Odds and Ends

The news has sure been strange in this part of the state recently.

Last week, a Smith County deputy was hosting a party in our little town. One of the guests brought another man to the party and the uninvited guest stabbed and killed a friend of the deputy. The deputy subdued and handcuffed the man, but in a fit of anger, he punched the guy while he was handcuffed. The deputy was arrested by the Texas Rangers today, charged with first degree felony assault. I’m taking bets that the killer will get off without much punishment…not sure about the deputy.

The Sheriff must be tearing his hair out with all the things happening in his department. Three weeks ago, a deputy died in a traffic accident after falling asleep at the wheel and hitting a tree, but not to be outdone, another deputy was killed last week when he ran off the road in his private vehicle. It wasn’t a bad accident, but he wasn’t wearing his seat belt and was ejected from the car. His nephew, who was belted in, was uninjured.

Even the State Troopers got in on the action. Last year, a trooper was decorated for stopping a felon trying to flee after a traffic stop. The trooper was dragged nearly a half-mile with his arm stuck in the driver’s window of the felon’s car. Earlier this week, the same trooper was arrested for choking his wife. She lived, but she wasn’t happy, and the trooper is in jail. He appeared before the same judge who had given him high praise during the trial of the man the trooper stopped last year. In this case, the judge recused himself.

This morning’s paper had an article about a raid on a homemade still where nine gallons of moonshine were confiscated. As I said in another post, we live in the wettest dry county in the state. Our silly liquor laws are only supported by moonshiners and Baptist preachers. However, most of our bootleggers buy legally in other counties and sell illegally in Smith County. Not many make their own products these days. And here’s another strange little story that has to do with our liquor laws. A Muslim cleric, who ministers to convicts in our jails and prisons, fought a winning battle to prevent a neighboring town from voting wet. However, he has a weakness for something that’s as bad as demon rum. He was arrested in Dallas for smoking marijuana in his car, which was parked in the city jail parking lot.

Even the obituary column was interesting yesterday. There is a small town south of Tyler by the name of Whitehouse, and the paper reported the demise of one of their residents with the last name of Outhouse. I kid you not. How would you like to be a kid in high school with a name like Outhouse?

As weird as some things are around here, at least we don’t let prisoners vote, as they will be doing in Washington State. If they ever do get that law passed here, maybe prisoners on death row will be able to vote early, since not many of them get a stay of execution. We wouldn’t want to deprive them of their right to vote…which brings up another oddity. I wonder why they use an alcohol dampened swab to clean the arm before they stuff a needle in the guy being executed?