The Release Of Roger Shuler Is Good News, But The Fight Continues

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Roger Shuler slept in his own bed for the first time in five months last night. The details of his release are not clear yet, but the important thing for now is that the proprietor of “The Legal Schnauzer” blog is free and America no longer has a journalist behind bars for the crime of “journalism.”

As I write this, I am not aware of the conditions of his release. But the fact that he is no longer behind bars after being beaten, bruised and treated like a dangerous criminal in the Right Wing Republic of Alabama is a very positive sign.  I’ve written a brief e-mail of congratulations to Mr. Shuler and I hope to hear back from him before putting this story to bed.

This whole episode has been an embarrassment on so many levels. Anyone who loves freedom must feel shame at not raising his or her voice in protest about the way Roger was treated. Alan Colmes and Andrew Wright, both of whom I am proud to call friends, were no doubt instrumental in bringing as much public attention to Roger’s plight as possible, without any help whatsoever from the so-called “mainstream liberal media.”

We should all be embarrassed as Americans that Roger was kept behind bars and his wife under virtual house arrest for five months. Roger is a bit younger than I am, I think, but he’s no spring chicken. And to throw a man against his garage door, bruise him, batter him, and then charge him with resisting arrest? I will avoid being accused of invoking Godwin’s Law here, but it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to think about other repressive regimes where political prisoners were snatched from their homes and deprived of their freedom on trumped up charges.

I look forward to hearing Roger’s story of life behind bars. I would guess it would make one hell of a book. And I imagine it will be quite a story indeed. I look forward to hearing about his mistreatment by the Fascist State of Alabama. Let it serve as a cautionary tale as to what awaits us all as the corporations take more power, leaving the average citizen alone and unprotected against this sort of officially-sanctioned abuse of civil rights.

In February 2013, I found myself at the beginning of a similar situation as Roger. Only I was not jailed. I had 366 bogus charges filed against me by a bully in Carroll County, Maryland — one of the counties in the so-called “Free State” that went heavily for Romney in 2012.  I am ashamed to even compare what I’ve gone through over the past year with the torment that Roger went through in the past five months, but I offer a copy of my Feb. 18, 2013 interview with Roger on my podcast, which can now be found at the Angry White Liberal.

My harassment continues, even though the Carroll County State’s Attorney dropped all 366 charges filed against me. I’m receiving death threats, email and blog comment threats, and some of these harassers have followed me here to Liberaland, where I welcome their page hits but will ignore their taunts.

BTW: I’ve heard back from Roger. He gave me permission to share his response with you.

Thanks, Bill. The conditions of my release were that I had to follow the court’s order to remove certain posts from my blog, plus certain items from my Twitter and YouTube accounts. That order, under the law, constitutes an unlawful prior restraint, of course, but I was going to remain a hostage if I didn’t take those steps. I was hoping major legal help would step forward, but it hasn’t happened yet, so something had to be done. I really didn’t want to die in jail, and I was in an environment where that kind of thing can happen–I saw it happen.

As for how I’m doing, I’ve got a lot of recovering to do. I haven’t weighed since I’ve been home, but I’ve lost in the neighborhood of 15-20 pounds. My main goal at the moment is trying to get the “jail smell” off of me. All of the evidence I’ve seen indicates I was arrested without a valid warrant (and apparently no warrant at all), so this was very much like a kidnapping. I don’t use the word “hostage” lightly; that’s what I have been for five months. It was an unbelievably difficult experience, one I didn’t think could happen in the United States of 2013-14.

Appreciate your interest, and I think Alan Colmes interview last week played a big part in my release. I’m very grateful to him for his interest and the professional way he handled our conversation.

Roger continued…

I witnessed an inmate suicide while I was in jail and heard of at least two other deaths at the facility while I was there. All in all, I think I’m holding up pretty well, but this was a brutal experience. This was not the jail we all remember from Mayberry and the Andy Griffith Show.

I met numerous inmates who had served time at both state prisons and county jails, and every one of them said they preferred being in prison over a county jail. Prisons are built to house people for fairly long periods of time, usually one year or more, while most jails really aren’t equipped to handle someone much more than 30, 60 or maybe 90 days tops. Prisons, I’m told, have reasonably good nutritional, educational, and physical/recreational opportunities. Jails, it seems, generally are holding facilities, with the bare minimum in terms of food and not much else to speak of.

In America. The land of the free.

Be outraged. Engage. Register. Vote.

By: Bill Schmalfeldt

I no longer use Twitter or Facebook because they are evil. I do continue to blog at http://Schmalfeldt.org, where you can get information about other stuff I do, like comedy/parody CDs and MP3 downloads and audiobooks and such. Get yours now. When I'm dead, there will be a drastic price increase.