Enough
about the Supreme Court. Let’s talk about judgeships closer to home, where
things really matter.
Luke
Thomas, the Republican candidate to replace retiring Cass County Circuit Court
Judge Robert Hardwick, Jr., has created a campaign video that features mug
shots of Deon McDonald and Deandre Douglas. Featuring
images of Jesus, assault rifles, Hanoi Jane and other things prone to get
rednecks worked up, the video plays on fear, and that’s where McDonald and
Douglas come in.
The
two men from Decatur got themselves arrested last Christmas Eve, and it sure
sounded bad. After swiping four televisions from a Beardstown Walmart, they did
something in the parking lot that made someone think that they were armed,
according to news accounts. Sangamon County deputies spotted them as they
neared Springfield and gave chase, with speeds approaching 100 mph as they
zoomed through the heart of the city, then onto Interstate 72, where deputies,
in an extraordinary display of common sense, stopped chasing before someone got
killed.
Charges
of robbery, burglary, aggravated assault and either using or implying the use
of a firearm were dropped, with seven of the eight dismissals coming at the
request of the state’s attorney. Steve Courtney, attorney for Douglas, says
stuff about guns was based on a witness who wasn’t rock solid in what she saw.
“There wasn’t much there,” Courtney recalls. “We’ve all seen worse matters than
this one.” Both men pleaded guilty to theft. Douglas, who was behind the wheel,
pleaded guilty to eluding police and was fined $345. And that would’ve been
that, save for Thomas’ campaign video.
McDonald
and Douglas are black, and Douglas has the misfortune of possessing serial
killer eyes that would put Charles Manson to shame. And so Thomas included mug
shots of both men in his video, along with headlines about other cases —
Beardstown Slashing Suspect Identified; Village On Edge After Armed Robber
Forced Open Family’s Door. Hank Williams, Jr.’s rendition of “God and Guns” serves
as voiceover:
There was a time
we ain’t forgot
You could rest
all night with your doors unlocked
But there ain’t
nobody safe no more.
Cass
County is fairly peaceful, according to the most recent Illinois State Police
statistics, which show no rapes, homicides or robberies in 2015, when cops
handled 15 burglaries and six car thefts. Instead of plastering mug shots of TV
thieves on his video, Thomas could’ve chosen two Beardstown men arrested last
spring on suspicion of robbing a Chandlerville gas station – after all, his
video includes a headline about the heist, but without any pictures or names.
The alleged armed robbers are Hispanic. Nineteen percent of the Cass County
population is Hispanic, and that total includes folks who vote. Fewer than five
percent of the county’s population is black. Even in his grave, Lee Atwater,
the GOP operative who made Willie Horton a household name three decades ago,
can do that electoral calculation.
Before
succumbing to brain cancer in 1991, Atwater apologized for saying that he would
turn Horton into Michael Dukakis’ running mate. Thomas, who intersperses photos
of himself and his family between images of guns and Christ and criminals on
his video, couldn’t be reached for comment. Nor could Timothy Wessel, Thomas’
opponent, who also represented McDonald in the Great Walmart Television Theft
Caper. Cass County, it seems, is a small world.
You
may be wondering: Where’s the video? On advice of counsel, we’re not posting it
because we’re not sure that appropriate copyright releases were obtained from
Williams – inquiries to the artist’s management are pending. Copyright
infringement, aka stealing, is both a criminal and civil offense. Even a first-time offender
can be sentenced to five years and fined $250,000 for publishing stuff without
permission, and that doesn’t include civil penalties. Verdicts in lawsuits have
reached eight figures. But you can see it by clicking this link: https://www.facebook.com/electlukethomascasscountyjudge/videos/266796934168284/
Here’s
hoping that Thomas, who bills himself the best legal mind in the race, has
followed the law and gotten Williams’ blessing to use the singer’s song. We
would be remiss if we didn’t mention that Williams got his you-know-what yanked
from Monday Night Football in 2011
after comparing President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler. Some folks thought that
was racist, but, with Donald Trump in the White House, ESPN last year resumed
using a Williams song about football as the intro to the weekly game.
Cass
County is hardly a bastion of liberalism. As the Republican nominee, Thomas would appear the heavy favorite in a county where Trump prevailed with 64 percent of the vote in 2016. And so why would he post a video like this on his campaign’s Facebook page? The
only answer that makes sense is that this is how he truly views the world and
how he thinks his fellow citizens see things. Either that, or he’s a hopeless
suck-up straight from the Tricky Dick Nixon mold who would do or say anything
to get a vote, even if he’s already ahead. Which should scare the
bejeebers out of all of us, either way.
Contact Bruce Rushton at brushton@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Oct 4-10, 2018.
