District Attorney Clayton M. Fuller, I want to commend you and the team you recognized for putting a violent domestic abuser behind bars for 30 years. Mr. Stefon Smith will have ample opportunities to show his fellow inmates just how tough he is, until he tries to throw the wrong inmate across the room and beat on them.
It was right for you to thank your team and give them credit for a job well done. However, in reading your quote, I immediately thought of the classic 1967 movie "Cool Hand Luke" which gave us several great quotes.
One was from the yard boss; "Luke, a man has got to know his limitations" and the second, also from the yard boss, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."
I point these quotes out because I think you believe you can elevate yourself by demeaning someone else. When you put yourself on a pedestal you expose yourself to being knocked off. That's why it is so important to know your limitations or, maybe better said, know when to shut up. The last part of your grandstanding was nothing short of condescension towards Hamilton County, Tn., and our judicial system. We are the border county to Catoosa County, Ga., and the criminal you rightfully put behind bars is from Hamilton County, and you have the audacity to say we just give criminals a "slap on the wrist"?
How soon we forget the famous Catoosa County fiasco where the life and reputation of a school teacher, and her family, were turned upside down by your county. She didn't stay down though. She beat your system, was acquitted, wrote a book and became an attorney, so she could fight such injustice as was directed toward her.
Here's your best way down from your pedestal: apologize to our Hamilton County judicial system for your crass remark, and then give a long overdue apology to the person your judicial system attempted to label as a criminal.
Free advise: don't put yourself on a pedestal you can't stay on and don't allow pride to stand in your way of doing the right thing.
J. Pat Williams