Note: All opinions are those of Pat Schwind only, & not those of anyone else at Impact Mortgage Network.
Sterling Smith's presentation was titled: "One Man’s Struggle vs. an Unjust System". Katie
Puzauskas from the Az. Justice Project, brought her friend Sue Ellen Allen, who spent 7 years in prison,
while suffering much of the time from breast cancer. This was a great meeting, in which "apostate" ex-Mormon,
US Army veteran & ex-cop Sterling Smith, a direct descendant of LDS Church founder, Joseph Smith,
called the Mormon faith an evil cult, & claimed that the Church used its influence in Navajo
County (AZ), to put him in prison & tried to ruin his life. He & Sue Ellen described their treatment
in jail & prison, which sounded like they were in Joe Stalin's Russia, not America.
Sterling started to question his faith in the 1980's. The 'last straw' was in 1985, when the LDS church was involved in the embarrassing "Salamander Letter Scandal", in which they dealt with fraudulent antiquities dealer, & convicted murderer Mark Hoffman. Sterling told of how the Mormons who controlled Nevada politics in the 1940's & '50's, dealt cooperatively with Mobster Bugsy Siegel, to bring gambling & entertainment to Las Vegas, & eventually the other big towns of Reno, Tahoe & Laughlin, despite the Church's "public face" of outright opposition to the gaming industry.
Sterling has a cousin, Dennis Cluff, who was Manager of Clark County (Vegas), Nevada, for much of the mid- & late-80's, & early '90's, & chose to resign, rather than cooperate & facilitate the corruption that allowed the mob to work with the Mormon Church power structure. Because of it's "hand in glove" dealings with organized crime, the Church has amassed some amazing property holdings & wealth. Sterling contends that the Church was corrupt from its founding. In fact, polygamy was not originally one of its tenets, but was quickly adopted after Joseph Smith's wife caught him having sex with 14 year old girl. To con his wife into forgiveness, he claimed he had recently received a revelation from god, telling him that multiple wives, & the younger the better, was now to be a major part of Church dogma. Hmmmmmmmm?
Personally I think all 'organized religions' are "really wack". I was raised in a strict Catholic home, & left the Church when I left home for college. But I really do believe you can 'rank' the "relative wackiness" of various religions, & the LDS faith seems even nuttier to me than Catholicism, even if the LDS Church didn't have polygamy, & didn't believe in the "talking salamander", "magic underwear", Christ visiting Central America before Columbus, etc..... Seriously, how anyone can believe in stuff that makes 'Santa Claus' & the 'Easter Bunny' seem not too implausible, while they 'look down their nose' at best, or get motivated to go "kill those infidels", at worst, is beyond me.
For example, isn't it simply weird that so many Black folks, (most polls show ~ 80% - 90%), are usually so into the "god thing", (bordering on superstition), & then see no problem with Michael Jackson, or violent & misogynistic lyrics in disturbing music, & also find it so easy to persecute gay folks? Hmmmmmmm? You'd think after centuries of being treated like the trash, even when not enslaved, that Blacks would have some compassion & empathy for others' differing opinions & actions. Guess not. My explanation is the superstitious behavior that is a direct result of strong religious convictions, which I feel is truly the "root of all evil".
Sterling "named names", re: his battle to restore his civil & property rights, against the authorities of Navajo Co. Gary Butler was fired from his job as Show Low Chief of Police, but then was elected Sheriff of Navajo Co. Sterling & Butler had a long standing feud, ever since Sterling was a teenager, & Butler raped Sterling's 15 year old girlfriend, who was in fact Butler's first cousin. Butler was a "serial womanizer", who had affairs with many women in the area, particularly the wives of some Show Low city councilmen. Sterling even claims that many people who know Butler well, have (over many years), admitted they suspect him of bestiality with farm animals. But he's a powerful Mormon. Butler even had an affair with his own brother's wife, while the brother (an LDS Sunday School teacher, & friend of Sterling's), was out of town.
