power, the Sheriff or the Judge-Executive, but it's supposed to be the Judge-Executive, but that determination can be left up to the County Attorney, as was evident in Jackson County, Kentucky, when the Sheriff arrested the Judge-Executive. The County Attorney believed that the Sheriff held all of the powers of arrest, and so therefore, erred on the side of the Sheriff over the Judge-Executive.

Okay. So the Judge-Executive also has another way of enforcing their laws, let's say, if the local county Sheriff doesn't enforce the laws the way the Judge-Executive wants them to enforce the laws. The Judge-Executive controls the budget, so Judge-Executive can cut the Sheriff's budget. The Judge-Executive can also establish their own county police force, one that will enforce the county's laws.

The Magistrates (or Commissioners) write the laws [the legislative branch], the Judge-Executive signs and enforces the laws [the executive branch], and the District and Circuit Judges judge the laws [judicial branch].

So when the police sees a person, say breaking into a person's house, they catch the thief, arrest them, charge them, and jail them. Usually that person can bond out, putting some money down to make sure they come to court, and then they go to court, where they get their day in court.

The reason we have judges judge these cases is to make sure the police officers aren't terrorizing folks. The judge is supposed to be a non-biased neutral 3^rd party and everybody in America is supposed to be considered innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, many times, it doesn't work that way. Especially in Kentucky, the #1 most corrupt state in the nation, according to a recent Harvard report.

Unfortunately, the tail can wag the dog. In the case of Samantha Ramsey in Boone County, after a Boone County Sheriff's Deputy shot and killed Samantha Ramsey over non-compliance, the political establishment rushed to cover it up. They appointed a special prosecutor to present the case to the grand jury, and they waited over a year until after the elections before they convened the grand jury. They didn't want to present the grand jury's findings until after the election because the political establishment wanted to keep their jobs, which they were able to do. The grand jury failed to indict Tyler Brockman, the cop who shot and killed Samantha Ramsey. Tyler Brockman wasn't indicted, nor was he arrested by any law enforcer, nor did anybody issue an arrest warrant on him.

The tail can wag the dog. So even though the police officers are supposed to be under the executive branch, and then their arrests are judged by the district or circuit court judge, many times, the local political establishment follows the police officer's lead. Some county attornies believe that it's their job to defend the police officers, which is incorrent. That's what nepotism and corruption does.

The way it's supposed to work would be a good system, because a police officer and his character would be put on trial for every arrest he or she makes, so when their arrests goes to a bench or a jury trial, the police officer's action is also suspect, and they'll have to defend their actions for that particular incident.

It would be like, hearing about two people getting into a fight, and then figuring out who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Even a great police officer who has made good decisions for 20 years 99% of the time, can make a mistake.

The prosecutor and the judge is supposed to determine every case based on their on merits, every accused person is innocent until proven guilty, proven beyond a reasonable doubt. That's assuming the process is coming from an impartial and fair criminal justice system.

Unfortunately, what tends to happen, is only a few folks in a county know what's going on, and so they therefore rule the county, the “courthouse clique”. Also the educational system doesn't teach civics, so only the self-educated will be able to figure this all out. A corrupt local “courthouse clique” system will stack the deck against those who are accused, bully them into compliance, so they all feel like they're doing something useful, for themselves, for the county, for the voters, for whoever. I've heard many Judges brag about how many convictions they have secured, which means diddly crap to me. When I hear about a Judge who brags about how many convictions they have enforced, that's a tyrannical piece of shit, who has probably hurt many people's lives.

The courthouse clique—the cops, judge-Executive, district, circuit judge, Sheriff, constables—all want to feel like they're doing something important, they're all buddy-buddy, and they are all on the same side. The prosecutor and the judge have each other's backs, and the police officer's backs, so the court system is more like a slaughterhouse, where those the police victimize is further victimized by a prosecutor and judge who is friends with the police officers... and the Judge-Executive can feel like they're completely out in the dark for this entire process.

Even the public pretender is corrupt because they have to maintain a relationship with the county attorney to help them get plea bargains for their many clients.

So, on paper, our system seems like it should work, but most of the time it doesn't. Sometimes violent criminals, rapists, murderers, thieves, get their just desserts, but also many innocents get caught in the gears and get churned into butter, get turned into minced meat, due to their ignorance to the system, due to the corruption of the courthouse clique, or for not having enough money to pay a good lawyer, or for all three reasons.

Misdemeanor charges can take years off of a person's life. And even if a police officer was in the wrong, to save face, the prosecutor will try to get the defendant, the accused, to cop out a plea deal, and due to time restraints, lack of money, lack of connections, powerlessness, ignorance, etc, the innocent will just hurry up and accept it, just so they can get the whole criminal justice system over and done with, in spite of their innocence.

We need more honorable men in positions of power in our courthouses, in our Judge-Executive's offices, in jailer and police officer uniforms, and less oppressors and slaughterhouses. We should leave the slaughterhouses for the pigs.

If you don't turn on politics, politics can turn on you. Since the tail can wag the dog, since local thin blue line goons can force the executive, legislative, and judicial branch to their wills, it's important for all citizens in all 120 counties in Kentucky to understand who their local front thin blue line guard is made up of. Gatewood said we live in a police state. We shouldn't, if we had honest folks in office. In democracies that work, the military is supposed to be subordinate to the civilian political establishment, and that's how the police are supposed to operate too. But if the executive legislative and the judicial branch are all covering up all of the members of the thin blue line front guard... well, then that means the police are rogue, and control the whole shebang, and do as they please, and just wait for the rest of political establishment to catch up. They aren't subordinate to the political establishment, the political establishment is subordinate to them. That's tyranny. That's Egypt, a society controlled by an occupied army. The main oppressors. Or, the main oppressors for the 1%, bankers, corporations, the aristocratic elite. That's how you'd know if you had police who actually protected you: they'd be arresting the wealthy for white collar crimes, the bankers for stealing, landlords too, and other oppressors.

In Kentucky counties, there's Sheriffs and their deputies, sometimes county police officers separate from the Sheriff's office, Constables, and local city and town police officers. That's looking at the county itself.

But when we add the State government's boys in blue, and other executive branch offices, you'll see a fuller picture. The KSP has jurisdiction over all 120 counties, plus so do the Health and Family Services, which is why they are able to take people's kids away for child abuse, since their power and authority comes straight from Frankfort/the State (aka Commonwealth) of Kentucky. Kentucky counties are administrative units of the State.

And then there's the Feds, which is a whole other ball of complicated wax, which I don't fully understand myself. With so many politicians, political leaders, being paid with our tax dollars, you'd think some of those bastards could actually let us know what the fuck is going on. Nepotism's a bitch.