I am thrilled to see that the speaker of the Missouri House of Representatives has appointed a special, bipartisan committee to review the 2011 merger between the Missouri Water Patrol and the Highway Patrol.
Laura Bauer reported in The Star Tuesday afternoon that House Speaker Tim Jones, a Republican from Eureka, had decided to appoint the committee after three legislators from the Lake of the Ozarks area approached Jones’ office about the need for the committee after the May 31 drowning of Brandon Ellingson.
The committee, Bauer said, “will gather information on how the patrol’s water division is now managed as well as scrutinize how much training troopers receive to work the water — both those assigned to waterways full time and part time. And it will determine whether the merger has been cost effective.”
“We now have to question whether this merger has put our hard-working patrol officers in a position where they can effectively maintain the public’s safety on our waterways,” Bauer quoted Jones as saying in a news release.
Well, thank God someone is responding to the pressure that Bauer has brought by hammering the Highway Patrol and the governor’s office in story after story the last few weeks.
That pressure has been augmented, of course, by what looks like tens of thousands of people — mostly Iowans, like 20-year-old Ellingson — demanding a thorough and accurate review that brings to light the whole truth about the events leading up to Ellingson’s death May 31 while in the custody of Highway Patrolman Anthony Piercy.
The political pressure is growing at the U.S. Senate level, too.
Bauer’s report said that Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, had released this statement to The Star:
“Whenever a citizen dies while in the custody of law enforcement, it deserves to be closely reviewed by the appropriate authorities. That would include the Department of Justice, if it appears that any federal laws were broken.”
As the drum covers tighten, one person has conspicuously remained mum, apparently hoping that a recent whitewashing of the case by the Morgan County coroner’s office will stand firm against a storm of criticism.
That person, of course, is Gov. Jay Nixon, whom we might as well start calling Governor Tinny.
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Nixon got a good start on earning that name when he belatedly went to Ferguson, MO, and tried to read from carefully prepared, dry scripts, when the situation cried out for real human emotion and engagement.
But I began wondering years ago about his ability to engage. The only time I met him was at a campaign stop in 2008, when he was first running for governor. If I’ve told this story before, please stop me…Oh, never mind, I’m going to tell it anyway…I either introduced myself or someone introduced me to Nixon as he was waiting to speak at an outdoor event. As we shook hands, he appeared to be preoccupied and didn’t give me two seconds of real attention. Nevertheless, I offered a light-hearted, funny remark — can’t remember what it was; you’ll just have to trust me that it was funny — but it was obvious that my words weren’t registering in the cerebral cortex. I walked away, still smiling, but half puzzled and half pissed off.
In light of that strange encounter and his performance in Ferguson, it doesn’t surprise me that Governor Tinny has curled up in his gubernatorial cocoon, hoping that winter will get here very soon and he can hibernate until spring.
Even Rep. Diane Franklin, a Camdenton Republican who will head the committee that Jones established, put a proverbial pin under Nixon’s skin about his silence on the Ellingson case.
“I would think he (Nixon) would be giving what his concerns are and how he would be addressing them,” Franklin told Bauer. “And be taking a second look perhaps at (the merger) — I guess we’re going to do that.”
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You know what, though? In truth, Nixon has waited so long to say something that he’d just embarrass himself by saying anything at this point. Even if he summoned up an eloquent and genuine apology to Ellingson’s parents, Sherry and Craig Ellingson of Clive, IA, most people’s reaction would be, “Where you been, bub?”
So just stay in your office, Jay, and enjoy your last two years years in public office as best you can.
Somebody take this guy’s picture; he’s gone.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
The ‘bipartisian’ committee began by Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones will be a dog and pony show. Franklin, the lake-area rep heading the panel, is the sister-in-law of 28 year MSHP vet Dwight Franklin, who is sheriff of Camden County. Tactics employed by Camden County Sheriff’s Department since Franklin took over in 2008 have mirrored Piercy’s actions in this case and worse. His own deputies tased a suspect to death and were found innocent of the crime. This is a laughable response, designed to quell public outcry.
Our investigation into Brandon’s death http://americanspring2011.com/2014/09/16/vests-lies-and-videotape-the-cover-up-of-brandon-ellingsons-murder/
The crimes of the Camden County Sheriff Department:
http://americanspring2011.com/protect-and-serve-the-camden-county-sheriff-department/
Since no one has commented, let me throw a couple of thoughts out and you can do with them what you will.
It strikes me that one of he reasons people have so little respect for the law, including those charged with enforcing it, is that it is no longer enforced in a rational manner and our response to various violations seemingly have no connection to the act itself.
In Ferguson an extremely large young man assaulted a cop and tried to take his weapon away and was shot for his troubles. Beyond that, we really don’t have a lot of information save for conflicting eye witness reports and some limited physical evidence.
At the lake a young man, admittedly inebriated, was arrested for public intoxication. There is no suggestion that he resisted in any way. He was placed in the patrol boat using the wrong safety equipment and driven at inappropriate speeds in the direction of the station. Along the way he understandably fell overboard, the inappropriate safety gear floated away and he drowned. None of this is conjecture, we have hard data an undisputed testimony to substantiate it.
Witnesses report that when the young man fell out of the boat the officer stood by doing nothing until after he slipped beneath the waves at which point he jumped in the water and tried to rescue him. We have two different groups who witnessed this event at separate times and their testimony is not contested.
In the first instance, despite the lack of evidence and a conclusive determination as to what happened the community rioted, looted stores and businesses and staged protests that continue to this day, shutting down interstate highways and disrupting the community.
The Governor took control away from local LE and sent in State Troopers whose leader actually marched with the demonstrators. He then came to the community and, in essence, acting as judge and jury, denounced the officer as guilty. The Attorney General of the United States himself came to town to investigate what had gone on and launched a criminal investigation against the officer.
In the second instance, despite an ever growing body of physical and eyewitness testimony generated by the officer’s own colleagues condemning his behavior and training, the governor has remianed silent and State Patrol command and a special prosecutor have served only to stonewall, obfuscate and coverup the event.
Inspite of the evidence and a superb investigative series in the local paper the community has remained calm with little, if any, concern for what the evidence clearly indicates was the officer’s misconduct and calloused indifference to the safety and well-being of a prisoner in his charge. No riots have broken out, no stores looted and despite the clearly demonstrated malfeasance of the prosecutor and State Patrol leadership in handling the case the Department of Justice has yet to act.
Bottom line the law itself in these two cases was irrelevant. Bottom line, the official response to the officer’s conduct had nothing to do with their actual conduct, good, bad, or indifferent. Their behavior was irrelevant to the situation as it was processed and responded to by both the community at large and public officials themselves.
Clearly the old saw that we’re a nation of laws and not men has become utter bullshit.