My inbox and blog board have been flooded with responses to our coverage of Wakulla County Sheriff David Harvey’s hit-and-run crash and subsequent revelation that he had been drinking. Overwhelmingly, with a few exceptions, they have not been running in Mr. Harvey’s favor.
One note stands out. It is from a local doctor who, to the best of my knowledge, is not an activist or known Harvey political opponent. He is a military veteran who loves his country.
“However, like every democracy … there are two levels of justice, (one) for the wealthy who can afford the best and (another) for the rest of us.”
That in a nutshell is why the public is outraged: Harvey provides an example of what ordinary citizens have long suspected, but rarely been able to prove: the rules and the law only apply to “us,” not to “them.” That is what the doctor means by a two-tier system.
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When democracy degenerates into “us” versus “them,” it fails. If nothing else in our country, the rules must be the same for everyone, the playing field level. That is the very least we should expect.
The media – backed by an engaged and now outraged public – are the best hope for justice in cases where the powerful try to cover their indiscretions with the authority of their offices. That has long been the role of the media, and may it always be so. It is, as one reader wrote, “why we have a newspaper.”
My view of the facts in Sheriff Harvey's hit-and-run crash suggests to me that he and WCSO deputies wanted this incident to go unnoticed by the public at-large. For whatever reason, the facts suggest a coverup was under way.
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