February 14, 2010

The Delahunt/Amy Bishop connection.

So the news comes out that the University of Alabama-Huntsville biology professor, charged with murdering 3 colleagues, shot her brother to death, back in 1986, and the District Attorney's office made the decision not to file charges. The District Attorney was William Delahunt, who has been a member of Congress since 1996.
[Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier] said Bishop was being booked into jail when then-Chief Polio, or someone on his behalf, called and ordered the booking process stopped. Bishop was then released to her mother.

Frazier said the records from the case have been missing since at least 1987. "I don't want to use the word 'cover-up,' but this does not look good," he said.

“I was not on duty at the time of the incident, but I recall how frustrated the members of the department were over the release of Ms. Bishop," Frazier said. "The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers and I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.”...

In an interview at his home Saturday, Polio, 87, told the Globe: "There was no cover-up." 
And the next thing you know, Delahunt says he may not run for reelection.

75 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now, now, just because A is followed by B, it doesn't automatically follow that A caused B to happen.

But it sure doesn't make Rep. Delahunt look good, does it?

rhhardin said...

I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.

Belmont Club remarks that information [is] much harder to contain in 2010 than it was in 1986.

Anonymous said...

"'Every election cycle, I take my time, I think it through, and I think, not about whether I can win or lose, but: ‘Am I in a position to make a difference?' Delahunt, a Quincy Democrat told The Boston Globe."

Delahunt clearly made a difference back in 1985 when he intervened on behalf of a very rich family whose daughter had just killed her brother. He got her released while she was being fingerprinted.

Now three more people are dead at the mass murderer's hands, all thanks to Mike Dukakis ... er, I mean Bill Delahunt.

Heckuva job, Brownie! You're makin' a difference.

MDIJim said...

Then, she pulled out a gun and began shooting, firing several rounds before her gun either jammed or ran out of bullets, said the faculty member, who had spoken to people that were in the room.

Well, there you are. She was just trying to unload the gun.

Wince said...

Delahunt was talking to the Globe about retiring on Friday ("yesterday" in the Saturday article).

The shootings happened Friday afternoon.

Seems as though Delahunt's retirement musings had everything to do with Scott Brown's election, not the shooting.

But I think Delahunt's connection to the earlier Bishop shooting, on top of that political headwind, all but assures his departure.

Moreover, along with Coakley's lax treatment of the curling-iron infant rapist, this is the second recent instance where a Democrat DA who has since risen to the top of the state's political establishment is revealed to have gone easy on an accused who had even the slightest political connections, as compared, say, with the treatment of the Amiraults of Fells Acres infamy.

Let's see if that becomes a theme.

KCFleming said...

I congratulate myself for offering the Claudine Longet defense yesterday.

KCFleming said...

Seems like something that SNL could reprise.

Wince said...

The Claudine Longet Invitational.

MadisonMan said...

I wonder how many other case records from 1986 are also missing. That would be a good question for someone to answer. Is this sloppy record-keeping overall, or something more cover-uppy?

KCFleming said...

Massachusetts was too busy prosecuting satanic ritual abuse daycare workers who sacrificed babies and made people disappear and cut people up but left no evidence at all than to worry about a simple accidental gun discharge, three time, that killed someone.

chuckR said...

'Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.'
It's not the same, really. Chinatown was fictional.

Unknown said...

As the saying goes, timing is everything. A few more revelations like this and you may have supermajorities of Tea Partiers.

(Nobody tell wacko).

JAL said...

Like EDH.

Delahunt was musing before the AL shootings about making an announcement in March about whether he would run.

At the time I attributed it (and so did others) to Patrick Kennedy's departure along with Scott Brown's win. I figure he was putting his finger into the wind to see which way it was blowing.

Amy Bishop was the nor'easter that should be a clue that things do not bode well for the congressman -- and perhaps other New England Democrats.

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Unknown said...

From the Boston Herald, which may be only a few steps up from the NY Post (though i did hear a similar report on the news):

According to Frazier, then-Chief John Polio ordered cops to release Bishop - whose mother, Judith Bishop, Frazier said was a public official sitting on the Personnel Committee.

“I spoke with the retired deputy chief who was . . . responsible for booking Ms. Bishop. He said he had started the process when he received a call from then-Police Chief John Polio or possibly from a captain on Chief Polio’s behalf,” Frazier said.

