My motorcycling community has been following the trial of Rep. Bill Janklow (R-S.D.) with obvious interest.
For those who haven’t been following it, Janklow is the sole Congressmember from South Dakota, as well as a two-time Governor and former state Attorney-General. Quite the big fish in that pond.
He was quite the leadfooted big fish, it appears, and unsurprisingly, his power shielded him from the consequences of the minor accidents, speeding stops, and other infractions he committed while doing the people’s business.
Until this year. On August 16, he sped past a startled Monica Collins, ran a stop sign, and was struck by motorcyclist Randy Scott who died at the scene.
He was tried for second-degree manslaughter, and today he was convicted.
His conviction won’t bring Scott back, and his resignation from Congress was just announced, meaning that whatever follows, Janklow’s life has also been derailed.
And I’m elated.
Because in this tragedy, a basic truth shows up; in this nation the law applies to us all. I have a hard time imagining that Janklow would have been convicted in most nations; the levers of power would have ensured that Scott’s family was compensated, but Janklow would have walked away. The U.S., the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, the Scandinavian countries would have convicted him. France, nope. Germany, maybe. Italy, maybe. Industrialized Asia or the Third World? Nope.
Those countries – the ones that would have convicted him – are the ones we need to seek out as out allies in the years ahead.
Hear, Hear. Unfortunately, if you’re a City Bike reader you’re all too familiar with the many who kill us and walk away with a ticket or less.
“Its wet here, watch out for those cablecar tracks, and weight that outside peg”, he tells himself…
Amen, AL.
Janklow’s big mistake is that he didn’t run over a bicyclist instead of a motorcyclist. The national motorcycle organizations are fixated on prosecuting cases where a motorcyclist is killed or injured by an automobile driver. In marked contrast to that organizational position, the national bicycle organizations, chiefly the League of American Bicyclists, virtually ignores such cases. (For over a century this organization was known by the powerful acronym “LAW” or “League of American Wheelmen,” and is one of the oldest activist organizations in the country. But, of course, that name wasn’t politically correct since “wheelmen” couldn’t possibly refer to women, and they changed the name in the early ’90s.)
So, when a world ranked triathlete, Judy Flannery, was killed a few years ago by an underage driver whose father was in the car drunk (and where the kid actually had to cross over the oncoming lane to hit her) he was given a slap on the wrist and his father wasn’t even prosecuted. And that case only went to trial because of the prestige of the victim. Most never make it that far.
In Florida a couple of years ago a cyclist was hit by no less than 10 successive drivers, until there was nothing but body parts on the highway. (No doubt the later drivers in the series didn’t even know what they had hit since it was unrecognizable as a human, but surely the first few drivers knew.) No one was ever prosecuted.
And to no avail does one attempt to impress upon LAB (the League of American Bicyclists) the importance of pressing such cases with local district attorneys. They just take the dues, and keep right on truckin’. Well, at least they’re “green” and back Kucinich, or Dean, or whoever happens to fit the latest image of environmental correctness.
Sorry about the rant. The Flannery case was just one in a long line of similar incidents that, if anything, have become more frequent.
A.L.? Do you suppose Canada would have convicted a comparably prominent political figure from their ruling party?
(I have insufficient knowledge of Canadian political corruption or integrity to form an opinion of my own. )
Pouncer…
In Nova Scotia or the Maritimes, probably not. Quebec, maybe. Rest of Canada, probably.
Are the French that bad? I don’t think so. There is, to be sure, a greater degree of cronyism in the French legal/social system (in particular as far as business or political dealings are concerned). Another problem with the legal system is the widespread arbitrariness – the hit-and-miss nature of prosecutions, the politically motivated prosecutions (Le Pen, say, but not Bové). But I would by no means assume that this sort of incident would be routinely “fixed” in France. France after all is the country that hounded a prime minister (Laurent Fabius) for years and convicted a number of government officials for allowing the distribution of AIDS contaminated blood into the health system so as to favor French industrial interests developing a blood screening test when a U.S. test was already available.
Scott –
The A.M.A. (the motorcycle one) has a model bill they are pushing that may come to CA next year that is about criminalizing a ‘failure to yeild right of way’ resulting in a ‘vulnerable road user’ being struck – ped, bicycle, motorcycle…I’m looking into supporting it.
A.L.
A.L. –
Any chance you can post your findings to help others of us get involved?
When I first heard about the case, I was hoping for a conviction. The evidence was pretty solid that Janklow was guilty of manslaughter. When I heard the conviction, the news anouncer then went on to discuss what could happen to Janklow’s seat. Thankfully, Janklow did the honorable thing here and resigned.
How long should Janklow serve? In Utah (where I’m at), Manslaughter carries a sentence of 1-15 years. Being a pro-punishment type of guy, I’m leaning between 5-10 years. I’ll concede that no harm was meant, but criminal recklessness and indifference certainly was there.
I have two words to say about Janklow and his conviction.
MaryJo Kopekne.
Pouncer’s question and Joe’s answer relates to something I was going to point out anyway, which is that I’m not sure a Janklow-equivalent would have been convicted in certain states, or that the verdict would have been greeted calmly (that is, without subsequent rioting) if he had. I’m feeling just a bit of Breadbasket pride over this one … but I concur that it represents a standard to apply to others — perhaps for admission to the League. 😉