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Who Bombed Laurita?The bomb that exploded in the automobile of Monongalia County Prosecutor Joseph Laurita, Jr., Friday did more than seriously injure him. It may have shown a lot of “nice” people the kind of society that they help create when they are able to demand illegal immunity to law.\ The bombing and maiming of Laurita may seem to many unrelated to the trial of ex-Govemor Barron, his road commissioner, Burl Sawyers, Bonn Brown, Alfred Schroath, and Vincent Johnkoski, all of whom were convicted of conspiracy to commit bribery, except Barron, who was acquitted.Thev are not unrelated, *though.Neither are they unrelated to the pinball machines and numbers games and illegal club operations that have thrived in so many West Virginia cities for so long. Neither is it unrelated, to theshooting at Trailways Hotel here which had a long history of unsavory and illegal goings-on.These tilings are of a piece. One illegal operation tends to justify another. What one can get away with encourages another. One payoff encourages another and all law suffers.Officials compromise themselves and become part of an illegal apparatus.Constituents of these officials may not get off the hook unscathed, either.In a government of the people breakdowns of law are traceable to those who have the vote, those ultimately responsible, who do not insist that their officials carry out their duties.Who made Laurita’s job difficult? Who made the bombing possible?A lot of “nice” people who would decide what laws to obey.
Newspaper Details
Raleigh Register
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Mon, Jan 05, 1970
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Elizabeth G.
AL, USA 17 Aug 2023
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