See if you can figure out where this took place:
Cardell thought hard about the disturbing things he says he witnessed. The blood. The pleas for mercy. The savage beatings.
Tommy Cardell says...guards wore gloves so they could beat prisoners without leaving marks. He says he was issued this pair. Cardell claims to have seen dozens of beatings of defenseless inmates.
Cardell claims he saw other guards ruthlessly beat handcuffed inmates with the knowledge of their superiors, including the (senior officer). He says his moral compass was going haywire.
Cardell knew many of the prisoners had done terrible things: rape, murder, child molestation, armed robbery. But the beatings sickened him. How could (personnel) sworn to uphold the law beat human beings in handcuffs while their superiors watched?
Cardell came forward, breaking an unwritten code of silence ... And now he finds himself in the spotlight, having touched off an investigation into allegations of abuse
Abu Ghraib? Gitmo? Bandar? Nope.
Reidsville, Georgia
Located in east central Georgia, about 40 miles west of Savannah, this little town of 2235 people with a median income of less than $26,000 seems like Anywhere USA. Little would you know that the town's largest employer would be harboring a pack of torturers behind its walls.
How could it happen?
Easy. It's the American Way.
Our soldiers do it.
Our government freakin' legalizes and sponsors it.
Why shouldn't prison guards do it too?
Well, it's wrong. Right? Tommy Cardell, the subject of the above story, thought so. He reported the abuse to his superiors.
For months, Cardell says, he was brushed off as he tried to tell supervisors about what he witnessed.
When that didn't work, he took it up a notch.
He eventually contacted officials at Department of Corrections headquarters. Internal affairs investigators interviewed him.
The result:
he was fired on May 11.
Then, a revelation.
Cardell, a devout Christian, said the Holy Spirit led him to contact The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord and Pass the Liberal Media!
The AJC inquired about his allegations to the Corrections Department. Soon afterward, Corrections Commissioner James Donald asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to open a criminal investigation. Cardell was reinstated last week, though placed on paid suspension until the investigation is complete.
The actions of the administration is tearing at the very fabric of this country. While the Neocon Extremist Right spouts their pseudo-Christian effluvia, by playing lip service to "moral values", the truth is their lips have been placed squarely on the festering, hemorrhoidal ass of Evil.
Some might say they've moved north from that starting point.