What's with this town?

I am in the publishing business myself and have been following a case from the prosecutor's office in Coeur d'Alene concerning its attempt to prosecute Joel Diekhoff on behalf of one Demetrius Lee. The prosecutor's case appears to have more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese. Quite frankly, I'm baffled by his willingness to pursue this at all.

I have communicated with the prosecutor, Barry McHugh, via email several times, and I felt sure he'd do the reasonable thing and have both Mr. Diekhoff, who is Caucasian, and Mr. Lee, who is black, come to an understanding that they both did something wrong, have them both admit to it, and in the interest of demonstrating that we're all people here and, not to borrow a phrase from Rodney King, but we must all get along. To have them shake hands and admit to one another they made a mistake and move on seems so logical in my mind. If it weren't for the facts in the case it might not be so, but let's examine those facts.Fact: Mr. Diekhoff and Mr. Lee did get into a verbal argument, and Mr. Diekhoff allegedly said something politically incorrect. However, Mr. Lee went to the motel he was staying at, and rather than call the police from there (a safe haven), he instead chose to go back to the scene of the verbal altercation carrying a baseball bat. One must assume he didn't go back to ask them to play ball. This is tantamount to a rape victim returning to the scene of the rape with toys.

Fact: The Coeur d'Alene Press, in their haste to posit politically-correct leanings, was quick to point out that Mr. Diekhoff had a previous record involving the law. What they didn't point out was that Mr. Lee had an impressive one as well, including assault and forgery. To me, this is biased and certainly not fair and balanced reporting; far from it.Fact: I also sent the prosecutor a copy of Mr. Lee's rantings on his Facebook page where he stated that Mr. Diekhoff's dad was probably his uncle, and actually flaunted the fact that Mr. Diekhoff, who wielded no weapon at all, was arrested, while he, Demetrius, was free to insult and taunt his family on a very public website. This is an "in your face" attitude that one would expect while watching an episode of "Bait Car."Fact: Mr. McHugh is running for re-election and, while I cannot state that this is his reasoning, it is certainly my belief that he could care less about the merits of this case but rather is interested in only putting one up in the win column.

Fact: Mr. Lee didn't even show up for his preliminary hearing. According to the prosecutor, who was now placed in the role of being Mr. Lee's defender, "He was afraid for his life." That is the weakest argument I've ever heard. His supposed menace, Mr. Diekhoff, was behind bars. So weak, in fact, was his argument that the Judge released Mr. Diekhoff on his own recognizance. He even asked the prosecutor if he dismissed it, if he would re-file? Mr. McHugh replied that he would. The point is that obviously the Judge didn't buy into Mr. Lee's story of not showing up out of fear and, if he'd had his way, he'd just as soon have dismissed this whole "Keystone Kops" affair. In my opinion, Mr. Lee should have had a bench warrant issued for his arrest for disrespecting the court. He certainly got a break there.Fact: I also sent Mr. McHugh a YouTube video of a black man standing on a street corner with a microphone, calling on blacks to kill not only "crackers" but "cracker babies" as well. He was even calling white women "cracker whores"; you can view that video at: http://youtu.be/p50qHzC01E0 . He did this while a police van was parked across the street. However, I suppose publicly advocating killing white babies and calling white women whores is perfectly acceptable if you're black, and no arrest was made. Can we say "double standard"? In another case of political correctness gone wrong, a white school teacher sued the school she worked for and won because of racial comments, including being called a white sl....t by her black students. She was told by the principal of the school that that was their culture and if she didn't like it, she should teach elsewhere. This video can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/99cw-wdHUwA. I suppose the point is that I believe we are letting political correctness cloud our judgment.

And now we have yet another case in Coeur d'Alene of a black man engaging with a white in a physical confrontation and, of course, the local press here once again attempts to portray the white man as somehow being the evil one even before any hearing has been held. I see this as political correctness running amok.It is my belief that the prosecutor in his zeal to get re-elected is ignoring the wrongs of one man who's obviously playing the race card, and prosecuting the other. If this had been a case of a white against white or a black against black for that matter, the man returning with the ball bat would be the one arrested. This is one of the worst miscarriages of justice I've ever witnessed, and I can only conclude it's all about politics. My ancestry is largely Jewish, and it could be said I'm a minority, but there is such a thing as right and wrong, and I look beyond political correctness and look for the truth. With all the unfairness in this town, I suppose I can find other places to play golf.

Paul David is a resident of Polson, Mont.