“He was instructed to stop the booking process. At some point Ms. Bishop was turned over to her mother and they left the building via a rear exit. . . . The release of Ms. Bishop did not sit well with the police officers.”


here's a link to the article

Ampersand said...

I'm not averse to thinking badly of Democrats, but it seems to me that my side of the political blogosphere is pushing this one way too hard.

The Massachusetts incident and the Alabama incident seem completely unconnected. I'd be delighted to see a limited government/individual liberty Repub replace Delahunt, but this sad event shouldn't be the reason.

MDIJim said...

Theo Boehm is absolutely right. To the media MA is a stronghold of liberalism. To someone who grew up there it is just a hackocracy. Finally, folks seem to be getting wise to this. If being a liberal can get one a lifetime of "public service" and the healthy pension that goes with it, then one is a liberal.

Hucbald said...

"The Massachusetts incident and the Alabama incident seem completely unconnected."

Except that, you know, the same person was the shooter in both incidents.

I'm betting that, had Bishop been prosecuted back in '86, she wouldn't have been in a tenure track position at a university... but stranger things have happened in academia.

Alex said...

Tell me wingnuts, why should we not ban guns? It seems you wingnuts just can't keep from going wild, you prize your guns more then your non-existent genitals.

Unknown said...

I'm a former New York Times and Boston Globe reader. I now prefer either the New York Post or Boston Herald. If I have to read something with an agenda it might as well be my agenda.

avwh said...

What seems to be a trend wherever there's one-party rule: if you're "connected", a little thing like murder or tax evasion just goes away.

It is like Chinatown, only on a national scale.

MDIJim said...

Alex, are you kidding? She did not have a freakin' permit for the pistol. Illustrative of the wingnut slogan: when they outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.

Automatic_Wing said...

Perhaps Phil Jones was the chief record keeper for Braintree PD back in '86. It would explain a lot.

Chris Arabia said...

Alex,

If you want to ban guns, repeal the 2nd amendment. Legally.

Otherwise, just continue with the genital-related projection.

Quilly_Mammoth said...

The local paper has a slightly different story:

Contacted later at home, Chief Polio, now 87, said that he remembered the shooting and that he turned the investigation over to the District Attorney’s office for an inquest in 1986 because there were questions about whether it was accidental.

The office of then Dist. Atty. William Delahunt determined that no complaint would be issued, Polio said.

Javert said...

A cover up in Kennedyland? Whoda thunk it?

Javert

ken in tx said...

Alex, not only did Dr. Bishop not have a permit to carry the weapon, it was illegal for her to bring it on campus even if she had one. Btw, I guess you are happy that none of her victims had a gun.

flenser said...

The Massachusetts incident and the Alabama incident seem completely unconnected.




The same person was the killer in both cases. You have a funny notion of "completely unconnected".

Ralph L said...

but stranger things have happened in academia.
Such as Bill Ayers' bombing conviction being overturned before he became a respected Education figure and "just a guy in the neighborhood."

Unknown said...

"An armed society is a polite society."

One wonders if Ms. Bishop would have even shown up at that meeting (it wasn't even to discuss not giving her tenure, from news reports) if she had believed there'd be a 50-50 chance of someone shooting back. To add yet another unrelated incident: A young girl in a subway in Alabama was just viciously attacked by a teen-aged gang as she stood between 3 unarmed station guards. The contractor guards were under orders not to intervene in a fight but to call police and "observe". The girl was beaten savagely as the guards stood not 2' away. If we live in a society allows criminals to be that bold, is it any wonder that shootings happen at faculty meetings, too?

1775OGG said...

She shot her brother, back in 1986, using a pump shotgun, firing three times, during that "accidental" shooting!

Also, she's quoted as saying, during the recent shooting that her colleagues were alive! Sounds like a reporter's misinterpretation but who knows.

Maybe the Alabama DA will decide this poor person has suffered enough and let her go. Nah!

Ralph L said...

They have subways in Alabama? Besides the restaurant, I mean.

flenser said...

It seems you wingnuts just can't keep from going wild




Bishop is a moonbat, not a wingnut. If that's not clear to you - she's one of yours.

former law student said...

why should we not ban guns

Banning guns is easy. Carrying out the house-to-house top-to-bottom searches to effectuate the ban will be the hard part. Keeping guns from being smuggled into the country -- perhaps concealed in bales of marijuana, or in the luggage of illegal aliens -- will be another. Monitoring machine tool use will be another: My neighbor, a retired machinist, has sufficient machine tools -- once sold by Sears! -- necessary to turn out acceptable firearms.

