Great interview that further boosts my admiration for Grisham.
The "innocence is not enough" argument is indeed insane and a glaring signal that folks have lost the plot.
Also agree with you that the plagiarism accusations have become unmoored as well. While I was no fan of Claudine Gay (who for a variety of reasons should never have been named President of Harvard), her "plagiarism" was thin gruel at worst.
I really thought that the criminal justice system was on the whole doing its work fairly until about 2014. The nameless elephant in the room is the freemasons, who dominate police unions if not police forces themselves. I had a long-term back problem caused from reading with my neck against the wall. I went to a chiropractor in town many times, but it was still nettlesome. I couldn’t really cut the grass for the first month of spring without severe pain.
So in the summer of 2013, I found a house sharing opportunity on Craigslist that would hasten my commute to grad school at University of Chicago. And it was cheap. But amid the hustle and bustle of moving, I just could not get my stubborn Mom to let me have the Tempur-pedic mattress. So for a while I slept on an air mattress that deflated during the night and the back issues became aggravated. I saw another chiropractor in Bridgeport, my new neighborhood and more on that later, but it had become a maintenance issue now. My family is known to have bad backs.
One of my roommates, whose last names I honestly forget, Chris, who drove for J.B. Hunt, recommended I go get a massage at a place called Ruby. Not knowing what I was in for, I went in and Chinese ladies were dressed in kimonos and a police officer gave me a thumbs up while I was waiting for my massage. Of course, I was surprised what happened.
I decided to investigate these massage parlors, as I was an investigative journalist before becoming a social worker, and earned summa cum laude for it. (Unfortunately, I even took down David Protess, Northwestern University’s Innocence Project leader, who was encouraging students to falsify and bribe witnesses or informants for better grades.) After determining pretty much every so-called massage parlor was in fact soliciting sex, I planned to write a story for the Huffington Post about it. My roommate Obi discouraged me. I sent it in but they didn’t publish it, as they often didn’t when my writing was too risqué. And then shortly after being rejected by HuffPost, I was harried and left my job as a drug court counselor early to return to our flophouse filled with gas. I had to turn off the pilot while opening every window, in that N64 James Bond Golden Eye video game haze where you’ve been attacked and barely breathing.
So anyhow, I’ve made quite a few enemies in Chicago and Illinois, especially among gangsters, gamblers, politicians and other mucks like the Masons.
Yet some faction of the government somehow, I sense but never have been told, protects us. And of course, oftentimes they abuse me too, as during the last five years, I was expected to use a special skill I have to help Ukraine during the war. When I refused to go on, for it was draining and unpaid, the local police force would come and manhandle me and drag me to a mental hospital, such is weaponized psychiatry. The last time, they dragged me to Cook County Jail’s Cermak Hospital, which I don’t have to tell you is neither a hospital nor a mental health facility. I am currently in a mental health court diversion program rather than face 3-7 years in jail, though I committed no crime, did not resist arrest. My charge is provoking a police officer, a felony, even though I remember rolling onto the floor with my hands behind my head, heard the officers say, “Where’s the computers?” and then blacked out. I suspect I was concussed but am having a hard time getting access to the radiology department. I suspect they want me in the diversion program so they can force me, usually unknowingly to use my special subliminal skill for their purposes.
Anyhow, for ten years I’ve woken up to the illegality of parts of the criminal justice system––and realized for all the high paychecks, it’s still the Wild West.
Great interview that further boosts my admiration for Grisham.
The "innocence is not enough" argument is indeed insane and a glaring signal that folks have lost the plot.
Also agree with you that the plagiarism accusations have become unmoored as well. While I was no fan of Claudine Gay (who for a variety of reasons should never have been named President of Harvard), her "plagiarism" was thin gruel at worst.
Great interview. The wrongfully convicted question is good, and I understand why he couldn't answer it.
I really thought that the criminal justice system was on the whole doing its work fairly until about 2014. The nameless elephant in the room is the freemasons, who dominate police unions if not police forces themselves. I had a long-term back problem caused from reading with my neck against the wall. I went to a chiropractor in town many times, but it was still nettlesome. I couldn’t really cut the grass for the first month of spring without severe pain.
So in the summer of 2013, I found a house sharing opportunity on Craigslist that would hasten my commute to grad school at University of Chicago. And it was cheap. But amid the hustle and bustle of moving, I just could not get my stubborn Mom to let me have the Tempur-pedic mattress. So for a while I slept on an air mattress that deflated during the night and the back issues became aggravated. I saw another chiropractor in Bridgeport, my new neighborhood and more on that later, but it had become a maintenance issue now. My family is known to have bad backs.
One of my roommates, whose last names I honestly forget, Chris, who drove for J.B. Hunt, recommended I go get a massage at a place called Ruby. Not knowing what I was in for, I went in and Chinese ladies were dressed in kimonos and a police officer gave me a thumbs up while I was waiting for my massage. Of course, I was surprised what happened.
I decided to investigate these massage parlors, as I was an investigative journalist before becoming a social worker, and earned summa cum laude for it. (Unfortunately, I even took down David Protess, Northwestern University’s Innocence Project leader, who was encouraging students to falsify and bribe witnesses or informants for better grades.) After determining pretty much every so-called massage parlor was in fact soliciting sex, I planned to write a story for the Huffington Post about it. My roommate Obi discouraged me. I sent it in but they didn’t publish it, as they often didn’t when my writing was too risqué. And then shortly after being rejected by HuffPost, I was harried and left my job as a drug court counselor early to return to our flophouse filled with gas. I had to turn off the pilot while opening every window, in that N64 James Bond Golden Eye video game haze where you’ve been attacked and barely breathing.
So anyhow, I’ve made quite a few enemies in Chicago and Illinois, especially among gangsters, gamblers, politicians and other mucks like the Masons.
Yet some faction of the government somehow, I sense but never have been told, protects us. And of course, oftentimes they abuse me too, as during the last five years, I was expected to use a special skill I have to help Ukraine during the war. When I refused to go on, for it was draining and unpaid, the local police force would come and manhandle me and drag me to a mental hospital, such is weaponized psychiatry. The last time, they dragged me to Cook County Jail’s Cermak Hospital, which I don’t have to tell you is neither a hospital nor a mental health facility. I am currently in a mental health court diversion program rather than face 3-7 years in jail, though I committed no crime, did not resist arrest. My charge is provoking a police officer, a felony, even though I remember rolling onto the floor with my hands behind my head, heard the officers say, “Where’s the computers?” and then blacked out. I suspect I was concussed but am having a hard time getting access to the radiology department. I suspect they want me in the diversion program so they can force me, usually unknowingly to use my special subliminal skill for their purposes.
Anyhow, for ten years I’ve woken up to the illegality of parts of the criminal justice system––and realized for all the high paychecks, it’s still the Wild West.