… Apparently, maxing and relaxing with xenophobes is preferable to dealing with a suicide epidemic in your jails.
Totally agree. A little date checking reveals that Hodgson had better things to do. Not only is he a sadistic martinet, he’s habitually carrying water for white supremacists, specifically those affiliated with the Tanton network — FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA.
A month before Ray’s suicide, the same NECIR reporters ran an article in the Globe asking, Why Is The Suicide Rate In Bristol County Jails So High? Scarcely a month later Ray was dead. Even if Hodgson was preoccupied by his busy talk show schedule, the Globe article should have sent a signal that things needed to change at his facilities.
But on June 1, 2017 Tom Hodgson was having brunch with the Mass Fiscal Alliance, a group that promotes anti-immigrant rhetoric like the Federation for American Immigration Reform, where Hodgson sits on the advisory board with its white supremacist founder, John Tanton. Nine days later Michael Ray was dead.
Two weeks after Ray’s death, on June 28th, Tom Hodgson was back selling anti-immigrant xenophobia at a far-right hate group event called “Hold Their Feet to the Fire.” Hodgson appeared with gay-basher Sandy Rios, xenophobe Dan Stein, conspiracy theorist Michelle Malkin, white supremacist Tom Roten, white supremacist congressman Steve King, Muslim-basher Robert Spencer, and real-life fascist and anti-semite Sebastian Gorka.
This is how the Bristol County Sheriff prioritizes his time.
petr says
I’m wondering if ‘preferable’ is the appropriate word here? Is it the option to do one and ignore the other… or is it closer to causal linkage, however casual? Is doing the one abetting the other… ?
I’m not saying he’s deliberately encouraging suicides in his jails (according to the link in the other diary, suicides are up, overall, in state jails not just his… but down in federal jails overall.) What I am asking is just this: if he’s willing to be seen in public with dodgy people, and either deliberately say dodgy things or be seen to agree with others saying such dodgy things, to what extent is his private behavior — that is to say his affect, leadership style and even simple small talk in the actual jail building– making life difficult for inmates? What’s he saying to inmates behind the bars? How is he acting when only the inmate is watching?? How do his subordinates act and is it reflective of his apparent ideological bent?
I’m reminded, forcefully, of MLK Jrs ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’ wherein he contrasts the public behavior of Birminghams police force with their private actions…
“You warmly commended the Birmingham police force for keeping “order” and “preventing violence.” I doubt that you would have so warmly commended the police force if you had seen its dogs sinking their teeth into unarmed, nonviolent Negroes. I doubt that you would so quickly commend the policemen if you were to observe their ugly and inhumane treatment of Negroes here in the city jail; if you were to watch them push and curse old Negro women and young Negro girls; if you were to see them slap and kick old Negro men and young boys; if you were to observe them, as they did on two occasions, refuse to give us food because we wanted to sing our grace together. I cannot join you in your praise of the Birmingham police department.”
It’s not, one hopes, as bad as all that… but that doesn’t make it good.