Bill Ayers' bombing conviction being overturned

Wouldn't he have to be convicted in the first place for a conviction to be overturned?

Kirby Olson said...

She didn't have a permit for the gun. Where did she get it? Can you buy ammo without a permit?

She appears to have been a pretty good shot.

she must have practiced it, and also gone through her mind many times in a premeditated enactment.

Also, if she shot people who she thought had contributed to the tenure denial, but not others, it can be shown that she was sane as she acted.

I really hope she gets the death penalty, and that anyone who acted with her gets it too.

if she was in the sciences by the way, I don't think liberal/conservative discourses matter so much over there. Maybe they just didn't like her.

In the humanities, there are very very few conservatives. We are teaching values, and the liberals (or now they call themselves progressives as in progressively worse) want a total lack on the values that are taught.

The science people are teaching scientific methods. There are some second-order implications over there for values, but they aren't primary.

So I don't think she was denied tenure simply on the basis of her politics whatever they were.

My guess is people just couldn't stand having her around. You don't have to give a reason when you're denying tenure.

to get RID of a tenured person on the other hand you have to cite many specific reasons and this generally ends up in court. I think only 20 people in the whole history of the entire SUNY system have ever lost tenure. There are currently something like 17,000 profs in the SUNY system.

Once you grant tenure you are more or less stuck with a person.

My guess is that someone got an inkling as to Mrs. Bishops' character, and acted accordingly to get her out while they still could.

But once the vote has been made the prof usually still has a year or two to finish out their contracts and find another position.

But a tenure denial is often a career-ending decision. No one else will generally touch someone who has had tenure denial.

Few take this as gracelessly as Amy Bishop.

She had issues, as they say.

Kirby Olson said...

I meant to write that the progressives want a total LOCK on the values that are taught in the humanities. That IS what many are teaching, or think they are teaching (they are actually teaching totalitarianism in praxis). I wrote a total LACK on the values, which almost makes sense, but it isn't what I meant to type in. Oops.

Paul said...

Obviously, her fist killing was an accident.

She argued with her father, who then left the house.
She went up stairs, found the admitted unloaded shotgun, opened the box of shells.
Jacked open the shotgun, loaded three, at least shells.
Then she fires the shotgun into the ceiling, jacks the shotgun open, expels the expend round and jacks another round into the shotgun and goes down stairs.

Where upon, facing her mother and competitive, accomplished brother, she hears behind her a voice, turns away from old mom and dear brother, and while doing so, accidentally aims right at, and accidentally pull the trigger for the second time, which sadly, shoots her brother right in the mid chest..

She then accidentally jacks out the expended round, jacks forward a fresh round, accidentally fires another accidental shot in the kitchen and accidentally misses mom.

She the flees with the shotgun and accidentally attempts a armed car jacking and is eventually apprehend with the shotgun by two police officers.

Obviously accidental, and any notion of political influence or cover-up by the Chief of Police, the State Police and the District Attorney Delahunt is absurd.

Alex said...

FLS - obviously you are in favor of house-to-house top-to-bottom searches to confiscate all firearms. Motherfucking fascist.

Unknown said...

Apparently now it's revealed she and hubby were the suspects in a Harvard bombing.

What next, she spent time in Afghanistan "training"?

robinintn said...

Yep, here's the bombing attempt:

http://www.necn.com/02/14/10/Report-Amy-Bishop-was-suspect-in-1993-ma/landing.html?blockID=180373&feedID=4215

She thought the guy was going to adversely affect her tenure application.

Allegedly.

former law student said...

She didn't have a permit for the gun. Where did she get it? Can you buy ammo without a permit?

The Internet hive mind seems to like Larry's Pistol and Pawn.

You do not need a permit to buy a handgun in Alabama, only to carry it concealed outside the home, land, or place of business.

Why would you need a permit to buy ammunition?

I note that the Rocket City Gun & Knife Expo was held in Huntsville right before Christmas. Perhaps she stocked up there.

former law student said...

Robin -- not tenure application, not in 1993. You need excellent recommendations even to get a tenure track job -- faint praise will damn you.

Talk of mail bombs reminds one inevitably of Harvard/Michigan student Ted Kaczynski, who left his assistant professorship at Berkeley before tenure became an issue.

robinintn said...

Thanks, FLS, you're absolutely right. It says she was a doctoral candidate at the time:

"Bishop was a suspect due to her alleged concern of a possible negative evaluation on her doctoral work from Dr. Paul Rosenberg."

wv: bledrat. I don't even know what to say.

