Well, not quite that simple. Perhaps it started out that way in this valley, but then what happens when such a skew towards denial and wanting to appease the wealthy continues for decades? The system begins to go corrupt.
Because the valley as a whole can be thought of as one small town (since most people who live in the valley, even if they don't live in Aspen proper, commute to work in Aspen--tiny Aspen has 4,965 commuters each day coming from as far as Rifle, Eagle, and Newcastle as well as Glenwood, Carbondale and Basalt to work in Aspen), it's not professional relationships that drive the social fabric of this down, but personal relationships. I come from a big city where because things are so impersonal, potential employers rely upon your professional and educational credentials as well as demonstrated skill to determine your fit for a job. Here in this valley, professional and educational credentials and skill/talent matter far less than the extent and kind of personal ties you have in the valley. It's very, very political in that sense. Add to that the transient nature of part of this community (people coming here to work only seasonally, people only coming here seasonally to their vacation homes, etc.), and the fact that understandably those whose strong personal ties (and likely weak professional qualifications) elevated them to some sort of Big Cheese status in this valley want to maintain their status, and there is a very strong distrust of outsiders.
Also, add a transient community to years of insiders doing "favors" here and there for one another, and you have a recipe for people so inclined to be able to get away with almost anything.
And lastly: the denial I mentioned. It's not just denial to appease the very rich. It's also denial along the lines of, "I live in this beautiful place; how can I possibly have any problems?" I cannot tell you how many times I have heard people talk like the mountains' beauty somehow mitigates their very real-world problems. People have a mentality here--many people, anyway--that nothing "bad" can happen. It's a kind of willful denial that I suppose makes the average local feel that their lack of fulfilled career aspirations, or lack of career aspiration, period, or mediocrity, is made up for by living in the mountains.
Add all these elements together, and I can very well understand how the Ingrams could have wound up in the predicament they are in in relation to local LE.
All this is just one person's opinion/observation. This is a wonderful place to live in many ways; don't get me wrong. The very fact of the "personal relationships" that I mention will likely prove the greatest solace to the Ingrams, and I think we're seeing evidence of that on the blog: the local restaurant owners creating a sushi roll in Morgan's name and the many locals more than eager to go in and buy it. I'm going to go have one next week
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
It's just that the reality is that if someone wants to get away with murder in this valley, they can.