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| George Infante |
One
great thing about dying when you are very old is that you can be a complete ass
and still be respected. Sol Greenberg is
one of those lucky ones, click here to see what I really think of this
character: Sol and Jermaine Henderson
So when
I heard Infante passed away, I had to think carefully about this post. I wouldn’t want to paint him with the same
brush I painted Sol.
Being a
minority makes you want to instantly hate chiefs of any police agency, and with
good reason. Cops who are corrupt are
protected, other cops like to abuse the civil rights of citizens, and they will
always have the backing of the DA. If
you are in jail, and I have never been to jail, the guards abuse the prisoners
and help smuggle drugs. Oh, you thought
it was just visitors? Don’t be so
stupid, of course prison guards are part of smuggling market.
Infante was
Sheriff for 10 years. A lot happened
under his watch:
- Guards
caught interfering with drug investigations
- Prison
protests
- Prison
expansion – He was a force behind solving a serious overcrowding problem
- De
Maria – she was protestor who used to complain about prison conditions and
Iran-Contra. I was a big lefty in the
mid 80s and I loved this woman.
But
perhaps the best thing I recall from those days was a program he put together
to put veterans who were incarcerated in contact with veteran groups. I believe in 2nd chances like a motha and
this program helped many veterans get back on the right track. Only he could come up with such a great
program as he was a WWII vet. Good
stuff.
About
the only negative thing I have to say about Mr. Infante is that he was
ineffective as county ledge. But can we
blame him for it? The body is bloated so
that it can’t get anything done. I’ll
give him a pass.
We are
losing people from a great generation of Americans. A generation who, while not perfect, still believed
in helping people. Welcome to the human
race.
On balance,
Albany lost a good man. Rest in Peace.
