Locking them up

Here are two travesties of justice, so bad that they might have occurred in Afghanistan or Turkey, but they happened in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

#1

Keith Sellars, 44, a U.S. citizen and resident of Alamance County, North Carolina, was charged with voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election.  He was on probation at the time.  In Pennsylvania, as in most states, he would be eligible to vote.  In North Carolina, if you are on parole or probation, you can get up to two years in prison for voting.

Mr. Sellars, who is not up on the state’s election laws, assumed he could vote.  For this, he faces prosecution.  The Republican D.A. says that is the law.  

Did I mention that Mr. Sellars is black?  The D.A. says race has nothing to do with the prosecution.  The Alamance courthouse has a confederate monument outside the courthouse.

#2

Ellen Gerhart, age 63, was arrested after Sunoco accused her of interfering with the Mariner East 2 pipeline, which will go through her land under eminent domain.  The pipeline is owned by Energy Transfer Partners, the same company that trampled on Indian rights with the Dakota Access pipeline.

Sunoco said Ms. Gerhart was attracting mountain lions and bears on her property to attack the pipeline workers.  Mountain lions have been extinct in Pennsylvania for over 100 years.  The bears are Pennsylvania black bears, which have been in our back yard to eat our bird food and run when we turn on the lights.  The charge, of course, was bogus.

Ms. Gerhart was sentenced to 2-6 months in the Centre County Correctional Facility.