bucket amid Basksh Hamid Al Durah's corpse

convinced the local authorities to lock Cummings up as if he were the
> most sadistic of killers.
>
> On Friday, Cummings' probation officer did an aboutface and told the
> court that he thought Cummings represented a very great danger to the
> community. Outside the courtroom, he and the other local law enforcement
> people crowded around Varney like kids surrounding a rock star. He was
> their hero and maybe one day they would be just like him.

Well, isn't that strange: the Secret Service taking a strong interest in
the probation violation hearing of Ed Cummings for taking batteries out
of a tone dialer.

Not only were they interested, they testified against him!

> HERE WE GO AGAIN
>
> 1/12/96. In addition to the judge, Northampton County probation officer
> Scott Hoke, Secret Service agent Tom Varney, and Haverford Township
> detective John Morris were in attendance. Varney and Morris arrived
> in the same car.
>
> Tom Varney of the Secret Service then told the judge that he believed
> Cummings to be a major threat to society and that he was concerned
> because of the upcoming presidential campaign. It was unclear if he
> was actually implying that Cummings would somehow be a threat to the
> president but the judge and the police listened intently.
>
> This was the first time a Secret Service agent had come to their town.
> Varney continued to describe the threatening items that had been found
> in Cummings' residence: a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook,