Get the lead out

So how much longer will Bullet Brain be allowed to game the system?

I refer of course to Joshua Adams of Groves, who is carrying around a slug in his forehead.

Bush claims, with a straight face, presumably, that the lead got there when a friend accidentally shot him. No, he won’t name this mythical friend.

Port Arthur police believe, with some justification, that the bullet arrived in Bush’s skull when it was fired by a man trying to break up the burglary of his car lot last year. They want a ballistics test to prove the point.

Adams doesn’t want the slugectomy. I think I know why. I think there’s a real strong possibility that the ballistics test will prove that the bullet came from the gun fired by the car lot owner. Then Bush could be charged with that crime.

The first attempt to pull the projectile was stopped because bone had started growing around it. Then a hospital backed out of another plan to bag the bullet because it was afraid of — this is really irritating — getting sued.

Then Bush started laying out all kinds of conditions before he would agree to the surgery — hoping, one suspects, that police would give up. After a deal was finally struck, Bush backed out anyway.

Gee, I wonder why?

In the end, none of this may matter. Bush faces so many other charges, including a new one for threatening a witness with a gun, that he may wind up behind bars for a long time anyway.

All of this would be funny if it weren’t so serious.

People accused of crimes should not get to call the shots like this. Yes, the Fourth Amendment does prohibit unfair searches and seizures, and that protection is important.

But does that mean that a kidnapper can refuse to let the cops enter his house because they will find the victim?

Of course not. And neither should Bullet Brain be able to manipulate a system that is trying to determine if he is a dangerous felon.

Let the doctors do their thing, and then let prosecutors do theirs.