R.I.P Richard Jewell, A Good Man

Lightraven

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Sep 2, 2004
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I don't know if his life was ruined, but he really proved the joke, "No good deed goes unpunished."

As soon as his name surfaced in the media, I wondered, "Do FBI agents know how to keep their mouths shut?" I still wonder.

To be targetted by the FBI is the ultimate scarlet letter, from the Hoover days to now. Anybody remember the scientist who was being investigated for the Anthrax letters/homicides? I thought, "Why am I reading this guy's name in Newsweek when no indictment/'information' is on paper?" If he's guilty, charge him. If he isn't, keep his name out of the media.

Richard Jewell put himself in a position to save lives (as a guard and later, a cop) and he had the good character to make it happen.
 

fieldops

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Yes, I agree he was a good man who saved lives. Unfortunately he lost a good part of his own in the process. The FBI (and others) have to realize that things are not the same as they used to be. With the 24hour cable news cycles, your name and photo can be plastered all over the the TV every half hour with the panels of talking heads condemning you all day long. They will beat you to death by examining everything in your life, right down to the parking ticket you got at age 17. It's sad....:(
 

Monocrom

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A good man who did the right thing, and got screwed over for it.

If you want to report something you see = Anonymous Phone Call.
 

Mednanu

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Earth...
The FBI (and others) don't care. Generally, they just want a scalp.

Hideously unfortunate but shockingly true ( in my opinion ). Remember the McCarthyism era that the FBI ( Federal Bureau of Intimidation ) went through during the 40's....well, it hasn't ended and instead has grown stronger than ever. Only now, they appear to be applying it to all areas of investigation and all US citizens, rather than simply targeting communists. IMO, they are the new Gestapo of this country.

I speak from direct experience ( not opinion ) on how one's rights may be egregiously violated w/o the slightest bit of evidence or wrongdoing to provoke such a response. If you're inclined to dig further, just look at their tactics when they 'compelled' 3500 - 4500 + owners of Makarov pistols to turn over their firearms for damaging tests in order to try spooking one suspect out of the herd so they could catch him. A suspect, who by definition of being suspected for murder, would not likely wait around to have his own pistol tested of course ! Yet the Bureau of Intimidation decided that this would be a likely way to flush out their target - once they had no success in doing so for over a year's time, then thought all of a sudden that by placing pressure on law-abiding gun owners, somehow, this would compel the suspect to get flustered and come out into the open ( are they actually smoking something that strong in the halls of the Bureau these days ?!?!? ). The technique used in this case, which I've had direct experience with, is also not the 'exception to the rule' - just search out some of the censures that congress has levied against the Bureau for not only similar techniques, but techniques with a spot-on match in protocol - they appear to operate as if this method of intimidation and interrogation is written in their own procedural manual or something !

It's the equivalent of hearing a description of a baseball-cap-wearing suspect being reported over the police band, then pulling in every baseball-cap-wearing individual in the country just to see if they had stolen the particular TV noted in the police report. Grossly unconstitutional and lazy at it's best...but for those who see the writing on the wall regarding this type of behavior and flagrant violation of the personal rights of law abiding citizens ( ie - my 'record' has nothing more than a few seatbelt tickets on it ! ), it's a very sobering wake-up call that the FBI is nothing like the professional, competent images portrayed within the Discovery channel documentaries of them or those one may see in the movies or on TV.

My opinions are in no way to be associated with local/municipal Police & Sherrifs, whom I refer to as 'real law enforcement' officers when compared to those travesties commissioned by the Bureau. And compared to current culture and opinion, I probably sound very extreme in my views of the Bureau of Intimidation. But all I have to say is, go through it yourself and see if you - a law abiding citizen your whole life through - aren't appalled and incensed to the same degree I describe here after your own constitutional rights are trampled, ignored and cast asunder, costing you money, stress, damage to your good name and a nightmarish event that, until it happened to me, I didn't realize was actually normal procedure for this Federally sanctioned 'gang' ( ...in my opinion, of course ).
 
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