A Bully Sheriff with the Power to Change Murder to Suicide

It’s a chilling case—a young, single mother dies from a gunshot wound that is consistent with homicide and the powerful sheriff covers up for her boyfriend, a deputy sheriff. 

The power of the sheriff in St. Augustine, FL is frighteningly similar to our current Bully-in-Chief. Happy when he’s being praised and glib before an audience, Sherrif David B. Shoar doesn’t like to be crossed. In fact, when Florida Department of Law Enforcement Agent Rusty Rodgers was sent to investigate the poorly handled case, Shoar spread lies and innuendo to try to get Rodgers fired. It’s upsetting how discrediting the opposition has become the norm. The result is no justice for the victim, no closure for the family, endless grief for the investigator and a bully drunk with power. The parallels with the bully currently in control of the nation are chilling.  

Photo credit: City of St. Augustine

The Bully-in-Chief Up Against a Wall

In today’s New York Times article “Pause This Presidency,” columnist Charles M. Blow makes a compelling argument for putting the Trump administration on hold when he writes,

“The American people must immediately demand a cessation of all consequential actions by this ‘president’ until we can be assured that Russian efforts to hack our election, in a way that was clearly meant to help him and damage his opponent, did not also include collusion with or coverup by anyone involved in the Trump campaign and now administration.”

As an expert in human dynamics and adult bullying it has been my observation that bullies are masters at manipulation, deception, deceit and denial, and are in many cases—delusional. What we woke to on Saturday morning was all of these and more on public display by the current president as he tweeted his newest conspiracy theory about his predecessor.

The application of those nefarious traits by the Bully-in-Chief confirms for me the possibility of a cover-up of immense proportions.  In my January 13 post, “Predicting What Trump Will Do Next,” I wrote that bullies are particularly dangerous when their back is against the wall. This is because they will do anything to maintain power and control. Clearly this tweet was a stab in that direction.

But the danger isn’t over. I predict that Trump will willingly abuse the presidency up to, and including, martial law if he feels threatened.  According to a CNN/ORC poll, 65 percent of Americans say an independent special prosecutor should be appointed to investigate Russia’s involvement in the election. This should be heeded—and fast! This is a serious case of obfuscation that will lead to more devastating actions if left uninvestigated. I don’t wish to be an alarmist, but having researched hundreds of cases of adult bullying, I have witnessed how bullies take drastic measures when their backs are against the wall.

Can we really afford to wait any longer?

Andrew Faas is the author of From Bully to Bull’s-Eye: Move Your Organization Out of the Line of Fire

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons