I thought reading it: “no one raised an eyebrow when she said it but he was condemned by others for saying the same thing.”
Of course what she was saying was what any sibling should say. You have a brother or sister and you have a special relationship with them that is different from you have with others in the world. You may strongly disagree with their life choices or their politics but for most, I assume, the basic foundation of the relationship remains which is based on the love one has for their family members and especially the respect for their parents knowing they would want their children to love their siblings as the parents loved them.
This was so natural an expectation for her to have said it even though in a sense it was opposite to which one would expect from a person going into the position in life she was assuming that it passed without notice. Or, almost without notice because I did notice it and thought as I suggested above that had any an animus toward her as they did against him she would have been pilloried as he was for saying it.
Rachel Rollins is assuming the position of district attorney of Suffolk County. She grew up in Cambridge in a bi-racial family: her mother was from Barbados and her father was Irish-American. She was the oldest of their five children. She became a high achiever as did one of her sisters due to their parents determination . Like in all families one or two would disappoint their parents and ended up on the wrong side of the law.
I found this common in my neighborhood growing up. Many of the families I knew, including our next door neighbors who owned the best mongrel dog that ever lived, Mac, had one son in the priesthood and another in handcuffs. I suppose it is something that is more universal than one appreciated that most of those doing time in Walpole prison, or as it is now called Cedar Junction, have siblings who are exemplary citizens. I’m sure if the sibling on the outside was asked about the in behind the walls the answer would be similar to that of Rachel Rollins. She has a sister who is recovering from drug addiction and her brothers “have cycled in and out of prison. One is serving a 15-month federal sentence for violating his probation on a firearms and heroin distribution conviction.”
She said: “I will never make excuses for them. You can love somebody but not be supportive of the choices they made.”
Didn’t he say just about the same thing. Wasn’t it his position that he loved his brother and hoped that those things people were saying about him we’re not true. Didn’t he say that most people who were saying things about his brother were being paid to do so? He was right about that because they were getting unbelievable lenient sentences if the gave information about him. Was it not in their interest to exaggerate his venality while lessening their own?
He said: “It’s my hope that I’m never helpful to anyone against him. I don’t feel an obligation to help everyone to catch him.” He spoke those words to a grand jury. His testimony was supposed to be secret but the federal prosecutors violating their oaths gave it out to the Boston Globe to embarrass him. Later Jeff Jacoby called for him to be shunned by people for loving his brother and not feeling a need to help hint him down.
Should Suffolk’s new DA feel an obligation to turn in her siblings for crimes they have or may commit? Should she not hope that what she may have heard about their activities are not true? Should she be shunned? Of course not. It against nature to expect siblings to be adversaries. Massachusetts law recognizes this. There is no criminal wrongdoing by a sibling helping to aid and abet or otherwise conceal a sibling’s criminal activity.
Why then the double standard? Why was he condemned and chased out of office for his actions? Why werent the federal prosecutors, the true wrongdoers, not condemned for breaching grand jury sanctity for nefarious purposes? It was not the best of times.
Does anyone get the feeling that Americans will be wearing Mao suits and giving Nazi salutes soon?
Back around 1972 Danny Schecter the News Dissector
at WBCN fm radio in Boston asked me to
help produce a weekly hour long radio show called
Lock Up with Mackie Macleod and Charlene Cook.
Our show focused on the corruption within the Mass
Criminal Justice Sytem with special attention paid to
the electronic cesspools called prisons.
An active barometer of the success of the show was WBCN
started getting bomb threats phoned into the station on
a regular basis.
Because the station was located on top of the Prudential
Building evacuation was always a little dicey.
I mention this little backstory to remind the MC Irregulars
that I would end each show by saying
“ if you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own “
Danny Schecter passed away a couple of years ago.
I called his partner Rory Oconnor over at Globalvision
a few days ago
hoping to acquire some of their video footage they own
from a documentary they made about Timoth Leary
called Beyond Life
seebelow
The footage is for a documentay I am working on
about Timothy Leary going into Concord Prison in
1963 where he gave inmates Pcilocybin, an organic
form of LSD, hoping to reduce recidivism by altering
consciosness.
I knew three of the men in that program whose lives
were dramatically altered.
Jimmy Kerrigan,John Anthony and Donald Paiten.
see
https://www.amazon.com/More-You-Watch-Less-Know/dp/1888363800
Beyond Life
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nN9QjLisU74
in other newes
https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2019/jan/02/FBI-village-voice/
The FBI investigated The Village Voice and RCFP for espionage in 1976
by Emma Best
January 02, 2019
Documents obtained by MuckRock reveal both what triggered the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s espionage investigation of The Village Voice, and what caused it to expand to include the Reporter’s Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Read More
Matt :
” … who owned the best mongrel dog who ever lived , Mac , had a son who was in the priesthood … ”
REDEMPTION
Adjusting his shoulder boards .
Where’s Tadzio?
Matt :
Pretty bland assessment . Rollins’ family headaches and heartache are just not of the same controversial and highly leveraged stripes as the Bulger family litany of sorrows .
Stripes being the operative word .
Different stripes for different folks .
That’s just History .
Remembering the beating William Bulger was taking during that time, imagine my surprise (and elation) when a proto-typical bow-tie liberal (Oliphant) came to his defense; and my disgust when a neighbor and a presumptive “stand-up-guy” (Lynch), bailed. Apparently Bulger did not fit in with his new found friends across the river.
Oliphant represented the decency that was still alive back then. If he did it today he would be devoured by the wolves of the “progressivism”. Incidentally, how did they hi-jack that mantle mantle?
And they tell us never to take the law into our own hands.
“Shows over, folks. We’ll take it from here.”
Very good piece, Matt. The double-standard was never more obvious.
Matt, great article.This abuse of grand jury proceedings Is the scandal that
will never be reported.The media crows about freedom of the press all
the time but in order to get a story they violate the constitutional protection
that other citizens rightfully claim without fear of retribution.It is so commonplace
that even a former gubernatorial candidate with an extensive law enforcement
background used these grand jury leaks in asking Bulger to step down at UMass
rather than condemn their dissemination.The double standard is alive and well
in the media
Billy is a fine earnest intelligent gentleman.
I just wish he didn’t pick up the phone .
I learned from this error and simply delete.