 |
| Museum of Contemporary Art |
Regular readers might know that I don't usually have a column in the newspaper on Thursdays. But my editors asked if I would weigh in on Crimo's surrender to jail on Wednesday, and I was happy to comply.
Robert Crimo Jr. got off light.
He was sentenced to 60 days in jail, two years of probation and 100 hours of community service for signing the gun ownership application that allowed his disturbed teenage son to purchase an assault rifle — the gun the younger man is accused of using to slaughter seven people and wound 48 others at the Highland Park Fourth of July parade massacre in 2022.
That’s about one day for every casualty.
A decent person would be grateful, humbled, remorseful at that sentence. But then a decent person wouldn’t help his clearly troubled son buy an assault rifle.
The sort of person the elder Crimo is was on full display Wednesday when he showed up for his jail time wearing a T-shirt with the words “I’m a political pawn” printed on the front and “LAWS, FACTS, REALITY” on the back.
Let’s talk about laws. The law would allow Lake County Judge George Strickland to declare Crimo in contempt of court, void his plea agreement, haul him back into court and send him to trial. There’s plenty of precedent for that, such as when a federal judge — irked by a photo of Ed Vrdolyak on the front page of the Sun-Times, smirking after receiving probation in 2010 for a real estate kickback scheme — dismissed his probation as “a slap on the wrist” and re-sentenced him to 10 months in federal prison.
To continue reading, click here.
Crimo is a sick, twisted creep, and he seems to relish the attention. If my son killed several and wounded even more, I certainly wouldn’t go around in a tee shirt with a political statement on it. You bring up a great example…Fast Eddie should have never smirked until he got home.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm....I wonder what his political affiliation is?
ReplyDeleteCrimo got this deal because the prosecutors likely believed that even if he got convicted….which was probably going to happen, the chance of it being overturned on appeal were high. Legally a cause and effect between his act and that of his son, who could have bought a gun without his fathers signing that card for almost a year prior to the attack, was very very shaky. Crimo took the deal because even if his conviction was overturned on appeal he was gonna do at least 60 days. And I don’t think you are correct about this being legally ‘ contempt of court” giving the court power to do anything about what it had already signed off on
ReplyDelete. With Vrdolyak his probation sentence had not been agreed to by prosecutors and it was only after they objected AND an appeals court overturned it that Kennelly ( a different judge than the one who had imposed probation ) was able to impose a harsher sentence. But yeah the smirking figured into it. Still, I’m to see Crimo in jail. His crime was not just signing that card but helping along with his wife create that deranged young man. I actually was there when his wife was arrested for leaving the kid ….a toddler then…alone in the car in a parking lot. And heard from others in my community about the regular police domestic abuse calls to the house and how his sister was terrified her Haifa brother would. kill her but the parents did nothing.
You bring up some good points, but if fucking up your kids were an actual crime, there wouldn't be enough prison cells in the world to hold everybody.
DeleteAnyone who heard Ed Vrdolyak on the radio would understand that ‘smirking’ was his natural approach to everything. You didn’t really need visual affirmation.
DeleteI’m guessing R. Crimo II in another couple of months will become the new Kyle Rittenhouse, darling of the MAGA crowd, appearing on the podium during rallies, being held up by the Golden Idol as just another example of the persecution innocent people, like himself and all his supporters, are subjected to by the ‘demented, biased, left-wing socialist pedophiles who hate God and our declining country.’ (I know, I left out some of his ever-expanding spiel. Space limitations).
Then he’ll start hawking the t-shirt Crimo wore in court, having had new ones printed with (his own name) 2024 above the original wording. No doubt the same (paid?, perhaps) collection of worshippers who appear behind him at all his MAGA rallies wearing them or holding up placards with the same wording. Two months later, the printer that made up the shirts will be suing the campaign for non-payment, the candidate will claim Crimo II stole his idea, and everything in MAGA world will be back to normal. Only the candidate’s legal team will have changed. Which is also normal.
That is probably what will happen.We have all seen this show before. Where is the outrage from the other side. When people are appalled but do nothing, this behavior becomes normal. We have put up with the dangerous filth that comes out of Trump’s mouth for nearly 8 years and he still out there. He’s still talking. He’s running for president. When will enough be enough?
