A federal child slavery case against a West African man working as a janitor for the University of Michigan fell apart this week with the man getting only 21 months in jail. During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow slammed Republican Attorney Bill Schuette for his absence in the case:
During the sentencing hearing, Tarnow took a shot at Washtenaw County and the state attorney general’s office for letting the federal courts handle this case when, he said, the states should have. He also asked where Attorney General Bill Schuette was on the case, noting he’s “on my television every night” declaring war against human trafficking, yet no one from his office appeared in this case.
Oh, snap.
Schuette’s campaign ads are full of tough talk about he’s “on duty” to protect Michiganders but, in this case, there are four children who could have used some of that toughness. But Schuette was apparently too busy fighting a pointless battle using our tax dollars to prevent same-sex couple from adopting and marrying the person they love.
Schuette has a particularly deceitful ad out right now featuring Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. In the ad, Bouchard says, “To fight violent crime, Attorney General Bill Schuette pushed a new law to keep repeat violent offenders behind bars for 25 years, and for 1000 new cops to enforce it.”
That sounds pretty good. Problem is the legislation never made it out of the legislature. Bouchard should have said Schuette UNSUCCESSFULLY pushed pending legislation because it never, in fact, became law. And, honestly, what Attorney General doesn’t push for tough new laws?
Fred Timper, the Executive Director of the Michigan Association of Police, talked to reporters last week. Their organization along with the Police Officers Labor Council have endorsed Democrat Mark Totten for Attorney General. Timper laughed at this ad saying, “I don’t know where he gets off saying there are 1,000 new cops on the street. There are actually FEWER cops now than before Schuette took office.”
Bill Schuette has an agenda – an extremist, homophobic, conservative agenda – and that is his top priority. As for abused, neglected or enslaved kids? Well, to quote Governor Rick Snyder, they simply aren’t on Schuette’s agenda.
