Institutional Racism & Me

I thought I ought to add my voice to the cacophony being raised about systemic racism by providing documentation of it from my days as a criminal prosecutor in Rochester, New York. 

In the summer of 1987, a chance comment after church by the mother of my first girlfriend Sarah Zartman changed my life. Mrs. Zartman at the time was the chairwoman of the Republican Party for Rochester and had a problem. There was no one who wanted to run in the fall 1987 election against the Democratic incumbent District Attorney Howard Relin – my soon-to-be ex-boss as I was leaving the office after five years working there as an Assistant District Attorney. 

Though, I knew there was little chance of success, Ms. Zartman thought the election would be an excellent opportunity to introduce me to the electorate as a nice guy, homegrown candidate and would pave the way for the following year’s election to the State Senate, where a seat was to be vacated and up for grabs. The last thing anyone wanted was for me to leave a bad taste in the voters' mouths as first impressions are everlasting. 

However, that was not to be. My former boss and opponent in the race for District Attorney was Howard Relin. Mr. Relin had authored a “Selection of the Jury” memorandum for his 40 Assistant District Attorneys directing them to remove “women and minorities” from the jury whenever the defendant was of African descent. This appalling 1981-1986 policy of Mr. Relin’s office was not only morally repugnant, it had been unconstitutional since 1965 when the Supreme Court held in Swain v. Alabama, that: a “State's purposeful or deliberate denial to Negroes on account of race of participation as jurors in the administration of justice violates the Equal Protection Clause.” 

After I publicly raised this issue in the campaign and released the Jury Selection Memo as proof, no present or former Assistant District Attorneys would collaborate the existence of Relin’s Jury Selection Memo. I was socially and professionally blackballed (not for the last time) for using unfair campaign tactics. I lost the election by the largest margin in the history of Rochester, New York, elections. 

However, three days after the election, the highest court in New York, in the case of People v. Knight, reversed a murder conviction obtained by Howard Relin’s office stating: “We find that defendant articulated facts sufficient to support the conclusion that the [Assistant District Attorney] exercised his peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory manner, thereby shifting the burden to the prosecutor to provide neutral explanations for his peremptory challenges.” Subsequently, Relin’s Jury selection memo was introduced and its authenticity confirmed resulting in a new trial for Mr. Knight. 

I was, as usual, vindicated ex post facto which is fine with me. 1 Corinthians 4:3.

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Sibley v. American Bar Association; Your questions answered

I am soon to make a statement to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity ( NACIQI.)

Several People, (I assume they are People but they may be clever and annoying Bots) have asked me basically the following question:

 Does the data you claim to possess still affect this election? You have found the time to publish lengthy posts here that we have all been eager to read... surely you can summon the will to post a simple reply of yes or no. 

O.K. Yes.  And here is why.  The Presidential Election is going to end up in Congress under Article XII which states in sum and substance that: "The 12th Amendment to the Constitution requires that candidates for President and Vice President receive a majority of electoral votes (currently 270 or more of a total of 538) to be elected. If no candidate receives a majority, the President is elected by the House of Representatives, and the Vice President is elected by the Senate. This process is referred to as contingent election.

The legitimacy of Congress given what the records of the D.C. Madam reveal will make their decision suspect if I am not allowed to release and comment on the records I possess.

I hope that answers your question.  But these things take time and finesse and I am still waiting on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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I don't know why I go walking at night . . .

(Click Me!)((It may take a minute to load))

Like Billy Joel, I have been walking in the middle of the night, looking for something sacred, something which we have lost, something somebody has stolen.  I believe I can now see it on that distant shore and soon, I believe, you will too, if you open your eyes.

For today was filed in a federal court a pleading -- unlike anything filed heretofore by anyone, anywhere -- partly filed under seal which for me, discharges my obligation found in 2 Timothy 4:7 . The contents of the public part of that pleading will soon become more generally known (indeed, too soon for some).

But in case the music isn't playing, here are Mr. Joel's lyrics:

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To the river so deep

I must be looking for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it's too hard to cross

And even though I know the river is wide
I walk down every evening and I stand on the shore
And try to cross to the opposite side
So I can finally find out what I've been looking for

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the valley of fear
To a river so deep

And I've been searching for something
Taken out of my soul
Something I would never lose
Something somebody stole

I don't know why I go walking at night
But now I'm tired and I don't want to walk anymore
I hope it doesn't take the rest of my life
Until I find what it is that I've been looking for

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the jungle of doubt
To a river so deep

I know I'm searching for something
Something so undefined
That it can only be seen
By the eyes of the blind

In the middle of the night

I'm not sure about a life after this
God knows I've never been a spiritual man
Baptized by the fire, I wade into the river
That runs to the promised land

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
Through the desert of truth
To the river so deep

We all end in the ocean
We all start in the streams
We're all carried along
By the river of dreams

In the middle of the night

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About Me and My Pseudonym

Amo Probos is the motto of my clan, Clan Blair, and is generally translated from the Latin as "loves virtue". I am an eighth generation American and damn sure I am not going to meet my Ancestors without living up to their standards of honor and patriotism. For me, that means following the injunction of one of them, founding father George Mason, who said in his last Will and Testament:

“I recommend it to my sons from my own experience in life, to prefer the happiness of independence and a private station to the troubles and vexations of publick business, but if either their own inclinations or the necessity of the times should engage them in public affairs, I charge them on a father's blessing never to let the motives of private interest or ambition induce them to betray, nor the terrors of poverty and disgrace, or the fear of danger or of death, deter them from asserting the liberty of their country and endeavoring to transmit to their posterity those sacred rights to which themselves were born.”

Clear to me is that “those sacred rights” are being stripped from us daily and hence I have been called by ancient voices to “assert the liberty” of this Country for my children's sake.

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