One of Trump’s go-to tactics is to say things, and then, when he is called on it, deny he has said it. Sometimes he will claim, after the fact and after much reasoned criticism, that what he said was his just being sarcastic even if he had followed the original statement with his trade mark, “believe me”.

The Bristol County Sheriff, Thomas Hodgson, the Joe Arpaio of Massachusetts and acolyte that simply adores Trump and seeks his attention at every possible turn, has adopted Trump’s practice of making statements that cancel each other out while holding that each is legitimate.

As with Trump, the problem is that the words are written down and recorded so deniability is impossible.

After a major altercation at the ICE detention center on the campus of the Bristol County House of Corrections in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Sheriff Thomas Hodgson received criticism for not only his handling of the actual incident, but also for the conditions in his facilities that would have made such an event inevitable.

While some have been calling for accountability for a number of years now, this incident has prompted others to begin scrutinizing his job performance more closely with some calling for independent investigations with others, after weighing the sheriff’s history, calling for his resignation.

If people in authority are allowed to abuse that authority without question either because there is no system for accountability, people are “too busy” to exercise that system, or that person’s actions, regardless how unacceptable, support certain political agendas, the intensity of the abuse increases. Over time, they become so used to their freedom to abuse, the assumption of the abuser is that it will continue to go unquestioned, and it usually does.

Being called on it, therefore, is often so unexpected that the abuser is not prepared to react rationally, rather, ignoring facts and grabbing at any straws that protect the abuser, going so far as to take on the part of a victim being persecuted unfairly, and jumping from one defense to another with them being unconnected or inconsistent.

The abuser often just keeps throwing defenses out as needed and related only to the moment as they come to mind.

This is how it is now when, after having his ways unquestioned, the sheriff has taken one step too far and has now got to explain himself.

This reaction of the sheriff is most clearly seen in the letter he wrote to the friendly local newspaper in his defense against calls for his resignation.

When a person, who refers to the majority of people in his jails as “drug addicts” and people in the ICE detention center as “Criminal illegal aliens” to create a monster under the bed with which to frighten the people of Bristol County into accepting that he is more than what he really is, begins a defensive letter to the editor with

 “The motto of the left-wing activist groups, abolish-ICE advocates, Prisoners’ Legal Services and plain anti-Trumpers has always been, and continues to be, ‘Don’t let the facts interfere with your political agenda,’

the reader just knows that what follows is going to be well reasoned and unbiased.

Right?

His condemnation of his critics that he claims paint him and ICE with a negative broad brush is priceless because the sheriff does exactly that by claiming to be able to characterize any critics as extremists.

And it is laughable that he assigns himself a lofty stature by also claiming some equivalence to the president by claiming criticizing him is somehow the work of “Anti-Trumpers”

As far as his description of those who have lately called for his resignation being Left-wing activist groups and anti-Trumpers, among them are Bristol County for Correctional Justice, Unidad Latina en Accion, the Coalition for Social Justice, the New Bedford Chapter of the NAACP, the Community Economic Development Center, the New Bedford Immigrant Support Network, the Business Innovation Center, Centro Communitario de Trabajadores, the Episcopal City Mission, Marching Forward, and the Southeastern Mass Labor Council.

Not surprisingly, the sheriff omitted the names of the groups in his defensive letter so he could mislead the public, unless he considers Immigrant groups, racial justice groups, churches, business organizations, and labor representatives as anti-Trump with solely political agendas in which case he further reveals his bias and perhaps more extreme attitudes.

Trump has nothing to do with this beyond as co-chair of the state’s Trump re-election committee Hodgson wants to promote his idol by any means necessary.

No, sheriff, they are against many of your practices that are bad for the incarcerated people in your facilities, most yet to be proven guilty in a court of law.

Things like suicides, poor medical treatment, attempts to deny them legitimate family contact, having no programs for re-entry into the community that results in a ridiculously high return rate were concerns before the time of COVID-19 and are what his critics have been addressing.

The sheriff’s history is rife with law suits against him for inmate abuse, employee abuse, and abuse of the county taxpayers, which he has lost to the cost of millions to the county.

He relates a tale about events on May 1 at the ICE detention center claiming there are tapes that show his version is the true version, but it has been two weeks since that event, and no one outside of his office and ICE has seen the tapes.

Yet he claims letters from inmates, conversations between inmates and their attorneys, and interviews with former inmates are merely a “manufactured version of events”.

While he claimed his actions had guaranteed that no inmates in his facilities had COVID-19, this was based on not having tested his inmates.

How would he have known if no one had the virus if he had not tested all his inmates?

