Coolidge Corner

"There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time."

Coming from Illinois, one of the many states that has exclusively used citizen flaggers for years without a public safety crisis, this footage makes froth at the mouth.

Lets be clear, this isn't about public safety.  It is about the fact that the police want to go on receiving $40 of our money per hour rather than giving $15-$19 per hour to civilians to do the same job.  If they are so in love with flagging, these officers could get a job as civilian flaggers to occupy their time off as their flagging did in the past.  They just can't have tens of thousands of our dollars to do it. 

I can't help but think back to this blog's namesake who challenged striking Boston police officers saying:

Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the opportunity; the criminal element furnished the action. There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time.  ... I am equally determined to defend the sovereignty of Massachusetts and to maintain the authority and jurisdiction over her public officers where it has been placed by the Constitution and laws of her people.

My views on unions are a subject for another time, but suffice it to say, I believe employees have the right to form unions (without government opposition or assistance) in the private sector where unions will be held in check by competition from non-union employees and union employers will be faced with pressure from employers of non-union employees . 

However, in the case of government employees, Cal was right on; strikes (and collective bargaining more broadly) among public employees are an entirely different matter.  Public sector unions (teachers, police officers, etc) will always hold undue sway with politicians.  If your vote determined your salary and the conditions under which you worked, you would do all you could to hijack the political process too.  As a consequence of this influence, unionized public sector employees mercilessly predate on the taxpayer without exception.

Hopefully the politicians on Beacon Hill have the courage to stand up to these goons.  While it would be a great way to demostrate that taxpayers are valued beyond the wealth public sector employees can extract from them, I am not holding my breath.  In the mean time, I am going to call the departments whose officers were involved in the protest (Arlington, Medford, Everett, Stoneham, and Woburn) to enquire as to when I can appear at their places of business and heckle them for the wealth they have taken from me using the political process. 

If you are a MA resident as sickened as I am, I suggest you do the same.

Arlington PD: 781-316-3900
Medford PD: 781-391-6404
Everett PD: 617-389-2120
Stoneham PD: 781-438-1215
Woburn PD: 781-932-4510

Cheye Calvo at Cato

Cheye Calvo's story includes all the worst of what is, unfortunately, no longer a surprise for those of us who have followed the war on drugs and the concomitant militarization of police.  Here is a short clip of his talk at the Cato Institute:

William F. Buckley, who by no means approved of drug use, had it right:
“Marijuana never kicks down your door in the middle of the night. Marijuana never locks up sick and dying people, does not suppress medical research, does not peek in bedroom windows. Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”

Oh, and if Mayor Calvo's story doesn't give you nightmares, check out Cobb County, GA's Police Department's new toy:

And they thought Cuba was totalitarian

English jurist William Blackstone is famed for saying  "Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."  Benjamin Franklin thought "that it is better [one hundred] guilty Persons should escape than that one innocent Person should suffer."  We now know police and federal agents in Forida are comfortable with a 50 to 1 ratio when it comes to terrorizing families in the name of shutting down the production of a mild recreational intoxicant.

[Noel] Llorente said he was just leaving for work when unmarked cars pulled up, Drug Enforcement Administration  agents jumped out, threw him down with guns drawn, handcuffed him, stormed into his home and searched for drugs."I asked them why they came to my house, they said a neighbor or somebody called and said I had a hydroponics lab in my house," Llorente said. "Then I asked them if a marijuana plant could grow inside my underwear drawer."

  To add insult to injury, the Llorentes said one of the reasons they came to the U.S. was to escape oppression from the Cuban police.  However, I find it heartening that in the middle of this ordeal, Noel had the sense of humor to ridicule these bungling thugs.

via Reason

Seriously, we just want to help . . .

From yesterday's Globe, this article on Badgewars.com and the BPD investigation into the site which catalogs police misconduct, from serious betrayals of the public trust to officers betraying their own ignorance.  Interestingly the focus of the investigation seems to be the bloggers themselves rather than the conduct they report.

"Despite the most absurd and inflammatory comments on the site, it is incumbent upon the department to take seriously any allegations of officer mis conduct," said Elaine Driscoll, spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department. "We're not seeking to violate First Amendment rights. However, we will take the necessary steps to determine the validity of allegations or the lack thereof."

Why in the world would a police department need the identity of the bloggers to receive their assistance, let alone need their assistance at all?

I am not sure which is worse: the implication that the department is really unwilling to police itself or their suggestion that without the help of few bloggers they would be unable to.

via Radley