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fulton county jail
The Mugshot Worth A Thousand Words?
A defiant photograph isn’t “news.” It’s a symbol, an image. Which is exactly what Donald Trump is.
Aug 25, 2023
I want to talk about symbols, images, and fascism.
Here is Trump’s mugshot from his arraignment yesterday in Georgia. It’s a look of defiance—which I’m sure he practiced repeatedly beforehand—intended for his supporters and his Republican base to feel defiant, too.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is Trump’s thousand-word response to Wednesday night’s Republican debate that he declined to attend.
He is as close to America has come to a fascist leader, who doesn’t want his followers to think or analyze. He wants them only to feel.
He timed his arraignment in Georgia for yesterday so that it—and this photo—would dominate Thursday’s and Friday’s news, rather than anything or anyone emerging from the debate.
But a defiant photograph isn’t “news.” It’s a symbol, an image. Which is exactly what Donald Trump is. He has no political platform, no specific policy agenda, no new ideas, and no plan for what he’ll do if he gets a second term.
He exists as a symbol for the anger, discontent, bigotry, and vindictiveness he has unleashed in America.
He is as close to America has come to a fascist leader, who doesn’t want his followers to think or analyze. He wants them only to feel.
Trump’s lackeys fell in line, expressing the defiance Trump projected in his mug shot.
On Newsmax, Sarah Palin called for civil war.
Fox’s Laura Ingraham told viewers that Trump’s arrest was proof that government officials are trying to “take them out.”
Fox’s Sean Hannity said the Department of Justice will target Republicans “until there’s nothing left of the party.”
All brainless bile.
Last Thursday, Trump complained that Fox News “purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big ‘orange’ one with my chin pulled way back. They think they are getting away with something, they’re not. Just like 2016 all over again… And then they want me to debate!”
Of course he’s angry. For the man who’s all symbol and image and without substance, a photo like the following conveys a brainless buffoon. It must drive him crazy.
But Trump is not a brainless buffoon. He’s a cunning marketer, a diabolic manipulator of the public, a sly producer of his own daily reality show. His lead in the GOP’s presidential sweepstakes has grown. He will almost certainly be the Republican candidate for president next year—even if he’s in jail.
How to debate a symbol? How to take on an image? How should Biden and the Democrats, and everyone who cares deeply about this country, respond to a demagogue who obsesses over what he projects rather than what he stands for? How to deal with a fascist who doesn’t want followers to think but only to feel rage?
Expose him for who he is.
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Why Isn’t Trump in Jail?
If a man entrusted with the power of the presidency commits crimes against the Constitution and our democracy, that’s more reason to insist he be subject to law, not less.
Aug 24, 2023
The day after Donald Trump was arraigned for his alleged effort to steal the 2020 election, he posted a naked threat: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
That followed his federal indictment. After he was indicted in Georgia, Trump openly warned a witness not to testify. “I am reading reports that failed former Lt. Governor of Georgia, Jeff Duncan, will be testifying before the Fulton County Grand Jury,” Trump posted. “He shouldn’t.”
As Trump well knows, when he inflames his MAGA disciples, violence commonly follows.
Anyone else convicted of Trump’s crimes would plainly go to prison for years. And anyone else openly threatening witnesses would quickly see their bail revoked.
Now a woman has been arrested for threatening to kill the judge overseeing Trump’s federal election interference case. And the Georgia grand jurors who voted to charge Trump have had their addresses published on an extremist website. Supporters labeled the jurors’ collected addresses a “hit list” and suggested “long range rifles” might be useful.
Obviously, jurors in any of Trump’s trials risk retaliation should they decide the evidence proves him guilty.
Judges explicitly warned Trump not to intimidate witnesses or “prejudice potential jurors.” Which raises an uncomfortable question: Why isn’t he in jail already?
Federal judges take witness tampering seriously—they revoked bail for alleged cryptocurrency crook Sam Bankman-Fried for interfering with witness testimony. That’s simply the rule of law. If you violate the orders under which you’re released pending trial, you go to jail.
Yet Trump remains at liberty, seemingly determined to move the question of his criminal liability from a court of law into the court of public opinion—and get a chance to pardon himself if elected.
This spring, before the first charges against Trump were filed in New York, the former president threatened “potential death and destruction” if he was charged. Judges might well be worried about widespread violence from Trump supporters if he’s actually jailed. Moreover, some conservative commentators seem to regard the notion of locking up a former president as unthinkable.
Yes, things have come to a sorry pass when a president is charged with brazenly violating the law and threatens anyone who’d prosecute him. But if a man entrusted with the power of the presidency commits crimes against the Constitution and our democracy, that’s more reason to insist he be subject to law, not less.
A former top federal prosecutor opined that sending Trump to prison if he were convicted posed “enormous and unprecedented logistical issues.” “Probation, fines, community service, and home confinement are all alternatives,” claimed the former prosecutor.
These alternatives aren’t serious. If convicted, Trump must suffer punishment like anyone else.
Probation is typically reserved for the repentant, and Trump expresses no repentance. For a billionaire who lives in a luxury golf resort, fines or home confinement are a slap on the wrist. (Letting Trump continue charging Secret Service members up to $1,185 per room per night to protect him at Mar-a-Lago would only punish taxpayers.)
And what would community service even consist of?
In truth, the Secret Service can protect Trump more cheaply if he resides in Leavenworth penitentiary with other nonviolent felons. A former Secret Service agent confirmed that protecting Trump in prison poses no great challenge: “If you want to go to prison, you want to go to [a] federal prison,” he said. “They already have their security set up… It’s already safe.”
