Vengence!

Beds were made to lay

(audio)

If you’re a person of the internet you’re very aware of the state of @horse_ebooks. It was a clever trick that had hundreds if not thousands of people fooled. Those of us who paid attention were entertained by what we assumed was a glitch in technology.

But that is done now. It was all a lie.

No, the greater lie was something very few picked up on. A court conviction thrown out.

Nope, no one cared.

In 2005, in the week after of Hurricane Katrina several police officers shot and killed two and wounded four unarmed people. The officers were responding to a report of gunfire on the Danziger Bridge. It was an event during a catastrophic time. After flood waters breached the city’s walls, New Orleans had fallen to the wrath of nature and the cruelty of men. The subsequent shooting and cover up was later brought to trial and those involved were convicted and sentenced.

Roughly a month ago, eight years after the incident, everything was undone.

There was a report the federal prosecutors had campaigned their case from anonymous accounts on nola.com (the Times-Picayune webpage) thus creating an atmosphere hostile to those there were prosecuting. Those prosecutors involved lost their jobs. The convicted officers were recently allowed to post bail.

It seems strange in an environment that prides itself on being vigilant this item slipped though. Perhaps the hyper-locality has much to do with it. Maybe it was the race of the victims giving way to indifference. Either way the the internet revealed itself to be a spoiled, puerile child.

People wrote eulogies for a fake horse.

The murderers of real people got to walk.

You can’t throw a stone anywhere on the internet without someone harping about the benefits of social media. Twitter and Facebook helped Egypt and Iran overthrow people in power. Perhaps this is the first instance where those in power were able to get away with what they had done because of the internet.

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I don’t even pretend to know what will happen next. I only know the five accused men will stand retrial on evidence nearly a decade old. They’re due their fair day in court.

Maybe this time the internet won’t step in the way of justice.