The mainstream press rarely takes a critical look at corrupt Republican officials in the blood-red state of Alabama.
But that changed, at least a little, with a recent quintuple murder in the Inverness area, just south of Birmingham.
The bodies of five Hispanic men were found bound, with their throats cut, in a crime that appears to have ties to drug trafficking. The gruesome scene was a shocker for residents of Shelby County, generally known as the wealthiest, fastest growing, and most Republican locale in Alabama.
My wife and I happen to be among the "great unwashed" who live in Shelby County, and I'm happy to report that we are part of a growing community of progressives in a heavily Republican county. The tale of legal woe that I chronicle at my Legal Schnauzer blog originated with judicial corruption in Shelby County, but the mainstream press hardly ever casts a critical eye toward government officials in our area.
That changed, at least for a while, with the recent murders. John Archibald, a columnist for the staunchly conservative Birmingham News, blasted Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry for his secretive and unprofessional handling of the murder story.
Archibald even hints that he is aware that Shelby County corruption does not begin and end with Sheriff Curry. Ironically, the most corrupt official I've encountered, presiding judge J. Michael Joiner, apparently is assigned to the quintuple murder case.
It's time, Archibald writes, that Shelby County grows out of its "Iron Curtain" and "Hazzard County" ways.
Actually, it's way past time. And it's not likely to happen unless some sanitizing light is shined on the corrupt hellhole of Columbiana, the county seat.
Is John Archibald the guy to eventually shine that kind of light on Shelby County? I think he is, particularly if his editors will unleash him.
It's sad to think that it took a quintuple murder to possibly bring a little progress to Alabama's most conservative county.
