Smooth Criminal

Thursday May 26, 2005 - 11:04AM EDT

Just so we are on the same page to begin with, Michael Jackson has had a very not normal childhood and life in general of which the effects of are apparent, evidenced by the fact that he is off his rocking horse.

The title implies nothing. It was just the first thing that popped into my head about Michael Jackson and this trial. I'm putting my money that he will be acquitted. Based on the news coverage of the trial the prosecution seems to have had a weak case to begin with. They put a lot behind Jackson's previous allegations, which he was never convicted of and of which the general public knew very little about the details except that someone accussed him of molestation. The litany of conflicting testimony is disturbing. Either there are people that like him so much they would say anything to get him acquitted or there are people that hate him so much that they would say anything to put him in jail. Both seem like real possibilites. Although the prosecution wants to call Jackson's previous allegations as evidence of a pattern of wrongdoing, their clients themselves have their own checkered history to contend with. The fact is that the whole case is very muddy and I think the jurors simply have to make a personal judgment call because this can't be decided on facts alone. Especially considering the actual charges. Nothing was presented to substantiate any of them either way. For every person that said it happened this way there was another that said the complete opposite. Who do you beleive? If the kid did get molested the family's various shenanigans over the years is going to be their downfall. Like the boy who cried wolf. The most powerful testimony was probably that of the three boys who said they were not violated when the prosecution said they were. Also the couple of celebrities that came in and testified to the lack of credibility of the accuser's family was key. Although the defense didn't get exactly what they wanted from those witnesses, they still managed to establish that the accuser's family has a history of dealing with celebrities in a less than honest fashion. Are those celebrities are that paranoid? Its pretty horrible how the kid's mother used the fact that her son had cancer for such sinister reasons. And previously made his brother lie about something else to get money from a department store. If you've ever known or dealt with people like that you know they can't be trusted on anything. Which is a damn shame when they finally tell the truth. This is just my personal opinion but I do think that the DA or whatever that guy's name is who has been pursuing Jackson since the original allegations way back when has some kind of personal vendetta against Jackson or some kind of emmotional attachment to the case.

As a side note I always thought that complete detachment from personal feelings when dealing in things like this was the ultamite sign of cunning and strength. To elaborate take for instance the story of the cop who can't get a murder case out of his head. It consumes the cop and becomes a personal crusade. He wants to see the murderer fry. He wants to flip the switch himself. But if the cop can simply bring the murderer to justice while eating a sandwich and commenting on its flavor and simply move on to the next case without any attachment to the previous, that is great power. Like Constantine when he is hunting demons, it is just a job, a matter of fact approach. I love that shit. Unfortunately that probably never happens in real life and is extremely difficult to accomplish. So you can't blame people. I'd like to detach myself from anything at will and reason that life is just a bunch of fluctuating quantum states.

I don't remeber what I was saying about the Jackson case. I thought I was out of rants for the week. Ah well, INNOCENT! (remember that episode of the simpsons where homer was accused of sexual harassment and he went on public access TV to tell his side of the story. He ended the broadcast by saying "INNOCENT" in this funny upbeat voice. That is the voice you are supposed to read the last "innocent" in this post like.)