Fanatical prosecutor charges boy with terrorism.

Probably one of the worst politicians around, and this is saying a lot, is the vile Andrew Thomas, the county attorney for Maricopa County, in Arizona. That’s Phoenix for those you who don’t know.

Thomas is a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth religious lunatic who is undermining the county judicial system with his zealous prosecutions of anyone and everyone he can get his hands on. He is a child abuser in a very literal sense of the word as he was the one who sent his office after 16 year old Matt Bandy and tried to send this boy off to prison for life because the family computer had been used, via the internet, to store some porn for someone else, unbeknownst to the Bandy family.

When this cretin couldn’t get that charge he went after the boy for showing a Playboy magazine to some friends. This typical teenage action, according to the Theocratic Thomas, required Matt to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. (Yes, folks, that is how the sex offender laws are being used by bad politicians.) The judge in the case saw the absurdity of it and prodded the defense attorney to contest that requirement. When he did the judge threw the registration out as being unwarranted by the facts of the case. But facts don’t play well when the Holy Inquisition is in town.

And Thomas is the Torquemada of Phoenix, a fanatic who believes he is doing the will of God and who has surrounded himself with similar lunatics, such as Rachel Alexander. The county justice system is facing more prosecutions than it can handle due to Thomas. He refuses to plea out cases where a plea is reasonable. In addition Thomas is flooding the prisons with people who probably shouldn’t be there. He is costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars per year extra in due ot his fanatical Crusade mentality. And he loves nothing better than going after teens.

Now some teens are little monsters. Others are criminals. No one doubts that a teenager can be a criminal and ought to be held responsible for those crimes. But Torquemada Thomas sees them as sinners who have to broken on the rack, made to confess their sins and implore eternal forgiveness. And this happens by charging them, not with the criminal charge appropriate to what they have done. but to charges well beyond anything even contemplated.

This is how the fanatic seeks power. Overcharging a defendant makes it more likely that a suspect will plead guilty to a lesser charge even if they are innocent of all charges. That is what he did to Matt Bandy. If the boy pled guilty to showing Playboy to some friends (the only time in US history a teen has been charged with this crime) then he could escape prison for life but become a “registered sex offender” instead. If the judge had not intervened this injustice would have continued. That is how Torquemada Thomas acts.

Now take the case of a 14-year-old boy from the Powell Junior High School of Mesa. Now we don’t know what the boy wanted to do since we only have comments from Torquemada’s office and they lie. Apparently the commandment “Thou shalt not lie” doesn’t appear in the Bible Thomas waves about. We do know some basic facts.

Allegedly the boy approached a girl who was walking home from school. He had a knife. She ran away and called the police. The police wait a full day, too many donuts to move quickly, to look for the boy. Instead they decide to go to the school the next day to arrest him. He doesn’t come to class. Now this is serious. He refused to attend the local government “education” center are required by law. So the police raided the boy’s home.

They found “evidence” which included a gun, some ammo, chains and rope. These are being referred to in the media as "restraining devices".

There may be enough here to claim assault depending on how the boy approached the girl when carrying a knife. It is hard to say since fanatics like Thomas make grand claims based on little or no evidence. Police claim the boy confessed to wanting to kill the girl -- again based on police tactics with kids in the past it is hard to say whether this is true or not as well.

But if we grant them the shadow of the doubt then we can argue the boy assaulted the girl with a knife with intent to kill her. Serious charges indeed. And from what has been claimed the most serious charges that one could make out of this case unless you are the Holy Inquisition that is. Thomas has charged the boy with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, kidnapping and supposedly “carrying weapons on a school campus.” The later charge is not indicated based on media reports that I’ve read but let’s assume the assault happened on a sidewalk that belonged to the school and grant even this charge to Torquemada. Maybe he’s stretching a bit maybe not. But then he gets downright fanciful. He has also filed charges of “terrorism” against the boy!

Good thing they didn’t find a Playboy in the boy’s room!

Every government agency and politician is always seeking to expand their power, their jurisdiction, their financing, etc. So it is no wonder that they use real problems as a way to line their own pockets in one form or another. Real terrorists attack the United States and all sorts of laws against terrorism get passed. But already we have see that those laws are rarely used against real terrorists. Instead they are used by assholes like Thomas to prosecute people who are not terrorists. The concept of "terrorism" is constantly stretched out of proportion to include more and more offenses since it granst bad politicians more power when this happens. The same thing is done with every legitimate crime. Child molestation has been so distorted out of shape that teens have been charged with molesting themselves. Teens having consensual sex with one another are charged with molesting each other. Measures meant to deal with a real problem are used in entirely inappropriate ways.

But be careful. Don't speak out. Don't protest too loudly. If you do then the really vile and vicious will say you are soft on " " (fill in the blank with any appropriate accusation as the case may be. Complain that anti-terrorism laws are being used against people inappropriately and you'll be "soft on terrorism". Publicize how the laws established to protect children are being used inappropriately and you'll be "soft on child molestation". Funny, evne though these laws are constantly used to trample on the rights of innocent people, no one seems to think that the scum like Thomas are "soft on dictatorships".

If you want some context to the lunacy of Andrew Thomas and the fanatics he has brought into his office just go to “Labels” below and click on his name. That will give you an idea of how evil this man actually is. I hope our many Maricopa readers will work to get this man out of office.