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| Your Winner: 2011 Worst Prosecutor of the Year, John "Marty" Bradley |
Meanwhile, Grits feels compelled to point readers to this hilarious video clip of a scene from a WWII film in German which somebody subtitled with biting dialogue drawing on themes from the Michael Morton exoneration. Normally Grits disdains Hitler references on the web, deferring to my college pal Mike Godwin's dicta regarding the uselessness and disrespectful nature of such comparisons. However, this piece doesn't compare Bradley's actions to those of Hitler's, which is the usual Godwinian trope. Instead, it uses the scene to explore the emotional state of a megalomaniac in free fall. Anyway, it made me laugh.
On a more serious, related note, last week the Texas Tribune interviewed Michael Morton's attorney John Raley about the case, and published excerpts in video and transcript form. And Wilco Watchdog is going through old John Bradley posts from the District and County Attorneys user form and finding lots of controversial opinions expressed that don't always jibe with his comments to the MSM.
Bradley's GOP primary opponent, Williamson County Attorney Jana Duty, has been racking up law-enforcement endorsements and this week received the endorsement of the former Williamson County DA Ed Walsh, who preceded Ken Anderson and John Bradley in the office. A reader from Williamson County emails to say, "There are bandanas appearing on his signs all over the county. People are really sick of him and no longer scared to speak out."
What a difference a year makes! This time in 2011 Bradley was on top of the world, with many anticipating that by the end of the year his long-time patron Governor Perry may even appoint him to the Court of Criminal Appeals. But first the Texas Senate rejected JB's nomination as chair of the Forensic Science Commission, then the Michael Morton exoneration splashed his and Ken Anderson's names across the national press as poster children for indifference toward valid innocence claims and alleged prosecutorial misconduct. Now, not only is appointment to Texas' high criminal court a pipe dream, he might not even win reelection in Williamson County. Grits remains flabbergasted by Bradley's eye-poppingly rapid downfall, which will reach truly epic proportions if he actually loses the April primary. I'm sure the DA himself must be stunned at the development.
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28 comments:
Congrats, John!
i am crying in my bandana. im so happy for you j.b.
I agree with Bradley being the worst prosecutor of the year, but I disagree with your decision to link to the video depicting him as Hitler. There are many videos that use this same clip of Hitler but they rarely change the identity of Hitler to the person being targeted. Usually, they just make Hitler comment on something without changing Hitler's name, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_EcybyLJS8.
In the video you linked to, Hitler is addressed as Mr Bradley, meaning Bradley is Hitler.
Very stupid.
I was really impressed by the strength of the competition; but that just makes Bradley's accomplishment all the more impressive.
Allow me to concur with 5:34 about the Hitler video. I've seen that same video in a dozen different contexts and they all made me laugh, but this one didn't make me laugh and I kinda thought it was in poor taste. I have repeatedly urged Bradley's critics and his opponent's supporters to stay on the high road. There's nothing funny about any of this, if you ask me.
Did the State Bar release text or an "opinion" of why they won't take action, or did they just say "NO"?
Don, 5:34, I respect your opinions: to me it's clearly satire (and a local Wilco product, to boot), but then I expected some wouldn't like it when I put up the link. If it was a bad judgment call, it wouldn't be the first and my apologies to anyone offended.
7:56, I think they're still investigating Anderson. Here's their letter on Bradley's dismissed complaint.
I do not live anywhere near Williamson County, and do not expect to ever have a client there, but I did donate to his opponent's campaign. The time has come for Mr. Bradley to leave office.
Geesh "Don"... Get a sense of humor. It's satire. I think it's hilarious. Plus I think it's people are so fed up with Bradley they are lashing out. Bradley is such a punk bully, it's kinda refreshing to see him getting kicked in the jimmy for a change. IMO
1/17/2012 09:43:00 PM
I agree with you. The youtube video is a way of lashing out. Bradley has caused more harm than good for Williamson County. Bradley not only helped keep an innocent man in prison, Bradley himself has been responsible for sending innocent people to prison. The truth is working its way to the top on this ole boy. Bradley's about to be exposed on a few things. His smooth talking can only go so far and work for only so long.
The youtube video struck a chord with many of us because of our own personal experiences with jb. I do not believe that Bradley values human life or human rights anymore than Hitler did. Like Hitler, Bradley is an arrogant, ego maniacal A$$.
Of course I don't think Jana Duty should be printing pictures of hitler on her campaign flyers. However, me, regular Jane Doe, I'm sharing it with as many people as possible and I'm asking them to do the same.
" Normally Grits disdains Hitler references on the web, deferring to my college pal Mike Godwin's dicta regarding the uselessness and disrespectful nature of such comparisons."
maybe so grits but SOMETIMES it just FITS!
sorry a rose is a rose is a rose
and a nazi stormtrooper is a nazi stormtrooper no matter what he's dressed as.
sorry people like this guy have done more to damage and destroy the foundation of this country they the original hitler could ever have DREAMED OF!
Well, I can see now that Don and 5:34 were right. I've learned this lesson so many times the hard way I should just accept it by now: It hardly matters what a blogger intends nearly so much as how others interpret it.