Anyone else convicted of Trump’s crimes would plainly go to prison for years. And anyone else openly threatening witnesses would quickly see their bail revoked. Applying a different standard to a powerful person reflects only contempt for the rule of law.
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Kaepernick to Fund Independent Autopsy for Atlanta Inmate Found Dead in Insect-Infested Cell
"We want to thank Colin Kaepernick for helping this family get to the truth and soon," said civil rights lawyer Benjamin Crump, who is representing relatives of Lashawn Thompson.
Apr 21, 2023
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump on Thursday said that former NFL quarterback and racial justice activist Colin Kaepernick will pay for an independent autopsy for Lashawn Thompson, a mentally ill man who died last September in a filthy, insect-infested cell in an overcrowded Atlanta jail.
Crump spoke at a rally and news conference outside the Fulton County Jail, where Thompson, who was arrested last June for alleged misdemeanor simple battery, was held for three months before his death.
"We want to thank Colin Kaepernick for helping this family get to the truth and soon," Crump said, flanked by Thompson's relatives.
"What happened to Lashawn Thompson is a human rights violation," the attorney added. "If we don't ask the questions and we don't get the answers and we don't get to the truth, then next time it could be your loved one. This isn't just about Lashawn Thompson. This is about every citizen in Fulton County, Georgia."
Thompson, who suffered from mental health issues, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and transferred to the jail's psychiatric wing. According to jail records, on September 13 an officer saw Thompson slumped over in his cell, which was so dirty that a staff member who entered it wore protective gear. Inside, Thompson lay dead with his eyes open, his body covered with what Crump said were over 1,000 insect bites. Thompson was 35 years old.
\u201cThese are the DEPLORABLE and inhumane conditions Lashawn Thompson had to endure during his stay in the psychiatric wing of the Fulton County (GA) Jail. After his death, he was found with insect bites all over his body. We cannot look away, we must demand justice!\u201d— Ben Crump (@Ben Crump) 1682020687
Jail records show that medical and correctional staff repeatedly noted—and voiced concerns about—Thompson's deteriorating health but did not help him.
"They literally watched his health decline until he died," Michael Harper, another attorney representing Thompson's family, said in a statement.
Harper asserted that Thompson "was found dead in a filthy jail cell after being eaten alive by insects and bed bugs."
An official autopsy could not determine the cause of Thompson's death but noted an "extremely severe" insect infestation on his body.
"Can you imagine him screaming and him hollering, saying 'They biting, they biting' and nobody come," Thompson's aunt, Mamie Norman, said at Thursday's rally. "Nobody. Nobody. I still have no understanding until y'all find out what happened to him."
\u201cBrad McCray \u2014 #LashawnThompson\u2019s brother \u2014 speaking TRUTH to power about the bug-infested conditions Lashawn was forced to live in at the Fulton County Jail. #JusticeForLashawnThompson\u201d— Ben Crump (@Ben Crump) 1682035943
A report obtained last year from NaphCare—an institutional healthcare services contractor repeatedly accused of neglect—revealed widespread medical negligence in Fulton County Jail's mental health unit, where more than 90% of inmates were so severely malnourished that they developed cachexia, a wasting syndrome often associated with diseases like advanced cancer or AIDS.
Additionally, "100% of inmates" in the unit "had either lice, scabies, or both."
Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat—who called Thompson's death "absolutely unconscionable"—earlier this week asked for and received the resignation of three top jail officials, including Chief Jailer John Jackson.
"It's clear to me that it's time, past time, to clean house," Labat said in a statement on Monday.
An October 2022 investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution revealed that a record number of inmates are dying in Georgia's five largest county jails, and that Fulton County Jail has led the state in such deaths since 2009.
Overcrowding and understaffing plague the facility, where around half of the more than 3,000 inmates have not been charged with any crime. Labat admitted that more than 400 inmates were sleeping on the floor because of overcrowding.
"The type of infestations that contributed to Mr. Thompson's death are going to be a recurring problem in a jail where hundreds of detainees do not have cells and have to sleep on the floor," the sheriff said on Thursday.
\u201cAlmost half of the 3,000 people held at the Fulton County jail have not been formally charged with a crime. There is no amount of money in the world for new jails that can redeem this. Let people go home. \n\n@elizabethweill \n\nhttps://t.co/7cNT2VTjqk\u201d— Clara T Green (@Clara T Green) 1681419515
Sakira Cook, vice president of campaigns, policy, and government at the racial justice group Color of Change, said Thursday in a statement that "like Lashawn Thompson, countless individuals are currently enduring completely inhumane conditions at the severely overcrowded Fulton County Jail—often waiting for months at a time for frequently minor offenses and small amounts of cash bail."
"This must end. Despite years of scrutiny, the neglect and inhumane conditions within the jail have persisted, with little to no meaningful changes in prosecutorial practices or conditions," Cook added. "The current dark reality of mass incarceration is not accidental, but rather the consequence of intentional policies crafted by a dominant white culture that perpetuates and profits from the suppression of Black individuals through the jailing system."
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who chairs the Senate Human Rights Subcommittee, announced the launch of an inquiry into conditions of incarceration in Georgia and nationwide. Previous Ossoff-led probes of U.S. carceral conditions revealed nearly 1,000 uncounted deaths, widespread sexual crimes, corruption, abuse, and misconduct at prisons and jails across the nation.
According to the Sentencing Project, an advocacy group, there are nearly 2 million people locked up in U.S. prisons and jails—a 500% increase over the past 40 years and more than any other country in the world, by far.
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