MUTH'S TRUTHS 01/24/2013

The Bizarre Misadventures of Steven Brooks
By Chuck Muth
January 24, 2013
 
So less than two weeks before the start of the 2013 legislative session we have a black Democrat city councilman, Ricki Barlow, telling a black Democrat state senator, Kelvin Atkinson, that a black Democrat assemblyman, Steven Brooks, allegedly made threatening statements about a white Democrat assemblywoman, Marilyn Kirkpatrick.
 
As bizarre as this story is, I’m just happy that it doesn’t involve a conservative, white, male Republican for a change!
 
At press time, the details of this only-in-Nevada tale are still seeping out, but here are some observations and questions…
 
Mr. Brooks appears to have been arrested on a he-said/he said/she-said complaint.  Nowhere yet have I seen any report claiming that Mr. Brooks actually issued a verifiable, specific threat of bodily, not political, harm directly to Mrs. Kirkpatrick. 
 
Now, I’m no lawyer, but I think that’s called “hearsay evidence.”

 
But apparently that doesn’t matter.  You see, there is a special law that protects elected officials from someone making threatening comments; be they direct or indirect. 
 
This, by the way, is a law passed by elected officials that applies to elected officials; not you or me.  If Mr. Brooks had said the same alleged things about an average John Q. Public citizen, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal.
 
Some are, indeed, created more equal than others.
 
And what about Mr. Brooks’ gun?  Especially since this incident took place just days after President Obama - flanked by pre-teen human shields and protected by armed guards with assault weapons - proclaimed a passel of new gun control laws.
 
Mr. Brooks apparently didn’t own the gun found in his trunk when he was pulled over and busted for allegedly saying something to someone who told someone else who told a third person who called the police.  He borrowed it.
 
The gun was not an “assault weapon,” so Obama’s proposed crackdown measures against those weapons would be meaningless in this case.  And Mr. Brooks didn’t obtain the gun at a gun show; so closing the so-called gun show “loophole” wouldn’t help either.
 
On the other hand, reports clearly indicate Mr. Brooks was suffering from some kind of mental breakdown.  Indeed, he reportedly was released from a mental facility the very night before he was arrested. 
 
Hmm.  Maybe instead of focusing on new gun restrictions we should maybe look at how someone suffering a severe mental meltdown was allowed back on the streets?
 
Lastly, it appears that legislators who gleefully support keeping our public schools “gun free zones” have opted NOT to limit their own ability to pack heat in the legislative building to protect themselves from a potential loose cannon busting into a hearing room and shooting up the place.
 
Again, some people are created more equal than others.