Eventualy, once Sterling tried to build his "dream home", on his family's ranch, in 1999, he ran into one legal hurdle after another. And not just re: the permit & zoning process. The county tried to use his private ranch road to detour traffic right through his property. He protested the bureaucratic problems, was arrested numerous times, & even put in prison, unjustly, for a year & a half! Just for standing up for his rights!
Navajo Co. Attorney, Mel Bowers was part of the persecution of Sterling, providing a false indictment, & lying to a grand jury, despite Sterling's exculpatory evidence. The only "good guy" in the whole depressing story, was a local civil attorney, Lance Payette, who advised Butler, to no avail, not to pursue his crusade against Sterling.
Folks, if you're shaking your head & saying, "this can't be true! This is America, stuff like this just doesn't happen", please grow up & stop watching the voice of Fascism, Fox News. Cops all over America lie routinely, & try to ruin people's lives, EVERY FREAKIN' DAY! The other night on "Real Time with Bill Maher", much of the discussion dealt with the fact that "Disorderly Conduct" charges result in arrests, all over America, every day, when there was no crime committed, period. But the cop just didn't get sufficient "ass kissing" from the person they're trying to shake down or harass, so somebody has to go to jail, even if they're a 60-ish college professor, who walks with a cane, in their own home! (Ref: the "Professor Gates of Harvard Incident" last week).
I personally almost went to prison twice in 2002, when there was no crime at all, just because the local cops didn't like the fact that I was involved in "Phoenix Cop Watch". One of my best friends was not so lucky; Laro Nicol, the ex-Marine & Glendale Airport Air Traffic Controller, was "rail-roaded" into a 4 year prison term, on bogus explosives & weapons charges, when there was no crime whatsoever! It happens everyday, simply because most cops in America today are simply out of control, jaded thugs, with a hard core "authoritarian complex". Think I'm wrong? Hmmmmmmmm? The next time you have a really bad confrontation with a cop, if you've got the balls to do so, ask the cop politely:
1) Officer, how long have you been a police officer?
2) And in that time, how many times have you had to go to a supervisor, or another officer, & complain that some of your compadres on the force were not behaving properly, or perhaps even trying to press charges unjustly, against anybody?
I virtually guarantee that the response will be "NEVER", because cops never admit they do anything wrong, & they're afraid to "blow the whistle" on their corrupt fascist buddies, for fear of negative career impact at best, or outright physical danger at worst. The reason the movie "Serpico" was even made, was because a cop "turning" on other cops almost never happens. If it did, it would be "no big deal", & never make it to the "News", let alone a movie. So even the so called "good cops" don't ever "come forward" to tell the truth about Police Abuse. If they did, we wouldn't have to be afraid every time we have a negative encounter with the Police. Hell, maybe we would even be able to get rid of nut jobs like Joe Arpaio. On second thought, after 31 years in "the Valley", I've concluded that Arizona voters are just so "out to lunch" morons, who prefer a false sense of security to real freedom & liberty, that it would take a flippin' miracle to dislodge wack jobs like Arpaio or Russell Pearce. That's life.
Finally, Sterling made a great point, based on lots of research, & his own personal experience as both a cop & a corrections officer: Some prestigious think-tanks have concluded that 8 - 12% of convictions in America today are bogus! Some other researchers think the number might be twice that high! That's right, depending on who you are & how corrupt the cops hounding you are, there's a great chance you're gonna go to jail "for no good reason". So when stupid people make ridiculous comments like, "America's still the best country in the world", I want to vomit. And when real Nazi's, like Ronnie Reagan's son, Michael, state (on Fox News) that, "....9-11 Truthers should be shot as traitors! No trial, just shoot these people! They're un-American & deserve to be shot outright!", I want to fight these fascists.
And if you don't like what I'm saying, & you got any real balls, I need sparing partners. Thanks for reading. Please forward this to someone you care about, or perhaps someone you want to piss-off something ferocious. Have a nice day.