One of the most interesting things to come out of all of this Trump prosecution is to hear the Fulton County Sheriff say "Oh yeah, we're going to mug shot Donald Trump." That comment hit different. Even in northern, liberal New York treated Trump better. NYC let Trump scurry through some secret bat tunnel into the police department, avoid the mug shot, and not be cuffed to spare him some of the indignity of being treated like a common criminal. yet in Georgia which is probably one of the most Trump supporting states and is super Southern, how is it that the Sheriff, at the public level, said we're going to treat Trump like any common criminal. He will be Mug Shotted.
His name is Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat. He started out in corrections. To understand the County Sheriff, you have to understand the County. Fulton County has the most people over all the other counties in Georgia by a longshot. It's the only Georgia County that has over a million people in it. You already know why, it's because Atlanta--yes, that Atlanta, or Hotlanta. Before it became what is is known as today, it became the center of White Supremacy terrorism because between 1877 and 1950, 37 black Americans were hanged, a 1906 White Supremacists started a race riot killing 25 (who knows how many more were actually murdered), 1908 the Georgia State legislature stole Black American votes by creating bogus legal barriers to their ability to exercise their right (sound familiar?). Yet, because of its location, near a major river, one of the busiest airports, near three major interstate highways, rail and next to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, nearly all blue-chip companies you have ever heard of are headquartered there. Coke, UPS, Home Depot, Delta and a slew more live in Atlanta. But how did this city become known as Black Power Atlanta or Wakanda. (Check this story)
Some say Atlanta became the site of Black Power and just Revolution in general with the 1881 Washerwomen strike. Essentially, after slavery recently ended about 3000 laundry-women went on strike for higher wages. (The Backstory.) They nearly all black women but there were some white women with them. The refused to work until they got a raise, and they won. Martin Luther King grew up in Atlanta. There was always a large and contributing population of African Americans that made Atlanta, built the scaffold for civil rights movements and business. It is now considered a Hip Hop Mecca and there's even show about it called "Atlanta." African Americans outnumber White Americans in Fulton county by about 5%. Thus, it makes sense to me that the Fulton County Sheriff would make it clear that Law Enforcement will treat the fat cat Yankee politician who ran on a racist platform and tried to rob Georgia voters of their fundamental right like a common criminal. He will feel the full police power of the state that Trump thought he could control.
Make no mistake, a County Sheriff is an elected position and they do have to pay attention to politics. The the Sheriff's commitment to treat Trump like a common criminal go beyond the optics for his voter base. At the heart of this thing are two fundamental values. This is about state's rights. Trump was a Federal politician that tried break Georgia's sovereign constitutionally protected right regarding how its electoral college votes would be allocated, and its right to have its citizens have its voice timely heard in the Presidential election. The second core value is protection of each individual citizen's fundamental right to vote in a Presidential election. Having any sitting President come in and use illegal means to throw away the free votes of Georgian citizens is like ripping up the Constitution. To be equal in the eyes of the law means that even a Former President will have to be processed like any other street corner suspect. Trump played criminal games and now he wins criminal prizes.
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