When, after two months of resistance the sheriff finally began testing, he found that of the people he tested at least 5 people under his care tested positive.

He said he was thinking of the community’s safety since releasing nonviolent offenders, those there only because they could not afford bail, or those within days of their end of sentence release would expose them to the virus in the community, yet he lamely mumbles that among his staff who exit and reenter his facilities on a daily First, the nerve, or group of nerve fibers, must be intact; and secondly, the neurotransmitters or those natural substances that allow nerve impulses transmitting from nerve to nerve, and nerve sildenafil discount to end organ, must be present in sufficient quantity. He, no more, has to worry about running out of your medication either. levitra for sale online levitra generika 40mg Speed: Speed is another most important factor considered by every patient. Most of all not just for men but they have to have far generic cialis cipla robertrobb.com more than adequate knowledge of several procedures. basis and could very well be bringing the virus in, first 3 then 7 staff have tested positive for the virus.

Non-existing things cannot increase.

In defending himself against those calling on him to resign, the sheriff quotes certain parts of a recent court decision that he presents as supporting him, but which actually commend those who work under him.

He wrote,

“the judge praised the Bristol County House of Corrections for its Herculean efforts in following the CDC guidelines and places themselves at the frontlines of danger every day, unlike anyone in these vocal political activist groups. Contrary to the misleading ramblings of these groups, one only needs to actually read the words of the judge’s opinion to ascertain the truth,”

And then quotes the court decision,

“The Court acknowledges and commends the significant steps that BCHOC has taken in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at that facility and treat anyone infected.”

He also included the quote,

 “The Court previously noted several protective measures that BCHOC has put in place since February, including restricting contact with outsiders, performing temperature screenings, and splitting up detainees during meals and recreation… The court recognizes the commendable efforts of the BCHOC staff, which have been operating in difficult and risky conditions where much is unknown. It is necessary to point this out given that, while the Court and the attorneys have been conferring remotely due to the pandemic, the dedicated professionals at BCHOC continue to perform their duties on site. That is no small thing.”

The sheriff is not the staff.

However, when the judge made his decision, Hodgson’s assessment of the Court decision he refers to was,

“I absolutely disagree with Judge Young’s decision”

 while also declaring that the judge had “far exceeded his authority.”

He can’t condemn the decision for criticizing him and then rely on that same document to justify himself, especially when he clearly says that he disagrees with it.

The sheriff defends himself by relying on a court decision he himself sees no value in, but expects others to accept it when he quotes from it in his own defense.

He is both defensive and inconsistent in his claims, his actions, and his self-defense.

Like members of the religious right condemning other people by choosing selected Bible verses to quote in support of their opinion while ignoring any that contradicts them, while he might have found and quoted certain passages in the court decision to present to the public who most likely will never see the full document, he ignores those parts that outnumber those he chose and should also be seen by the public to get a full picture.

He also applies to himself in this case, comments relating to his hard working staff, not him.

What he omits to include are the negative parts of the decision that apply to him and his leadership. The judge made many statements that criticize him for putting his staff and those under his care at imminent risk to their health and wellbeing.

 Immediately following the above quoted commendation of his staff, the decision has some things to say about what he must take responsibility for as he is the administrator of his facilities and establishes the practices that his staff is to follow.

Conveniently omitted statements in the decision include:

 “Nonetheless there remains critical safety gaps that establish a likelihood of irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary equitable relief.  Testing of both Staff and detainees has been minimal, so the real infection rate is a mystery.”

 “A related problem is the “insufficient and ad hoc contact tracing of detainees and BCHOC staff who may have interacted with COVID-19 positive individuals.”
           

“Of particular concern is the contradictory evidence in the record regarding monitoring of those Detainees who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19.”
          

 “Had the Court stayed its hand little or no progress would have been made at BCHOC towards accurately determining the virus presence among the Detainees and Staff and towards effectively separating potential carriers from others…”

“Keeping individuals confined closely together in the presence of a potentially lethal virus, while neither knowing who is carrying it nor taking effective measures to find out, likely displays deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm. That is what the evidence shows here.”

Those statements substantially modify what the sheriff refers to as praise.

Further self-serving  inconsistency is illustrated by his claim that

“Contrary to the misleading ramblings of these groups (his critics), one only needs to actually read the words of the judge’s opinion to ascertain the truth”,

while he leaves out the words that the public should read.

Deflection, another of his hero’s tactics.

It would be almost comical if his ego wasn’t putting people’s lives at risk.

Perhaps, if he were to simply do the job he was elected to do and cease trying to be more than what his job is and reduce his attempts at self-promotion, he would not have to defend himself in such a contradictory way, and people who care about those in his facilities would not have so much to question.