While the issue in this article is certainly important, it is frustrating for me to hear about it because I am currently dealing with the opposite situation: sm

While the issue in this article is certainly important, it is frustrating for me to hear about it because I am currently dealing with the opposite situation: small-town local politics are being used by a local prosecutor to justify reducing charges / pursuing less-aggressive sentences in a case that involves the biological father of my nephew being charged with a high number of counts of a very serious and child-endangering crime. The father (the one who is charged) is well-connected politically in town and has a long-standing family history, whereas my sister's family has not lived in the area as long. The father has "good buddies" in the sheriff's office, and has even pulled strings to get free or nearly free legal representation, while my sister and I are struggling to afford astronomical costs. In the civil parenting time case that resulted from this, virtually any time there is an issue that could go either way, we get stuck paying for it. For example, if the criminal case itself creates a date conflict that requires a civil hearing to be rescheduled, the father and his attorney will push the issue as far as they can, unto the point where we just have to pay our attorney to write up a full motion for continuance, when it's not our issue causing the rescheduling or anything. So far, the judges and prosecutors have gone far, far out of their way to avoid placing strict penalties or punishments on this person, even so much so that it becomes the victim's (my sister's) financial burden just to see that minimal justice is preserved and that a somewhat morally congruent result is achieved. So it bugs me that people want to jump on a bandwagon of counter-intuitive support for the side of those who are charged or accused -- there are many places where people go out of their way to be lenient towards people who truly do deserve more severe penalties, and this is often at the expense of regular citizens who have done nothing wrong.