Stephen Singular on Lou Smit

The most important thing to understand about Lou Smit is that he deeply cared about the truth. In another time in American history, this remark might seem so obvious that it wouldn’t need to be pointed out, but we are not living through that era. As someone who’s written numerous books about true crimes and watched the criminal justice system misfire in several high-profile cases because homicide detectives or District Attorneys ignored forensic evidence and jumped to conclusions, I cannot state this strongly enough. What made Lou special in the JonBenet Ramsey case and many others was that he did not assume he knew things when he didn’t yet know them. He had the rarest of all things -- a genuinely open mind -- the one piece of equipment those working on criminal investigations need the most. These are not small matters, especially these days.

In the past few years, the United States has leaped to a number of conclusions about crimes associated with terrorism, which have led us into countless deaths and injuries, incalculable financial and human costs, and wars without end. What if we’d simply followed the Lou Smit model, gone after the handful of people actually responsible for the carnage of September 11, 2001, and matched the 90% solved murder rate that distinguished his entire career? Lou’s endless curiosity, his compassion for everyone involved in a criminal situation, and his instincts for sniffing out the truth never betrayed him.

I spent many hours speaking with him about the Ramsey case and on one occasion at his home I watched an elaborate and highly-informative, audio-visual slide show he’d put together on the homicide. This was years after he’d “officially” stopped working on the murder and sitting with him during the presentation was in some ways a heartbreaking experience (you couldn’t help but feel that the person most capable and most committed to solving the crime in Colorado was not welcome to do his job in co-operation with law enforcement.) The Boulder Police Department had its way in focusing on JonBenet’s parents as her killers and in driving Lou out of the investigation. The results of this strategy speak for themselves. Nearly fourteen years after the girl’s death, the case remains unsolved and former Boulder DA Mary Lacy cleared the Ramsey’s as murder suspects in 2008, based on hard DNA evidence. To the end of his life, Lou never stopped working on his own to break the case, but there wasn’t enough time or enough help from the right people.

The death of JonBenet would never have been easy to solve, but I’m convinced that if Smit had been given a real chance to pursue leads he never spoke about publically, and to interview potential suspects he was never able to get to, the story of the Ramsey case might be far different today. He wasn’t a great man because of what he knew about this homicide or any other. He was a great man because he understood how little you could ever know about human beings or human reality until you took the time to look below the surface of events and make the deeper connections. His passion for that was unlimited. We’ve never needed people like him in public service more than we do today.

Stephen Singular, a two-time “New York Times” bestselling author, grew up in Lyndon, Kansas. In 1972, he graduated with a history degree from the University of Kansas and became a freelance writer in New York. His articles have appeared in New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Inside Sports, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and American Photo. From 1983 to 1987, he was a staff writer at The Denver Post. Since then, he’s published 20 books about high profile crimes, social criticism, and business and sports biographies. He’s appeared on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” “Anderson Cooper 360,” FOX-TV, MSNBC, COURT-TV, ESPN, and many other media outlets. His website, www.stephensingular.com, provides more information about all of his books. He lives in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and son.

The Wichita Divide: The Murder of Dr. George Tiller, the Battle Over Abortion, and the New American Civil War will be published by St. Martin’s Press in early 2011.

unFREAKINGbelievable

Looks like it is going to be another long day - -

JonBenet Ramsey murder missing from CBI's new cold-case database
Published in the Daily Camera
By John Aguilar

CBI director says technical glitch may have led to omission of Colorado's most notorious unsolved killing.

Stop the presses: The murder of 6-year-old Boulder beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey has been solved.

At least it appeared that way Thursday on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's freshly launched cold-case database, colorado.gov/coldcases, a Web site that lists 1,714 unsolved homicides and missing-persons cases in the state from the past 40 years....

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said he didn't know for certain if his department sent the Ramsey case to the CBI as part of its cold-case list. He said because investigators have "never stopped working it," it may not technically qualify as cold..."[read more]

pumpkin head

I have never been in Boulder on Halloween but it is apparently a sight to behold. Chief Beckner finds the decade old annual naked pumpkin run not only offensive but he has decided he will also make it illegal. He will allocate resources to deploy the SWAT team to arrest runners then put them on trial as sex offenders.

*beep*

Maybe Boulder DA Stan Garnett ought to take Beckner on a trip to Fantasy Fest in the Keys to see how other cities manage--

Boulder Police Chief, Mark Beckner, You are the Asshat of the Week
posted at The Legal Satyricon
by Marc John Randazza, JD

"...Beckner’s previous claim to fame was running the JonBenet Ramsey case. Bang up job you did there, Beckner.

Now, as police chief, he’s ready to put a stop to a rampant sex offense that is about to ruin Boulder — its annual Naked Halloween Pumpkin Streaking Event.

Yes, on Halloween in Boulder, Colorado, people put running shoes on their feet, Jack O’Lanterns on their heads, and they run through the streets. For nearly ten years, people have engaged in this tradition. They brave the cold, and run through the streets as onlookers throw candy. Beckner calls it a “free-for-all.” (source) Beckner decided, personally, that this kind of thing needs to come to an end.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Beckner planned to “station more than 40 officers on the traditional four-block route… , with two SWAT teams patrolling nearby. All [with] orders to arrest gourd-topped streakers as sex offenders.” (source).

This isn’t a cop deciding to do his duty and enforce the law, mind you. See, it isn’t actually illegal to run naked through the streets of Boulder.

Boulder is actually pretty comfortable with public nudity. So, Beckner decided that he would use Colorado’s state indecent exposure statute.

C.R.S. 18-7-302: states: “A person commits indecent exposure if he knowingly exposes his genitals to the view of any person under circumstances in which such conduct is likely to cause affront or alarm to the other person. In other words, if it isn’t bothering anyone, nor is it likely to do so, the nudity isn’t illegal. This event starts at 11:00 PM, when the kids are all home in bed, and the Naked Pumpkin Run route is lined with throngs of cheering fans who are there specifically to see the spectacle, how could any reasonable person think that this was “likely to cause affront or alarm?”

Police acknowledge they have not been flooded with pumpkin-run-related complaints, but say that’s beside the point. A throng of naked people with jack-o-lanterns on their heads is, by definition, an alarming sight, Chief Beckner says. Therefore, it’s illegal. (source)

*beep*....By the way, how’s that JonBenet Ramsey case coming along?" [...read more]