Wallace Assailant Released From Prison

Source: AP

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — The man who shot and paralyzed Alabama Gov. George Wallace during a 1972 presidential campaign stop in Maryland was released from prison Friday after serving 35 years of his sentence.

Arthur H. Bremer, 57, left the prison before sunrise, said Mark A. Vernarelli, a state prison system spokesman.

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Under the conditions of his release, Bremer must stay away from elected officials and candidates. He would have to undergo a mental health evaluation and treatment if the state considers it necessary, and he can't leave Maryland without written permission from the state Parole Commission.

The conditions also require Bremer to submit to electronic monitoring, but Vernarelli said he did not know if such monitoring was in place.

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Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iVpjGV8PU5S65LGcX7syKWSn6IHAD8SQ7SCG0

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Could they have waited until after the election to release this guy? There is no evidence that he has expressed any remorse at all.

In some states, prisoners can earn "good time". usually 2-3 days per month off their sentences for not having any rules infractions. If you break the rules, good time can be subtracted. There are other ways to earn good time, such as working in prison industries, attending school, or being involved in certain rehab programs. There is usually a maximum amount you can earn in a month. Usually around 4 or 5 days.

It's one of the few ways the institution can control the population. In reality, the inmates really could run the asylum, if they didn't have incentives. Judging by that, he was probably an exemplary prisoner for his entire sentence.

Serving 35 years is pretty harsh compared to what a lot of people serve for attempted murder.

And no, I don't recall him ever calling a press conference to express his remorse. Probably against the rules.

In Spain, the maximum sentence is 40 years. There is no death penalty and no life sentence. This strikes me as a more humane approach to legal vengeance than the one in the US.

Let him walk the streets. I don't mind.

There's worse who will never see the inside of a jail cell.

It's also not as if our prison system was actually made to "reform criminals" but moreover function as a part corporal-punishment/part-oubliette machination that mixes in those who could be contributing members of society with the true slime who need to be kept from it.

The justice meted out shouldn't really depend on whether or not the victim was a "nice guy" or not.

n/t

And nothing more than that.

Your implication was plain, that because Wallace had failings as a human, that either he 'deserved' to be shot, or the shooter should somehow get a bit of 'time off' because his victim wasn't such a swell fellah.

That blindfold is on justice for a reason...guess it slips, sometimes.

n/t

For those who weren't around at the time, the conventional wisdom was that Wallace, having failed to obtain the Democratic nomination, would run another third-party campaign and, as in 1968, take most of the southern states with him. This would split the right-wing vote, and give a liberal, anti-war candidate like McGovern a chance to win a three-way race.

Once Wallace was paralyzed, any possible third-party candidacy went by the boards. With no one running on his right flank, Nixon was able to put together a center-right coalition that provided him with a landslide win.

So, if you want to talk about political consequences of an act, one could claim that Bremer's attack on Wallace led to Nixon's re-election, the ensuing purge of liberals from Democratic Party leadership, the rise of the notion that Democrats had to "move to the center" that has characterized the DLC era of the party, and the resulting impotence of Democrats in effective government and at the polls, giving us twenty years of Reagan-Bush-Bush maladministrations.

:-(

Source: MSNBC. com

HAGERSTOWN, Md. - The man who shot Alabama Gov. George Wallace during a presidential campaign stop in 1972 is scheduled to be released from a Maryland prison Friday, the governor's office said.

An e-mail from an automated victim-notification system Thursday announced the release date for Arthur H. Bremer, but prison officials refused to confirm it, citing security reasons.

Wallace was paralyzed and abandoned his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination after he was wounded May 15, 1972, in the shooting in Laurel, Md. Three other people were also injured. Wallace died in 1998.

(snip) more

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21692917/from/RS.2/

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He did 35 years. Good behavior time reduced his sentence from 53 years.

Ordinarily, I oppose measures where any one individual is treated differently from the rest of us. But in the case of political candidates -- specifically legitimate Presidential candidates -- I'd prefer to see their attackers or assassins sent to prison for life than a set term. It's not just a man who was shot -- it was an attack on our political system, for voters lost the opportunity to cast judgment on Wallace and his ideals, and thus those ideals retained some measure of legitimacy that may have been repudiated had we had the opportunity to "shoot him down in the ballot box." By the same token, I vehemently oppose Sirhan's release.

As much as I abhore most of what Wallace sttod for, a political assasination attempt is an assault on all ideas and ideals.

Bremer was kind of a nut. I guess he's been stalking Nixon also.

As it is, he did serve a steeper sentence than most. Technically, this guy pulled a weapon and wounded four people...he didn't kill anyone. If you or I had done that to Joe Average, we'd probably spend 10-15 years in prison for it. This person spent double that time in prison.

I would support mandatory life sentences for those who actually kill political figures for political reasons, but not for wounding them. The punishment must fit the crime.

distinction between actually killing and seriously wounding. The act was the same so the punishment should be the same for both imo. Wallace certainly could easily have died and the attack probably did shorten his life.

One way he's dead and one he's not. Pretty clear cut.

