I was thinking today about the notion of 'draining the swamp'.
Now, I for one think things are seriously awry in Washington DC. It -is- a festering pit of corruption.
But one must honestly wonder if there is even a point in trying to clean it up. I came to wonder this as I was reading about a famous character in Tennessee, Buford Pusser, who was the sheriff of McNairy County in the late 1960s.
If one has seen the 1970's film "Walking Tall", the story is basically known. A local man gets jacked around and beaten by the staff of a gambling establishment. Later, he gives them payback, manages to win the court case against him, and becomes the sheriff. He fought the mob in that area, and one stiff loss he suffered was the murder of his wife. In 1974, Pusser, who was no longer the sheriff, died in a suspicious automobile accident and there were suspicions of his car having been sabotaged.
So, Pusser and his wife were probably both murdered, and an organization that had motivation to perform both crimes was a criminal mob that operated in both Tennessee and Mississippi.
"Oh", one might say -- interstate crime -- so where was the FBI in all this? Or were they already corrupt and useless?
Two things stand out in this thumbnail history. One, corruption is everywhere, including down into the rural counties of the USA. Two, this was taking place some 55 years ago, which forces one to realize just how long things have been thoroughly corrupt. The sheriff of McNairy County before Pusser was corrupt, and probably some of the judges in the area as well. Interstate crime was taking place and apparently the FBI was asleep at the switch, as were the state bureaus of investigation for both states.
It seems, if people are serious about confronting corruption, they are going to have start at the most local levels. And they will have to realize it will be a murderous affair with losses on both sides, because the criminals won't just give themselves up.
Cheers
Now, I for one think things are seriously awry in Washington DC. It -is- a festering pit of corruption.
But one must honestly wonder if there is even a point in trying to clean it up. I came to wonder this as I was reading about a famous character in Tennessee, Buford Pusser, who was the sheriff of McNairy County in the late 1960s.
If one has seen the 1970's film "Walking Tall", the story is basically known. A local man gets jacked around and beaten by the staff of a gambling establishment. Later, he gives them payback, manages to win the court case against him, and becomes the sheriff. He fought the mob in that area, and one stiff loss he suffered was the murder of his wife. In 1974, Pusser, who was no longer the sheriff, died in a suspicious automobile accident and there were suspicions of his car having been sabotaged.
So, Pusser and his wife were probably both murdered, and an organization that had motivation to perform both crimes was a criminal mob that operated in both Tennessee and Mississippi.
"Oh", one might say -- interstate crime -- so where was the FBI in all this? Or were they already corrupt and useless?
Two things stand out in this thumbnail history. One, corruption is everywhere, including down into the rural counties of the USA. Two, this was taking place some 55 years ago, which forces one to realize just how long things have been thoroughly corrupt. The sheriff of McNairy County before Pusser was corrupt, and probably some of the judges in the area as well. Interstate crime was taking place and apparently the FBI was asleep at the switch, as were the state bureaus of investigation for both states.
It seems, if people are serious about confronting corruption, they are going to have start at the most local levels. And they will have to realize it will be a murderous affair with losses on both sides, because the criminals won't just give themselves up.
Cheers
![[Image: 14sigsepia.jpg]](https://i.ibb.co/9yxWwxj/14sigsepia.jpg)
Location: The lost world, Elsewhen