Chez Chesler

1. State Treasurer Tim Cahill

 

The Boston Herald reported on September 7 that Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill's daughter was busted at Logan Airport for trying to bring peaches home from Italy.  He had to pay a $300 fine for forgetting something was in a bag, and that seems a lot less than folks who forget there is a gun in their bags face.  (Here's a recent story about Kansas City Chiefs star Bill Maas who made that mistake, and facecs a $500 fine and 6 months in jail, plus a $10,000 TSA fine.)  A gun could be useful on a plane -- the heros of flight 93 had to make due with a serving cart.  But fruit from the Mediterranean?  There is a very real risk that it could harbor insect pests.  (That page from the USDA's APHIS site lists peaches first among the fruits that Medflies can attack.)  I don't leave the country very often, but I certainly know there's a restriction on agricultural products.

In any case what concerned me was Cahill's statement about the Customs agents: "It didn't appear to me that they knew who I was nor cared."  (He said he told the agents he was a government official but never identified himself as the treasurer -- and apparently he never asked "Do you know who I am?" -- maybe because that had just failed for Larry Craig in another airport.)

Why should Customs agents have cared?  Why does Cahill think state officials should be treated any differently than other people?

2. Law Enforcement

In early July (I'm way backed on stuff I want to blog about), Glen Johnson wrote a piece for the AP, "Vehicle stickers raise questions about police favoritism".   He describes a "thin blue line" sticker.  He quotes Kenneth Waters, "For what purpose does the spouse display the 'thin blue line' decal on their automobile? Why immunity from the law of course."

Johnson says the state police don't treat drivers who display the stickers any differently, but spokesman Eric Benson uses weasel words when he says "The State police does not officially recognize" them (emphasis added).

Over on Police World "La. Officer", also quoted by Johnson, in a thread from early 2004, tries to have it both ways. He writes "everyone that I stop has the same chance of getting a ticket or not" but he had just written "If I stop someone with one of these stickers, and they are not leo or direct family of leo, they are almost certain to get written for whatever I can write them for." He also wrote "I do know of officers stopping non leo with the thin blue line stickers and politely telling the suspects that if the sticker is gone by the time they get back to the unit to get the ticket book, then they will probably leave with only a verbal warning if there is no warrants out for them." -- which means that he is violating his own oath of office for allowing his brothers in blue to violate, under color of law, these drivers' constitutionally protected right to free expression.

Tpartrg310 on Police World explains that he puts the logo on his car "to identify [himself] as law enforcement officers. And that more than likely we were 'good guys' and probaly armed." I'm a good guy, and I might be armed -- I think I'm going to do my part for law enforcement and get one of those stickers.

Labels: Cahill, police, privilege, unequal_treatment