If you TRY to rob a bank for 10,000 and end up with 10, I promise the sentance will probably be a lot lighter.

you have 'attempted armed robbery' not 'armed robbery', just as Bremer was put in for attempted murder and not murder.

crime is essentially the same and should be treated the same. Also I have to wonder if it is safe for Bremer to be out on the streets. I guess we will find out.

Pictures of him in the crowds were published after the Wallace shooting.

Shooting a presidential candidate is a hell of a lot different than gunplay at a corner liquor store; such shootings roil the entire political fabric of the nation. And given the fact that most assassinations have been aimed at Democrats, I wonder about your "Cut Him Some Slack" attitude towards Bremer. Why should Bremer be given bonus points because his bullets failed to kill Wallace immediately?

who was, IMVHO, another patsy, still "stews in his juices"???????????

if we all continue to complain about how politicians work for us and are no more special than the average guy, then they shouldn't get any special treatment more so than anyone else.

He served his time.

With the exception of very tightly defined sociopaths and perhaps some predicate murderers, nobody should really serve more than 30 years, in my view. The person 30 years later is a different person. These monstrous 40, 50, 60 year prison terms are inhumane. They're also functionally self-defeating, since people are much more willing now to shoot a police officer or other witnesses if they're going to do 50 years anyway. What's the difference. We've reached diminishing returns on the whole "tough on crime" business. The sentences are no longer deterrents to crime. They're now motivational factors in more violent crime.

stressed and brought to the upper part of a priorities list for a mature, liberal democracy.

We have achieved some measure of success at curbing the strong, human need to kill somebody. This need shows up as the revenge part of the equation leading to punishment and, imo, a deep-seated part of whatever it is that we refer to as "closure."

That curbing of a revenge instinct is what led most of the Iraqi army to shuck its uniforms, lay down its weapons and walk home. They trusted us, at least to some degree, to treat them humanely and not make revenge killing and revenge torture a central part of our policy.

I'm afraid it all comes as a package. The only way to succeed in creating a world that even looks mildly like a liberal utopia is all at once. No gradualism, no creeping change, as MLK jr. pointed out so eloquently.

There can only be two gears, I think: full speed ahead or stopped dead.
The payoff is just too great and the enormity of failure too devastating for the future of humanity to ever accept compromise.

Prison sentences need to mean something and somehow we need to find a way to coax ourselves back from revenge's abyss...

Taking out Wallace and Kennedy appeared to solve issues for the cabal and should be considered part of the 'way too convenient' events of modern history.

:rofl:

Creepy guy in sunglasses. George Wallace was a racist thug, but something of a populist. You never - no, never - see a far right corporate power broker like Cheney or Bush even have an attempt made on them (that includes Gerald Ford - different era and a different GOP). JFK, MLK, Bobby - even George - shot, though. I remember them all like they happened yesterday. An attempted political assassination is a different ballgame. I think he should stay in for the full 53 years.

Yeah, the affable idiot took a round.... and WHO would've become POTUS if St. Ronnie had bought it?
Can't remember.... begins with a "B" though </sarcasm>

--MAB

26 years after he was shot and this piece of crap Bremer should be tried for 1st degree murder.

..who are documented as having died from gunshots 26 years after the shot occured?

I'm guessing no.

but it has happened.



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/us/19philadelphia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Politicians and corporations being treated differently is what got this country into trouble in the first place. He served his sentence. The law says that he needs to be released. Just because he tried to kill a political figure thirty years ago doesnt mean he should be kept in jail forever. It also doesnt mean he will try to kill again.

Some of our gun activists down in the DU Gungeon maintain that a released felon, regardless of the nature of his crimes, should have his sacred Second Amendment rights restored. And no, I'm not making this up.

Hey, it's the campaign season---anybody up for Mr. Bremer celebrating his freedom by getting another pistol or two?

Wallace Assailant Released From Prison
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3060888&mesg_id=3060888

...this is not widely reported but:

When they first heard of Wallace being shot by a guy from Milwaukee....Nixon and his gang of plumbers dispatched some men to get to Bremer's apartment and plant George McGovern campaign literature in his apartment.
But the FBI got there first and the plan had to be scrapped.

i only bring this up to show that the GOP election operatives have drenched thelselves in evil for decades,,,, then, and now.

as Yogi Berra used to say, "You could look it up."

Source: WJZ Baltimore

HAGERSTOWN, Md. (WJZ/AP) ― Five shots likely changed the fate of the nation and left presidential candidate and Alabama Governor George Wallace paralyzed for life, ending his bid for the White House.

"I just jumped on top of him. He had a big wound down here," said Cornelia Wallace, the wife of George Wallace. "I rode in the ambulance with him. As soon as he got there, they took him to the emergency room."

Mike Hellgren reports Arthur Bremer, the janitor from Wisconsin who pulled the trigger on May 16, 1972 in Laurel, spent the rest of the next 35 years in custody in Maryland.

That's until now. Just before sunrise Friday, he left the prison outside of Hagerstown that he called home for years.

"This is not parole. This is not discretionary. This is mandatory by operation of law," said David Blumberg, chairman of the Maryland Parole Commission.



Read more: http://wjz.com/local/alabama.governor.bremer.2.563592.html

The entire neighborhood was blocked off from traffic. My brother was protesting against Wallace at the earlier rally near our house.