Name said...

I was unaware that we had subways anywhere in Alabama...
certainly none here in Huntsville.

Expat(ish) said...

@FLS: "Carrying out the house-to-house top-to-bottom searches to effectuate the ban will be the hard part"

No, actually, the hard part would be finding police stupid enough to try.

Figure there are 80M gun owners in this country and figure 1% of them are gonna take a shot at you if you try. 800K rounds downrange at cops.

Not odds anyone wants to take.

Heck, figure 1% of the 1% inclined to resist are pure-d nuts. That is 8K guys who will take half a dozen officers with them on the way out.

We got that many cops?

Shoot, figure 1% of the 1% inclined to shoot it out just put a tree stand up near the local cop shop and take 'em as they shift change. That is 800 shooters tying up 800 different cop shops.

-XC

John said...

If you are a wealthy connected family and the victim is another member of your family, it is very possible to get away with murder. I know of several cases I have run into where the story of suicide or accidental death didn't seem to add up, yet the person was never charged. In each case, it involved two members of a well connected family in the community.

That seems to be what happened here. Since the victim was in the same family, there was no one to speak on his behalf. The cops were willing to bend over backwards to protect a well connected family. And thus the whole matter was dropped.

Sadly, the woman was seriously derranged and has now harmed other people. That her family could allow her to murder her brother and then be set lose on the world is disturbing to say the least. It would be hard to send your daughter to jail or the insane asylum. But, my God, you can't just let her go out into the world when she is obviously that dangerous. What is wrong with these people?

former law student said...

I recall reading as a youth that "it's just s short step from genius to insanity." Googling suggests this point of view was held by Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Pascal, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth.

1775OGG said...

I believe her Poppa was lucky to have just left the house before her brother was shot. Also, Momma seems to have been lucky too because apparently that shot at Momma was wide.

So, how does a DA come to believe that someone shooting a pump shotgun three times merely accidentally shot her brother? Did Momma's postion on a local political board have anything to do with that DA's judgment? Or, maybe the slide action was loose!

Maybe also, the attempted bombing in 1993 was a mere accident too?

Strange how life works out for some dedicated socialists! What about that FLS, AL, and others of that ilk?

Martha said...

Alleged Ala. killer was suspect in attempted bombing of Harvard professor---

Amy Bishop was a postdoctoral fellow in 1993 working for..........THAT HARVARD PROFESSOR! And she feared a negative evaluation on her doctorate work.

I fear more examples of dodged bullets and/or defused bombs might surface as the authorities retrace Dr. Bishop's career path now literally littered with dead bodies.

former law student said...

I checked out Bishop's reviews at ratemyprofessor.com. She scored above average in clarity and helpfulness, but below average in easiness. One plaintive student had expected a multiple choice final as they were accustomed to .

Bishop uses the online stuff, the internet, powerpoint, from the book and some stuff not from the book. If you show up to class and listen to what she tells you what is important and what is not as important you will get an A.

Good students think the teacher is good and bad ones can only complain.

Extreme egoism is the mark of the libertarian/Randian in my experience. Socialists put others' needs on a par with their own.

John said...

"Extreme egoism is the mark of the libertarian/Randian in my experience. Socialists put others' needs on a par with their own."

Pure comedy gold. Seriously. Socialists have been responsible for the deaths of millions. And tell me there isn't something wildly egotistical about the belief that one can manage society via enlightened central control.

Automatic_Wing said...

FLS - Love the use of the "No True Scotsman" fallacy.

Selfish bitch couldn't have been a socialist - she was too selfish!

flenser said...

Extreme egoism is the mark of the libertarian/Randian in my experience. Socialists put others' needs on a par with their own.




Hmmm. So Obama is actually a Randian.

Ralph L said...

What is wrong with these people?
If they'd had more children, they have could better tolerated her imprisonment. One wonders if they cleaned up all her messes before that first big one.

former law student said...

Socialists have been responsible for the deaths of millions.

Which socialists? Emil Seidel? Daniel Hoan? Frank Zeidler? Victor Berger? Norman Thomas? Helen Keller? Albert Einstein? (indirectly, I suppose)

Peter V. Bella said...

Crime+corrupt Democrat prosecutor= worse crime.