To me, anyone who sees the video and thinks Bradley's actions, politics or approach to the justice system are in any way, shape or form comparable to Hitler needs heir head examined. Ain't so, and would be disrespectful to Hitler's victims to claim such.
I thought the video was funny because the meltdown depicted jibes with myriad reports of Bradley's behind-the-scenes yelling bouts and his reported histrionic reaction to endorsements for his opponent. As I said in the post, as satire it "uses the scene to explore the emotional state of a megalomaniac in free fall," which by reported accounts applies to JB to a T in recent months, his ostensible detour on the road to Damascus notwithstanding. Being a megalomaniac, though, doesn't make you a mass murderer nor a Nazi, and despite all our problems, this isn't 1930s Germany, at least not yet.
Live and learn, I suppose. I still thought it was funny.
Videos like this (with "translations") are like puns. It is NOT what is said, it is what is interpreted.
A deserving award for such a peach of a guy! (No offense to peaches intended.)
I understood what you meant when you prefaces the video, I laughed my butt off no disrespect meant to anyone Now I gotta go find my Butt.
This news give me hope that enough people in Williamson County are catching on and we actually might be able to get Bradley out. I have a friend whose husband served several years on a bum plea deal created by Bradley's office. He was intimidated and threatened into taking a plea. I know he is far from the only person this happened to. Bradley needs to go!
I dunno what it is, Grits...I mean, I can laugh at earthquake and tsunami jokes, I can laugh at capsized ocean liner jokes, I have a keen appreciation for all sorts of dark humor. I saw that video long before you posted it, and for some reason it just didn't sit right with me. I can't explain it. I suppose it has something to do with Godwin's Law, and something to do with the Wilco law'n'order crowd smugly notching their belts, and I suppose it has something to do with my mental image of Morton clicking off the days and months and years in that prison cell with his son thinking he killed his son's mother.
When the "bandana bandit" started to do his (or their) "thing" with Bradley's campaign signs, I was truly fearful that we would start to see bandanas with real or fake blood on them, bandanas with semen on them, and similar ugliness. I was really proud of the BB (or the BBs) and others like him/them when that didn't happen. I considered the Hitler video a slip-up along that path, and some who posted it later took it down.
Like the late great George Carlin, somehow I can find a way to laugh about thousands of dead people, and yet there's just something about John Bradley and Ken Anderson and the whole Wilco law'n'order culture that leaves me completely humorless. I don't really understand it myself.
As one that don't understand the legal system to any serious degree but understands it was wrong of Bradley to try to stop the DNA testing of the bandanna or any other evidence I found the syncopation of sound, action and subtitle fit my layman's mental vision of a private discussion. From what I've read concerning this and any other case where evidence is suppressed by the prosecution Occam's razor says the prosecutor is protecting the person or persons that are actually guilty. And then I read another post, mow the lawn or cook dinner.
It's 4:38pm and John Bradley still sux.
"Grits remains flabbergasted by Bradley's eye-poppingly rapid downfall, which will reach truly epic proportions if he actually loses the April primary."
Pride goeth before a fall....this jerk has a looooooong fall. A very long fall.
I wonder how many other prosecutors and former prosecutors/now judges are looking at Bradley's situation and hoping that something they've done doesn't come back to bite them in the same way. I would say that Matt Bingham and Jack Skeen in Smith county are doing that, but, honestly, I don't know that they have the sense to be worried about it.
anonymous 4:52--I think of a selfish person way out in West Texas South Plains.
7:56 here again. The letter from the State Bar says nothing about why the matter has been dismissed as an inquiry. Obviously misconbuct has occured. The only legit reason I can see is Bradly honestly did not know about it, yea right! WE NEED TO DEMAND AN EXPLANATION FROM THE BAR! If they are covering it they are as good as participating!
Grits,
I've been waiting for justice to be served on this Bradley creep since the Andre Thomas case went down in 2008.
John Bradley deserves not only to lose his job, but his law license also.
Thanks for the heads up.
Don, sometimes you have to either laugh or cry. More importantly, often laughter is more powerful than argument, and symbolism (as with the bandana bandit) can be more persuasive than any legal brief.
Machiavelli told the Prince it was more important to be feared than loved, and Bradley has ruled by that dicta. But they can't fear you while they're laughing at you.
Hey Texpat, you slumming? :) Good to hear from you. Miss LST. Best,
You just gotta love the karma. Good riddance John Bradley, a horse's butt (Nazi?)if ever there were one and the King of the Idiots in Williamson County. I suppose that he'll run off to private practice one of these days and use his expertise to defend pedophiles and drug dealers. Let us hope and pray he is now off the judicial track!
Well - the ABA Journal just reported that one of the other attorneys on the list, the one from North Carolina who kept having arguments with her judge - was removed from office by a judge appointed for a hearing on her fitness to serve. Interestingly, John Bradley decided about last September that he shoudl send one of his investigators and one of his assistants to provide training in Micronesia according to an article in th TDCAA Prosecutor Jan-Feb 2012 issue.
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