The ADN has an excellent graphic to illustrate the convictions handed down to the Alaska domestic terrorists yesterday.

Graphic courtesy of ADN.

I was perusing the various news sites that covered the trial and I stumbled across this from KTUU:

Cox became angry as the verdict was read, telling jurors, "The prosecutors withheld evidence from you guys." He looked at his wife Marti Cox and cried as bailiffs led him away, refusing to speak with reporters.

I know it may seem cruel but part of me is glad that Cox burst into tears as he finally understood that he was now headed to federal prison,  and that essentially his life was over. That is EXACTLY what you are supposed to feel when you are convicted of the kinds of criminal activity that Francis and his buddies engaged in.

You know when I was sixteen years old my father, who had worked as a sheriff's deputy in Arizona, told me of the things he had seen while dealing with prisoners in the correctional facilities there.  My dad held nothing back and told me stories that scared the shit right out of me.

I tried to play it off, and puffed up my chest to play the bad-ass.  But my Dad leaned right in and said, "Boy you may think you are the cock of the walk out here, but in that place it is wall to wall bad-asses who have nothing left to lose by cutting your dick off and choking you to death with it. And I have seen that very thing take place. I am sure you will fight, but eventually you will lose. You're a good kid, and it would break my heart to see you end up like that."

My dad was not always the best dad, but that was a very important thing to tell his often pugnacious oldest son. And it was something I never forgot.

All of my life I remembered what he said and I lived my live to avoid that consequence.  I was quick tempered and quite aggressive, but I respected the rule of law, and I made damn sure that I did not do ANYTHING which would put me behind bars.

Francis "Schaeffer" Cox would have been well served with similar parental advice from HIS father. But if he received any, Cox did not pay attention, and now he will suffer for his arrogance and lack of respect for the law.

And as far as I am concerned he deserves whatever fate awaits him there.

This case was very important NOT just because it got these criminal assholes off of the street, but also because it sends a message to OTHER potential sovereign citizen militia members and 2nd Amendment lunatics, that the rule of law is still in place, and that just because they don't respect law enforcement, it does not mean they cannot get thrown into a dank, isolated cell for the rest of their natural lives.

The other important outcome from this case is that it has re-energized the Feds, who had essentially lost their mojo  after the unfortunate Ted Stevens debacle, and now there is a MUCH stronger possibility that we will start to see federal investigations launched on a whole slew of very deserving Alaska criminal types.

And, to me at least, THAT is very good news indeed!