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Bruce Sons kills Officer Maxwell: A Bakersfield court case perpetuating a 'Climate of Fear'
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Posted by thenovelist Wed May 10, 2006 18:01:09 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Once again, Bakersfield is caught in a court case trance, eyes locked on the climate of fear cast over Southern Valley society by the curtain of the Bruce Sons case. Bruce Sons, the man who shot a cop was set free. Officer Maxwell, the policeman with a tendency to bend rules, who got himself involved in an escalating situation outside the Sons’ home is long dead. For his family and Bakersfield, his name will live on in controversy and infamy. Bruce Sons is just living in infamy.

But why the big glossy-eyed Bakersfield trance over the Sons’ case? Cases are tried in Kern County every day by the bushel load. Cops are busted all the time, and forgotten about. So what’s the flavor of Sons that continues to leave a taste in the mouth of the local media? Why did the Bakersfield Californian launch Sons-related material on three different websites yesterday: Bakotopia, Bakersfield.com, and their Talk of the Town blog? Perhaps just because people in Bakersfield have an opinion in the matter. Perhaps there’s more to the story…

Take a look at the local news sites and people have literally poured out of the woodwork to express their opinions whether Sons is more guilty than the recent findings in Santa Barbara, or less guilty as charged. Did Sons get slippery and escape true justice, or was justice finally rightly served? Is Sons some kind of murderous Boogeyman, or is he a vigilante hero for eradicating society of one of its bad cops? Seems everyone I come across has an opinion in the matter.

Yet why do people and the newspapers talk about this court case as if the McMartins are on trial again? The case is such big news, with Vincent Brothers’ case prepped as the next media sensation Bakersfield/Kern case to put fear into the lives of Bakersfield society.

The popularity of the Sons’ case is a maddening circle of retelling a cop killing over and over in small town Bakersfield; it reminds people that not all cops are good, and that society loses control at any given time, and even around both good cops and bad.

There’s a climate of fear surrounding such court cases. There’s violence in the event itself, or like the McMartin cases, supposed violence. The media leads us to want to know: what happened? We soon all want to know. Why? Maybe we all want to know if it will happen to us, or better yet, we wonder if we’ll get caught in the crossfire the next time two grown men with weapons lose control.
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