Russell Stamper and Osama Bin Laden

Milwaukee County Reserve Judge Russell Stamper was "saddened" when he heard the news that Osama bin Laden was dead.

He wasn't sad because it reminded him of the horror and sorrow of 9/11.

He was sad because he thinks bin Laden wasn't responsible for the attacks and he was murdered in cold blood.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

[Russell Stamper] considers the death of bin Laden a case of coldblooded murder.

"I was saddened," said Stamper, who fills in for county judges when needed. "You murdered a man."

In a Facebook rant Monday, the 66-year-old jurist went even further, promoting the fringe position that it's not clear that bin Laden was the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. On top of that, he ripped a number of federal agencies.

"For me, if the choice is condemnation of the CIA, DEA, FBI and IRS or Osama bin Laden, it's an easy call," Stamper wrote.

"I remain unconvinced that bin Laden committed the 911 attack, whereas we know the lettered government organizations are thieves, assassins, dope peddlers, government destabilizers, did I say assassins?, arms purveyors and various and sundry other planetary criminals."

...Over the past decade, Stamper has served as a reserve county judge, earning as much as $63,000 a year filling in for elected judges when they are ill, on vacation or their dockets are overloaded. So far this year, Stamper has put in only 5 1/2 days as a reserve judge, getting paid $445.15 per day. That brings his total pay to about $2,448.

He also serves as chairman of the Community Brainstorming Conference, a monthly public affairs forum for the city's African-Americans.

Stamper came under some criticism in 2000 for likening now-Gov. Scott Walker to former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke and calling Walker and his friends white supremacists.

Stamper is a disgrace.

Of course, he can believe whatever he wants to believe, but he should not be serving as a judge. He's clearly unfit to serve in that capacity.