DeleteI'm guessing that Crimo Jr. has buddies in the Illinois State Rifle Association, which is an NRA affiliate & they gave him the shirt!
ReplyDeleteBrings back memories of Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother who fended off personal responsibility as did the person who supplied the teenager with the assault weapon used to kill two people and wound one in Wisconsin.
ReplyDeleteThese are poorly educated, low income, disenfranchised white people who blame Democrats for their lot in life. There are millions and millions of them and Fox News loves them.
Bingo. They're conservative, right-leaning, gun-toting, God-fearing white people, seething with anger, resentment, and grievances. Not just at Democrats, progressives, and leftists. They also blame people of color, immigrants, gays, Jews, and other minorities for the poor life choices they made. Dropping out of school, becoming unwilling parents, substance abuse, lack of job skills, and the like.
DeleteThey look for other causes on which to blame their self-created situations...and other people...instead of looking in the mirror. The fault lies not within the stars, but within themselves. They earnestly believe, just as the Germans and Italians did all those years ago, that a strongman...the Orange Guy...will eventually fix their problems. In reality he mocks them, scorns them, uses them, cons them, and doesn't give two shits about them.
He's their PCO (pest control operator), who will eradicate the two-legged vermin infesting their house, and the clock will be turned back, unwelcome and unsettling changes and progress will be undone, religiosity and morality will prevail, and all will once again be right with the world. Extremely right
This is not going to end soon...or end well.
If he loses again, the MAGAts will pick up their guns and use them to express their anger at having victory stolen from them yet again, and at being cheated, and it will be far, far worse than last time. Perhaps their targets will finally awaken to their peril, and respond in kind. Welcome to Northern Ireland...on steroids. If he wins, it will be open season on those people of color, immigrants, gays, Jews, and anyone else who isn't exactly like them. Make America Germany Again.
Any way you look at it, we all lose.
I don't know how else to say it, except--we're fucked.
Love the energy Grizz. Tru dat.
DeleteWaPo reports that leftist "rifle clubs" are expanding and that their weapon of choice is also the AR-15. They are beginning to show up at LBGTQ rallies and drag shows. The fascists see them...and they back off. For the moment. Shootouts and firefights are inevitable. Not a matter of if, but of when, and where. Like Lexington and Concord. After that starts happening...all bets are off. It's just a shot away.
DeleteI would make the same points, Grizz, just not as eloquently.
DeleteJust remember, you can’t fix stupid
ReplyDeleteI haven't really kept up with this case so it makes me wonder if he is subject to red flag laws for this plea bargain?
ReplyDeleteCan this man still legally purchase guns? Is he allowed to possess guns or is this just another case where we see that the laws that are in place are not being used to stop further violence?
Saw Crimo's photo on the front page of the paper today. The whole thing is disgusting. And we have another narcissist, ti would seem.
ReplyDeleteRe: Blago. I've always said that he got 4 ro 5 years for what he did, and the rest for being such an unmitigated prick about thru the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteThe deep irony here that he IS a political pawn, only not in the way he thinks he's being presented, and not by the people he thinks are pulling the strings.
ReplyDeleteFrom the looks of that professionally-printed shirt, someone supplied it to him, presumably telling him he can stick it to The Weaponized Judicial System that way, or in whatever terms will push his buttons, and he will be a hero to the unwashed masses watching Fox.
When the stunt backfires on him, most likely in the form of an unhappy judge, or a prosecution that wants to re-think a plea agreement, he will discover that the only one suffering harm by wearing that shirt is... himself. This is not the first time he has made a really bad decision.
So the father thinks HE's a victim? Wow, he's using the victim card as if he's X45 or G. Santos. X45 has set the precedent in the far-right-wing faction of the GQP by using this "I'm a victim" defense over and over and over. In fact, as I'm writing this on the evening of 11/18/23, X45 is probably at some small rally in some hickville town spewing his victimization out of his pie hole once again. Therefore, we can expect more and more of this from all the Joe and Jane GQPers who get caught and convicted of "criming."
ReplyDeleteRespectfully submitted,
Sandra S.