The “god and country” types across the planet never actually believe in either one, only their own supremacy. Which needs god and country to hide behind because it’s never actually supreme enough to stand by itself. I think every Capitalist holds potential to sell out their nation if the right lucrative opportunity presents itself, and I think anyone doubting the sanctity of all life is fundamentally in opposition to any concept of a creator. Healthy self-esteem doesn’t need self-promoting. Nobody anywhere is under any obligation whatsoever to oblige the fantasies of others. The real world suffers for it no matter one’s politics or kinks.
For the sake of sales figures, Bardstown’s Mayor Heaton is doing what his predecessor Royalty did, ordering the “solve these murders” signs be removed from private properties. But we may not doubt the intent of local institutions because police inform us there has been no evidence incriminating said police. And of course, city officials are publicly lying about the signs. Sherry Ballard herself filmed dozens in the city hall dumpster for fucksakes. The locals who remain unwilling to allow regional law enforcement to drop investigations into any of these unsolved murders, particularly the family of Crystal Rogers, are being harassed by public servants and their fanboys. That is the real story. Tourists, beware.
Heaven forbid photo ops be marred by reminders that killers are on the loose, or reminders that cops have utterly failed the community paying their salaries. Mayor Heaton’s own cover story is bullshit, as city property does not encompass county property where many signs have been made to disappear. Or private property, such as signs for the construction business of a relative of Crystal’s mysteriously vanishing from outside his own home. That family is getting bullied into silence by the city council and law enforcement, and savaged on Facebook by folks insisting that many years of complete and total failure by the police and local officials is by any stretch commendable and praise-worthy. The same police and local officials who insist that the lack of any investigation into their own whereabouts for any of the unsolved murders has nothing whatsoever to do with the killers remaining free. The Cornbread Mafia is alive and well and wearing suits and ties and badges. A city council rep speaking for the Mayor has contradicted multiple eyewitnesses and video proof, but the murders could not possibly be the fault of corrupt local officials with resources necessary to spin-doctor reports of what’s either their own ineptitude or their own sins. The signs are coming down so tourists with disposable income will not be aware that killers are on the loose, but we are informed it is toxic and unstable to suggest local officials are self-serving.
Follow the drug money. No badge is too big to hide dirty laundry, bedded so with braggadocios land-owners blackmailing a human centipede of indentured servants to do the actual laundering, to keep everything clean for tourist bucks and journalist outsiders with heads up asses.
I have personally contacted the office of senator Jimmy Higdon, imploring him to be the voice of reason here. To please urge a federal-level investigation in which all officers serving with the Bardstown police and Nelson County sheriff’s office at the times of these unsolved murders face polygraphs and drug screenings. No response.
Years of failure makes Bardstown law enforcement not heroes, but failures. Or suspect themselves. But paid media, including producers of the Bardstown podcast take everything said by local badges at face value, even claims investigations into the unsolved murders are ongoing. When brothers in blue in the region engage in racist recruiting practices, Bardstown officers are not to be scrutinized because each one is apparently the Second Coming. When other brothers in blue in the region entrap themselves in a child sex abuse ring, the question of whether Bardstown officers might also be capable of clandestine nefariousness goes unasked. When officers in nearby precincts indulge in systemic wage theft at the financial cost of the public they are tasked with serving, Bardstown officers remain impervious to doubt despite a growing body-count. When officers elsewhere in Kentucky openly violate copyright law to grossly display the symbol of a comic book serial killer on their vehicles, Bardstown cops are taken as too pure, reading not about comic serial killers but biblical serial killers. And when the sheriff of neighboring Bullitt county was magically acquitted for abetting a drug-trafficking scheme, where former Nelson county police chief McCubbin currently chiefs, drug-related criminal conspiracy among police of Bardstown stays taboo.
Apparently alone in a sea of bluegrass corruption, we can trust Bardstown cops because…they have failed the families of multiple unsolved murder victims. The Bardstown police department and Nelson County sheriff’s office swear no evidence has come forward incriminating their own, with concerned reporters so focused on their makeup not one has thought to question the veracity of the claim, because of course cops are infallible. Is it really any coincidence that the families who have lost loved ones continue to be denied answers, closure or justice, while a specific group of armed locals continue to conveniently evade examination of their own activities by nonpartisan, not for profit outside authorities? If the murders are unconnected, then local law enforcement has allowed multiple killers to walk free among us. But if they are connected, who or what has the resources to escape investigation for so many criminal acts? And after *years* of no answers but excuses offered to the community, why should any questions be off the table, especially while killers remain at large?
I seriously think a dirty cop followed Samantha Netherland home from the wrong place, the wrong time, and wanted to know who heard about whatever she may’ve witnessed. There was evidence she was tortured, with her and mother found in separate parts of the house. Police have alternately described it as a break-in but that there were no damaged entry points to the house. They have said it was a gang initiation but that nothing was stolen from the scene. I think it concerns so many players they cannot keep their own official story straight. Of the many doors within a 2 or 3 mile radius knocked on by police in the following weeks, you will find many who were left with the impression they were planting suggestions, wanting those on 150 to cough up a scapegoat. The public, expected to provide a cover story for its servants. Somebody must give voice to what most of Bardstown would love to tell a reporter, any reporter, if only they would lend an ear to anyone whose name is not to be found on the Facebook friends list of local police. I’m as expendable as decency myself, and will happily fight to my eventual death for the sake of truth.
What if the reason nobody has found answers yet, to the murders of Kathy and Samantha, or Jason Ellis or Tommy Ballard or the disappearance of Crystal Rogers, is that there is one specific direction which nobody is willing to look? If we don’t consider it, then we must accept that local authorities are habitually shitty at their jobs.