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I'm pretty sure I posted about this a year or so ago, but the recent "anniversary" has reminded me, so I thought I'd bring it back up again.
I know that I've posted more than once about Marcia Trimble and how it has affected life around this sleepy town. It was an absolute life-changer for anyone in Nashville, be they Black, white, wealthy or poor, who was alive during that time. It was literally a loss of innocence in Nashville, where we, as an entire city, went from leaving our doors unlocked at night and leaving the keys in the ignition, to locked doors, shooing the kids inside before dusk and generally keeping them within immediate eyesight, and moving from annoyance that one's child was late to borderline panic at even the slightest moment's delay.
Just this past week, there was an NPR story about this case. Their story focuses upon what to do when one gets questioned by the police, but there's a much deeper story here, with a documentary released just over a year ago, released to coincide with the release of the memoir my brother ghost-wrote. It's a compelling story that, admittedly, most won't truly grasp if they didn't live in Nashville at the time. People who didn't live here then would not have known that Joe Casey was dumber than a bag of stale doughnuts, for example, or the very complex politics of this town.
But that's not what this is about.
This is about knowing to STFU and tell the police to STFU and leave you alone (and most importantly to let you go right away) if they snatch you for some crime, and telling them that they're going to have to talk to your lawyer, and that you're not going to say a word. It looks bad at the time, but in the end, it's much more to your benefit, no matter how long it takes. As George Zimmerman has learned the hard way, "not guilty" never truly means "not guilty" in the minds of people who have it set in their minds that someone is guilty, no matter what. So please bear this in mind should you ever wind up in some spot where the cops are talking like you have something to do with some crime: STFU and let the lawyers do the talking.
This has been your NEIP public service announcement for the day.
I know that I've posted more than once about Marcia Trimble and how it has affected life around this sleepy town. It was an absolute life-changer for anyone in Nashville, be they Black, white, wealthy or poor, who was alive during that time. It was literally a loss of innocence in Nashville, where we, as an entire city, went from leaving our doors unlocked at night and leaving the keys in the ignition, to locked doors, shooing the kids inside before dusk and generally keeping them within immediate eyesight, and moving from annoyance that one's child was late to borderline panic at even the slightest moment's delay.
Just this past week, there was an NPR story about this case. Their story focuses upon what to do when one gets questioned by the police, but there's a much deeper story here, with a documentary released just over a year ago, released to coincide with the release of the memoir my brother ghost-wrote. It's a compelling story that, admittedly, most won't truly grasp if they didn't live in Nashville at the time. People who didn't live here then would not have known that Joe Casey was dumber than a bag of stale doughnuts, for example, or the very complex politics of this town.
But that's not what this is about.
This is about knowing to STFU and tell the police to STFU and leave you alone (and most importantly to let you go right away) if they snatch you for some crime, and telling them that they're going to have to talk to your lawyer, and that you're not going to say a word. It looks bad at the time, but in the end, it's much more to your benefit, no matter how long it takes. As George Zimmerman has learned the hard way, "not guilty" never truly means "not guilty" in the minds of people who have it set in their minds that someone is guilty, no matter what. So please bear this in mind should you ever wind up in some spot where the cops are talking like you have something to do with some crime: STFU and let the lawyers do the talking.
This has been your NEIP public service announcement for the day.