I am a 50-something semi-retired reporter and political hack who consults with a couple of different political bloggers. I have only recently begun following Daily Kos, and in general I love it. But specifically the board seems to have some problems in the way it deals with criticism of any Democratic personage or entities, including Ohio Congressional Candidate Mary Jo Kilroy (D-15) or the NAACP.
I write to you about a man I recently Googled who apparently was kicked off of Daily Kos and called a criminal when in fact this Union Leader story indicates quite the contrary. I will return to this momentarily. [More]
The other day I wrote a
column about Ms. Kilroy in which I pointed out that she presided over the Columbus school board when an employee was convicted on a
$235,000.00 theft charge, and that she presided over that same board as it was found in
violation of the First Amendment regarding public speaking, and that her rationales for so doing did not hold water. I provided a link to a
video at "justiceforkids.net" to support my assertions, and concluded that
while she is indeed a better candidate than Deborah Pryce, she is not without her baggage.
Most of your responses to me (except Fabian's) were so devoid of substance or fact it piqued my interest in Christopher King, the fellow who is linked in that JFK website. I searched here and saw where some of you called him a criminal, but I saw nothing anywhere to support that assertion. I Googled him and it turns out according to a Union Leader story posted below that he was recently exonerated of all extortion and theft charges related to him writing a Demand Letter to a New Hampshire Police Chief, Martin Dunn. Meanwhile, Dunn has been disciplined for some kind of unethical behavior at work, according to town attorney Debra Ford. Twice the town tried to buy him out, and now he appears to be gone, on an extended "medical leave" of indefinite duration. He says he wants to teach now and his baseless prosecution of another police officer with whom he had a personnel dispute fell apart and other police labeled him a slime bag.
And the abruptly-retired Prosecutor, Bill Albrecht, is under investigation for unethical activities as well, according to King's recent post, which contains a JPEG'd copy of a Concord Monitor story. Frankly, both of these men seem like real dirtbags and it is impossible to believe that the prosecution of King was not tainted by their presence at best, or that it was total retaliatory bullshit at worst.
Apparently, Bad Cop News concurs.
King was legal advisor to the NAACP at the time. But the story gets kind of complex with the NAACP actually claiming that they don't sue or threaten to sue. Because that sounded like nonsense to me, I emailed King and he sent me four links to try to describe this case:
The first one called "Why the NAACP is a sellout organization" he says resulted in the indictment being handed down on the next business day. It was very critical of the NAACP and Jaffrey Police and he sent it to them on a Saturday and got indicted on a Monday. Prior to that, says King, the case had sat on a shelf for 3 months.
The second one show online Deposition testimony of Nashua NAACP president Gloria Timmons to show that:
a) There was nothing prohibiting him from writing a Demand Letter;
b) He did not represent himself as a currently-licensed attorney.
The third one he calls a "syllabus of the court," noting why he believes his activities were Constutionally protected according to an historic case involving the NAACP captioned NAACP v. Button, because all he did was write a Demand Letter and did then shop the case to local attorneys, none of whom found it frivolous but declined out of political or monetary reasons.
And the fourth one contains this link to the Union Leader story and his annotations relative thereto. He is quoted as follows:
"Lady justice was served, but it took a long time," said Christopher King, the man Jaffrey Police Chief Martin Dunn accused of attempting to extort $65,000 from the police department, which had been accused of civil rights violations.
"NAACP didn't want to ruffle any feathers; that's how this whole mess got started," said King.
"At this point, I'm putting my life back together," said King, who had resigned from a nonprofit children's education organization he helped form. King said he has business and artistic ventures that he's planning, including a collaboration with the filmmaker on the legal struggle.
King documents the courtroom battles on his blog, which also features video of the court proceedings. "Having (my filmmaker's) presence is what really deterred them... and I know it."
So it appears that Attorney King's point here is that his victory is indeed a victory for the little guy; using the power of media and Internet. Twice he came prepared for trial (with his film maker at the ready) and twice the State backed down, and now not only is he Not Guilty, they didn't even have the chutzpah to try the case. He is somewhat confused and saddened by your responses to him and noted that Whiskey Bar Blogger as well as Liberal Dose Blogger have told Kos to commit a physically impossible act involving his sex organs.
FWIW, I agree with him. It appears that most of you just knee-jerked him right out of your board, when he's got a lot to offer. some incorrectly stated that he was disbarred, when in fact he was suspended for fighting for a woman whose landlord repeatedly called her a nigger lover, as another entry in King's "blawg" contains the actual court pleadings.
Then People either called him a criminal or told him to get mental help, when all the while he was giving this board a proscriptive plan on how to hold government officials -- and the NAACP accountable for their actions by putting a camera on them -- in the same vein as Kos poster Jeffrey Feldman pointed out with KKK Republican Senator George Allen.
And that's what Daily Kos is supposed to be all about.
Just my $.02.
Here's a link Mr. King sent me to a comment on his "blawg."