Linn County Attorney responds to calls for him to resign

[47of74]

Interesting

Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden is responding to criticisms including calls for him to resign.

Those calls center on two key issues that critics say show Vander Sanden is out of touch on racial justice. One is an editorial he wrote in the Gazette arguing disparities in arrests and convictions of Black people compared to White people for marijuana crimes do not show the justice system is racist.

The other is the officer involved shooting of Jerime Mitchell in November of 2016. A grand jury cleared the officer, Lucas Jones without hearing Mitchell’s side of the story. Mitchell, and his attorney, Larry Rogers Jr. spoke on the incident in a TV-9 exclusive on Monday.

The calls for police and criminal justice reforms are being heard all across the country, including here in Iowa. Some activist say Vander Sanden has been a topic at some of the local protest in Cedar Rapids.

[bobbieinok]

1. Could you name a few towns in county? North or ...location in state? Thanks

[rurallib]

2. Cedar Rapids

Just north of Johnson County which is home to Iowa City and the U of Iowa.

Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are often referred to as the Corridor.

[bobbieinok]

3. That's not a very conservative county, right? He doesn't sound like a good fit (Thanks for reply!)

ETA---lived in Ames from 68 to 89. Son and ex still live there.

[rurallib]

4. Linn county is generally democratic, though more conservative than Johnson County

Vander Sanden is a Democrat.

Nothing compared to the Republican antics down in Muscatine:
https://democraticunderground.com/10519313

[bobbieinok]

5. My dad's gfather moved when he was 7 with his family in 1849 to Wilton from Shenandoah Valley VA

Is Wilton in Muscatine?

Dad's gfather fought for the Union in the 11th IA Infantry. They were at Shiloh and Vicksburg.After the war he married and took up a Land Grant in western NE (Union vets got that kind of grant)

My Gramma was a toddler when they moved west in a covered wagon and then lived for a time in a sod house.

I find it interesting that the 2 boys of the family who fought in the war did not stay in area where they had grown up--each moved, my ggfather to NE and his brother eventually to CA

[rurallib]

6. Most of Wilton is in Muscatine County

There is a very small section that creeps over the line

[bobbieinok]

7. That seems sorta odd

I discovered when doing some genealogy that the county book* for Muscatine published in late 1800s had info about both my grandfather's family (Kiser) and my grandmother's family (Weaver)

*Many counties over the country published these books with info about the families living there. The blurbs can be informative, but the residents wrote their own, so they can be badly organized. They may also inflate the family history

[rurallib]

8. They may have had a Wilton address and lived in the rural area

Here is a link to a map of Wilton. On the north edge of Wilton you see that the last street in town is the Cedar Muscatine Road which is the county line. Muscatine County is to the south, Cedar County to the north.

Also note there is one square block of Wilton in Cedar county:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/wilton+iowa+map+with+county+lines/@41.5902951,-91.0345857,15.04z