This was formerly a comment to Rock Hackshaw's excellent article on John Kennedy O'Hara's quest for a pardon from outgoing New York State Governor David Paterson.

What initiated this response was the assertion that my fellows and I are "homophobes" or some such nonsense. My comment follows:

mole333 - here's where your Radio Flyer flew off the cliff. I am anything but a homophobe. In fact, I have stalkers of both sexes; I appreciate the attention, but I've made my decision as to what side of the bed I get out of.

That being said...when Rutgers student Tyler Clementi commited suicide this past week, my first thought wasn't, "Well, there's goes another fag"; rather, it was this: why aren't people allowed to be who and what they feel they are in this world of ours?

Here's my philosophy: do whatever you want, as long as you do not adversly affect anyone else.

Simple.

I'm saddened to see you attempt the old "divide-and-conquer" tactic, as if we [and at this point I will presume to speak for my disparate colleages and O'Hara boosters] will fracture because you refer to us en masse as "crazy"; I always say that the crazy people are the ones who don't think that their shite stinks.

Once again, let's route all of this back to the point of this article - Rock slams another one outta the park with this one. I feel a disservice was done to his article by the badinage within the comments. I'll give Gatemouth credit for not droning on like a balloonhead, endlessly stating that he's right, regardless of the facts presented, and admitting that he could be mistaken on certain points. I'll leave it at that.

The iron-clad fact is this: Brooklyn District Attorney Charles "Joe" Hynes engaged in a malicious prosecution against John Kennedy O'Hara,and this FACT is bolstered by just two things:

1. The circumstances surrounding the untimely death and disenfranchisement of the Kung-Fu Judge, John L. Phillips. You realize that the Kung-Fu Judge was on his way to renew an expired pistol permit, when he was ambushed. That set in motion the events that lead to his properties being sold for pennies-on-pennies-on-the-dollar, his being declared incompetent, and his being remanded to a nursing home in the bloody Bronx, where he was supposed to die alone and penniless.

2. The body who reversed the decision to remove O'Hara from the Bar noted EXACTLY THAT IN THEIR DECISION.

It has been asserted that during the third trial, O'Hara was thrown a "hail-mary", and that he just let it drop. I would assert that there were untenable terms attached to said motion; terms that would legally hamstring O'Hara...and since he was in the right, and experiencing TRIPLE JEOPARDY, why would he consider said option? He didn't murder anyone; Slick Rick shot two people, but has received a pardon; I daresay O'Hara deserves at least the same consideration.

I am what you may call an experienced juror. I AM DEADLY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS. If you fuck around with someone's life, there may be hell to pay. So, I take it very seriously. There are people who are ground through the legal process, and they do so because THEY EXPECT JUSTICE TO BE SERVED. Sometimes, that doesn't happen, and in those cases, the system has FAILED.

If I am involved, I will do my bloody best to ensure that justice will prevail. You can be sure of that. I understand fully the instructions the judges give to juries to assist them in coming to the right decision, based on the facts of the case and the law involved, so when you state that O'Hara "spitefully" refused to go along with said motion, I'm going to call shenanigans.

Clearly, the charge was not even to the level of a misdeamenor; he could have been offered an admonition to be sure of his voting residence, if anything.

The onus of ALL OF THIS RETARDED BUSINESS lies with the Brooklyn D.A. - he tried the cases, after all!

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There was a comment posted before I had completed composing my response; the author writes "Maybe O'Hara shouldn't have been prosecuted for false voting I really don't know or care."

I'd like to think that if you we're in such a situation, that you might prefer that you fellow residents would not be so dismissive of your plight.

"We shall all stand together, or we shall all hang separately" - those wise words from the founding fathers of our great nation should be heeded.