Medford

Jury of Twelve finds Buncombe County Sheriff, Bobby Medford Guilty of running an Illegal Video Gambling Ring in Western North Carolina.By Parker MillarStaff Writer Thursday May 15, 2008 was a very bad day for former Buncombe County Sheriff Bobby Medford. Medford now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison after a Federal Court Jury found him guilty for accepting at least $300,000.00 in bribes connected with a multimillion-dollar illegal video gambling empire which Medford and other law enforcement officials created and maintained over the course of the last decade for their own personal gain. Medford’s very public trial and subsequent conviction raise an important question about our local law enforcement here in Western North Carolina. If Medford and others could operate a vast illegal gambling operation for the better part of a decade without the knowledge of the public that they have supposedly sworn to serve and protect, how can the people continue to trust local law enforcement? It is a common misconception to believe that those who uphold the law are above it. On the contrary, those who uphold the law should be held to a higher standard of accountability than your average citizen, simply because of the power that they have been given by the state. Medford, and the cops who helped him are Pigs. But I will note here that it is important to remember that not all Law Enforcement Officials are Pigs. A Pig by definition is someone who is given power by the state to protect law-abiding citizens, like you and me, but instead chooses to act for his own personal gain choosing to dwell in the pocket of the highest bidder. There are good cops out there, and it is for their sakes as well as for the stability of our republic that we must root out the Pigs like Medford and his cronies who have infiltrated our law enforcement system and are manipulating justice for their own personal gain. Justice was served in the Trial of Bobby Medford, but the battle against corrupt officials is far from over. As Citizens we must never cease to question those in authority over us, if we do we run the very real risk of the collapse of our democratic society, and the rise of a fascist state.