Thursday, June 12, 2008

Why Perry County

Perry County has a unique place in Arkansas politics.

It is a small county conveniently located next to the seat of Arkansas power. The large national forests make it easy to hide from prying eyes. If you need to make someone disappear, Perry County is the place to make it happen....if you have paid your "hunting license."

Throughout Arkansas political history, Perry County has made news. When state prisoners were routinely farmed out to local power players to serve as cooks and housekeepers at deer camps, it was abuses at the deer camps in Perry County that finally led to the end of the practice. Those deer camps continue to exist and serve as the foundation of multi generational political relationships that often play into state politics. It is no accident that the most powerful member of the Arkansas State Senate is from Perry County.

The law enforcement in Perry County is dedicated towards ensuring that the role of Perry County as the smoky filled back room of Pulaski County. Bookies, drug manufacturers, political powers, and financial interests forge bonds over the generations that serve all of their interests. The interests that are left behind are those of the common citizen.

One of the reason the state police was founded was to break the corrupt political machines of the local sheriff and county judge. Today, in many cases those same state police troopers and veterans have become simple extensions of protection for the local political machine. The once highly respected organization has fallen victim to the lure of easy money offered by these enterprises.

We make it our mission to expose the corruption in Perry County. Perhaps the same forces that exposed and corrected the abuses of state inmates at the hands of the Perry County Deer Camps will join together again to break the corrupt political mafia we face today.

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