1775OGG said...

fls: Consider Mao, Pol Pot, Hugo the Chavez (Not quite yet in millions, but wait!), Dan Ortega, Fidel and Raul, Kim the father Kim the son, AH of some lasting infamy (In spite of some Socialists throwing him out of the party on the grounds of jealousy and spite.), and el Duce, just to a few. Well, you might retort that the above were Marxists but then Marx was a Socialist who had larger goals.

Yep, the above were just your average run of the mill fun loving and kind Socialists, the kind you truly do admire!

Wonder how Amy would have fared with her fellow travelers?

former law student said...

Ah, Socialist is just another word for Dictator.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Ralph L said...

Helen Keller killed everyone she could get her hands on. Her accomplice, Ann Sullivan, would tell the intended victim that she just wanted to feel what he looked like. People were so frightened of her that Harvard gave her a degree.

flenser said...

Ah, Socialist is just another word for Dictator.




No. Francisco Franco was a dictator. The people mentioned above were socialist dictators.

1775OGG said...

fls: Gee, you're learning so maybe there's hope for you! Nah, you're as dumb as a doorknob!

Ralph L said...

Socialist is just another word for Dictator
How many of them gained power by promising to steal from the rich?

Peter V. Bella said...

Socialist is just another term for Democrat Dictator, Tyrant, or whatever criminal you want to call it.

avwh said...

"How many of them gained power by promising to steal from the rich?"

All of them, to some degree.

1775OGG said...

The only problem with Socialism is that it's never been done correctly. That's why they keep on trying to do it, over and over and over again! Of course, sometimes, the Dec. 25, 1989, Romanian solution needs to be implemented when things get out of hand!

Just remember, always, that famous WWII slogan: "It'll never happen here!"

The question is which "It" are they talking about now?

former law student said...

The question is which "It" are they talking about now?

Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here is the story of a charismatic, ambitious politician who, posing as a populist, becomes President, and turns the U.S. into a Fascist dictatorship.

Could that charismatic, ambitious, eye-winkin' palm-writin' well-preserved blonde be the faux-populist to complete the promise of the unitary executive?

You betcha!

1775OGG said...

fls: You're absolutely color blind, in addition to being blind to ignoring Obama's push towards more federal governmental control! But, then, that's to be expected.

BTW: The "It" in common usage back then was that we'd never adopt Nazism and I still believe that. But, we'd also often said that we'd never adopt Socialism and while I still believe that, there are immense current efforts to push Socialism onto us.

You shall not success, fls, except through force and don't believe that'd work either.

Gary Rosen said...

Kindly ol' Uncle Joe Stalin, head of the Union of Soviet *Socialist* Republics. So fls has to fling the FUD with some hysterical fantasy about - who else? - Sarah Palin. A lot easier than admitting the truth.

Monkeyboy said...

When I was in Iraq and my friends used to complain about all the corruption there, I'd shrug and say "My family is Boston Irish, these people are amateurs."

former law student said...

Union of Soviet *Socialist* Republics

Which workers owned their own factories in the USSR?

The USSR was socialist in the same way the PRC was Republican.

GM Roper said...

"Well, there you are. She was just trying to unload the gun."

Look, I enjoy poking fun at folk as much as anyone, and the inconsistencies and oddities of this case are amazing... but really, three people are dead and three critically injured. Take a break from the asshattery will ya?

1775OGG said...

fls: Whoa, there, Boy! You're beginning to understand how Socialist governments work. They own everything, you individually own nothing. They tell you when to go to work, for how long, and there aren't choices either. BTW: If your factory makes B&W TVs, that's all you'll make, no color except for that certain little production area over there, shielded from unauthorized worker access. There's no need to use guns to force anyone to do anything because those terrible examples when the government was first created made much continued use unnecessary; that's the theory anyway.

Anton Sherwood said...

rhhardin misunderstands (or misrepresents) what Belmont Club said; the full sentence is:

It would only be true if something fundamental has changed; if some change has taken place that makes information much harder to contain in 2010 than it was in 1986.

John R. Wright, Ph.D. said...

rhhardin said... I can assure you that this would not happen in this day and age.

Are you kidding? My own grandson, Faron Wright, was shot to death in Durant Oklahoma in December of 2007. It happened just five days before his court date as a critical prosecution witness - for a drug - related murder case, yet the same prosecutor that would have used him as a witness turned his killer loose on the very day of the shooting, treating it as "self-defense" under Oklahoma's castle law. Faron wasn't armed, and the "children present" exception was ignored. His child was present.
(John R. Wright, Cotter AR)