If part of the subconscious motivation for Quintin Cross's seemingly perverse and self-destructive behavior is a desire for attention, he's getting it. The Register-Star this morning devotes two articles to him. The first covers his appearance in court yesterday before Judge Jonathan Nichols: "Cross pleads not guilty to burglary." The second seeks comment from Mayor William Hallenbeck, Common Council president Don Moore, Ed Cross, and Linda Mussmann and dredges up some old statements about Cross made by Rick Scalera, who was mayor during most of Cross's career as an alderman in Hudson: "It's very hard on this community."
On his blog, Sam Pratt has a post about Cross's lawyer, New York City defense attorney Susan Tipograph: "Cross's counsel."
Linda Mussman is much in the Q. Cross news today, as some sort of a self-appointed spokesperson.
ReplyDeleteBut her words are spin; she's doing damage control on behalf of her own prospects.
She recognizes that "it’s very hard on this community to have him be in trouble," but where is the admission that she advanced this fellow's career over-aggressively, so aggressively that his subsequent actions must and do reflect on her own values and character.
We read that she wants the justice system to prevail, which is not exactly a ringing endorsement of our way of life. (By contrast, the Mayor is quoted as having "respect [for] our judicial system.")
Going by nothing other than the hideous mural of a skull-faced Statue of Liberty on the side of one of her Columbia Street properties - an image intended to brainwash those who know little or nothing about American history - I'm astounded to learn that Ms. Mussman believes in the American justice system at all.
I doubt profoundly that "innocent until proven guilty" are her watchwords in life, at least as they ought to apply blindly to all defendants across her fantasized political spectrum. But for once, like the proverbial stopped clock, she and I are in agreement concerning Cross's most recent alleged wrongdoing: innocent until proven guilty.
But does she thereby suppose that Cross will get a fair trial here? I don't even believe that! Or is it only that it's too soon to spout that line yet? Yes, all in good time ...
Ms. Mussman has show that she is a dismal judge of character, enslaved as she is to this or that ideology before all other considerations.
(An election year caution: an invidiousness which is abundant in our subject is a potential shortcoming in anyone of us with a proclivity to self-righteousness).
For a more sound approach, we do our city a great justice to bear in mind this poor judge of character the next time Ms. Mussman wishes to run for office, volunteer for something, or just spin her own career in the ever-gullible press.
birds of a feather
DeleteMoi?
DeleteWith Susan V. Tipograph as counsel - an apotheosis of 1960s-era litigiousness - it's fair to expect the community itself will be on trial.
ReplyDeleteI predict that this is going to become extremely ugly for all; a guaranteed cure for knee-jerk "political correctness."