This is not directly about politics, but in the end really is.  A couple of days ago, it was reported that notorious mobster, James “Whitey” Bulger was found dead in his cell.  OK, he was 89 years old and in poor health; another dirtbag dies in jail.  That happens all the time, but this one is different – he was murdered in his cell.  OK, that happens all the time, too, right?  It’s still different. Bulger, who was wheelchair bound, was viciously beaten to death with a padlock stuffed into a sock to make a sort of medieval mace.  That’s not all, though – his eyes had been gouged out and at least part of his tongue cut out.  Jesus.

Bulger was an infamous member of the Irish Mob in Boston who was famous for his cruelty and cold blooded murder.  He was also an active informant to federal law enforcement during his life of violent crime.  He was finally jailed in 2011 for life when caught after 16 years of hiding in plain sight.  Since being imprisoned for two consecutive life terms he’s been a pain in the ass for prison officials and disciplined multiple times.  Bad guy, right? But here is where it gets weird.  Bulger was suddenly moved this week to the maximum security federal prison called Hazelton in West Virginia.  Within 24 hours, he was beaten to death and mutilated in his cell. The cell was in the general population of the prison.  The prime suspect is a guy named Fotios “Freddy” Geas, a Greek hitman for the Italian mafia in Massachusetts who is serving a life term for murder.

So here’s the point – and it’s not that a really bad guy was brutally murdered by another really bad guy both serving life in a maximum security prison.  They’re both vicious murderers.  The point is that this is no coincidence.  Some official in the Federal Bureau of Prisons in the US Department of Justice authorized this move.  This official moved Bulger to a prison where he was most certainly in deadly danger, and danger became reality in less than 24 hours after the move.  Some employee of the federal government signed Bulger’s death warrant, and THAT is the point.

We are in a time of great uncertainly and instability.  The federal government, led by a morally bankrupt individual, is fragile.  This brutal murder in a federal prison by an inmate supervised by the federal government was sanctioned by an official of the federal government.  Our Constitution commands equal protection under the law.  Those Constitutional rights extend to EVERYONE in our country.  EVERYONE, even vicious criminals in our prisons.  The Department of Justice has a legal obligation to protect everyone under its jurisdiction, especially those in prison.  This murder exposes the rot within the DOJ.  If a federal official authorizes a move that would result in the certain death of one under their care, is the next step disappearing people who politically disagree with the government?  What about those arrested for protesting in Congress or at the Supreme Court?  Bringing the full force of the federal government to take the life of a prisoner demonstrates a shocking corruption that must be removed.  Corruption is corruption no matter where it lay, especially in the federal government.  This corruption must be exposed and eliminated.