by Travis Mateer

I wasn’t thinking about Tobin Miller-Shearer on Tuesday afternoon as I sat in court waiting to see the slow grind of the alleged criminal justice system briefly give JD Partain his next court date. No, I was thinking about the Lee Enterprise’s NATIONAL coverage of the constitutionally atrocious public defender system that’s been rolling out articles like this one.

The search for racism that this man has turned into an academic career was something I came across later in the day, and I found it buried in this Kaimin article about ASUM. From the link (emphasis mine):

ASUM also discussed the external anti-racism audit of the senate, which the senate set aside $10,000 for Tobin Shearer’s non-profit to do. Shearer is the director of UM’s African-American studies program. The audit was supposed to finish up last semester, but only just started because of “technical issues” in the Business Service department due to its “understaffing,” Berna said in an email. 

An anti-racism audit helps a group to find out where it has either implicit or explicit biases, and how to correct them. 

President Bowles said this audit will take eight weeks, and the first week has been completed. The report will be made public, but its interviews with senators will remain confidential.

It’s difficult not to bold ALL this bullshit. Technical issues because of understaffing? And $10,000 dollars to conduct surveys that will be kept hidden? What a joke.

Meanwhile, if you’re a girl wondering what justice looks like for the adopted dad who admitted to secretly filming you fully undress in your bedroom in AUGUST (2022), but it didn’t get charged until NOVEMBER, then the NOT guilty plea was entered in December, then stuff gets delayed and now the omnibus hearing won’t be until February, well, that’s just how the system works.

I sat in the courtroom for less than an hour and saw several brief court appearances, including the filing of a plea agreement in the deliberate homicide charge of the man accused of running over his girlfriend in the parking lot of WinCo. That happened October of 2021.

Does juxtaposing the time it takes for justice to run its course with ten grand to examine LARPing politicians on campus make the ten grand expenditure look even MORE obscene than it is? Good, because that’s my intention.

If you appreciate my intentions, please consider making a financial donation at my about page. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!