Brockett got it wrong

Don Brockett (Jan. 19) contends the “Crime panel has got it wrong,” but what if an oversight panel had existed in 1972 when the zealous prosecutor secured a wrongful conviction of Yvonne Wanrow for killing a child molester threatening her family?

The Washington Supreme Court in January 1977 fueled national gains for women’s issues, exposed Native American culture to whites and strengthened a female’s right of self-defense by ordering a retrial of Wanrow, later denying Brockett his frivolous appeal for a rehearing in Spokane.

Still the zealot, Brockett’s condescending, paternalistic rant on criminal justice gets it wrong in countless ways. He asks too many hypothetical questions and quibbles over the difference between “process” or “system.”

Is there an editor in the house, please? Shrill in tone, looking backward, appealing to worn-out rhetoric, Brockett can’t bear that anyone would examine critically, independently and candidly – the system and process eating up 70 percent of the Spokane County’s budget.

I would have preferred a calmer Brockett explaining how the 45-year-old war on drugs has systematically undermined criminal justice credibility, exposed the prosecution’s role in creating an informant marketplace allowing avoidance of legal responsibility, and accelerated mass incarceration.

Chuck Armsbury

Colville