Arraignment

I asked my search engine just now “how many people are arraigned in a year in the U.S.?“.  Of course, the answer was almost instantaneous: “There were over 4.53 million arrests for all offenses in the United States in 2021.”

Sometime later today one of those arraignments will happen on Manhattan, and sometime after that the indictment will be unsealed, and we will all have an opportunity to know what the charges are.

Virtually everyone knows who Arraignee #1 will be later today, and that person is not someone being arrested for possession of drugs or such.  Nuff said on that.

For weeks now there has been speculation filled with certainty fueling passionate opinions about what an unsealed indictment will say later today.  I know as much as anyone else, which is nothing.

To this point, I’m most intrigued by the fundraising by the victim-in-chief, claimed to be $7 million so far, but impossible to know for sure.

How much is $7 million, really???

Assuming it’s really 7 million, and that a reasonable average donation is $100, this money comes from about 70,000 people among the 330,000,000 of us in the United States, a minute fraction of the total.

My state of Minnesota with 5.7 million population has roughly 2% of the population of the U.S. which comes out to about 2,400 Minnesotans tossing coins in the kettle, perhaps 30 in my town of 70,000.

$7 million is not small change, granted.  A good share of those arrested today would not have a nickel of that for their own defense.  But it is important to keep such numbers in perspective.

There will be endless news once the indictment is unsealed, probably later today.

Joyce Vance gives a good preview with her overnight column, here.

Have a great day.

POSTNOTE 8:15 P.M.  I watched part of the events in the afternoon, and some of the commentary later.  I did not watch any of the talk at Mara Lago.

A commentary came this evening that describes the situation well: we are contending with a pretend Jesus among us who may as well be a divinity.  His base seems disproportionately populated with evangelical Christians.

This is not the first such aberration of the divine.  Back in 1993 David Koresh of the Branch Davidian at Waco, fancied himself, and was fancied as, a latter day Christ on earth.  The destination was catastrophic for Koresh and most of the followers and their children.  From the ashes came acolytes, like Timothy McVeigh, who two years later blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.

Jimmy Jones and Jonestown comes to mind, and endless others.

The legal issues will take years to sort out.  The next hearing on the NY case will probably not be till the end of the year.  Quite certainly there are other indictments ahead.  Will they make a difference?  Basically, I think it will be up to all of us who believe in democracy to stand up and be counted in all of the assorted ways we will be needed.

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Thursday Apr. 5 after the arraignment:  Civil Discourse; and Letters from an American.