I’ve been thinking for quite a long time about starting a “Gallery of Shame” to highlight individuals who, to a lower or greater degree, disgrace the world through their actions. It would include high level criminals (like our current president Obama, who continues ordering the commission of gross human rights violations) and also petty jerks who seem to derive pleasure on making life a bit more unpleasant for those around them. People, in other words, who misuse whatever power they have.
anitaalvarez.jpgAnita Alvarez, the State’s Attorney for Cook County, falls in the petty jerk category. She is currently feuding with the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University. The project investigates the cases of people who may be wrongly incarcerated, and forward their findings to lawyers for legal action in the cases of those that are very likely innocent.
Apparently, State’s Attorney Alvarez would like to be able to send innocent people to jail without any bleeding heart liberals asking too many questions. So Ms. Alvarez seems to have decided that she’ll try to get rid of the middling students who work in the project by harassing them. So far she has accused them of trying to bribe a confession (by giving a witness cab fare) and has subpoenad their grades and private communications with their instructor.
You can read more about her chicaneries at the Dissenting Justice blog and at the Medill Innocence Project’s website.
So, Ms. Alvarez, welcome to Vox Publica’s “Gallery of Shame”.