Lately I’ve noticed a lot of cops driving in ways that are not exactly legal without having their lights on. I was under the impression that when they were exceeding the speed limit by, say, 20 mph they were supposed to be running with their lights on. But maybe that doesn’t apply when they’re racing to get to Krispy Kreme for a fresh batch of donuts.  Of course, since we all know that they’re superior drivers to the rest of us mere mortals maybe that makes it ok. I mean,seriously, isn’t it about time we stopped letting them get away with whatever the hell they want to do because they have “dangerous jobs”. Fuck, I have a dangerous job too. I’ve always kind of felt that cops and other officials that are in charge of the justice system who break the law should have their penalties doubled. What that would mean is we’d have to get rid of the whole “you wash my back, I’ll wash yours”. I’m just sayin’.

[Photo by detritus]

In this story at the N&O, Sarah Ovaska puts a slightly different spin on things. From her article it sounds like Hamlett Associates isn’t the bad guy. Apparently, some overzealous pig named K.L. Everett spotted the dangerous menace to society lurking on Hillsborough Street with his keen piggy eyes and had it dismantled and hauled away for investigation. OK, it probably didn’t happen that way since cops can’t do anything but write tickets on their own. He probably called his sargeant who called whatever fake military rank they use above that to indicate that this pig has a bigger dick than the other one. Then there was some kind of task force convened and so on until the swat team came down to take it apart.

Daniel Hall, the project manager for Hamlett Associates, claims he told Everett they weren’t interested in pressing charges and would like the monster back. So doesn’t that mean that RPD in the person of K.L. Everett really stole the barrels? Now, I’ll grant you that it’s possible that Hamlett Associates is spinning this story once word got out (Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing) but most of these projects are either Time and Materials or Cost Plus billing. Either way, it’s likely that Hamlett would have passed on the cost of the barrels to the State. I’m much more willing to believe that some joyless assholes overstepped their bounds in their quest for a world without sin or danger or variation from the norm.

This is what happens when you give people who grew up wanting to be bullies but didn’t have the balls guns and the authority of The State to back them up. One day we’ll be coming for you motherfuckers. And my smiling face will be one of the last things you see when we blindfold you in front of the ditch.

One of the things you have to love about the Internet is that it gets the word out about government abuse of power. And with our recent penchant for ‘Wars on Shit’ like the War on Drugs and the War on Terror that happens a lot. Here’s a recording of the TSA abusing a citizen for, get this, carrying $4,700 in cash. Forty seven hundred dollars isn’t even a down payment on a car. I’ve looked over the list of prohibited items at the TSA website very carefully and don’t see anything there that says anything about cash in any amount. They’re own website also says:

Since 2001, we have been mandated by law to appropriately screen air travelers to ensure that certain items and persons prohibited from flying don’t board commercial airliners.

It doesn’t say anything about enforcing criminal statutes which is what the thugs in this recording seem to think they’re supposed to be doing.  Even if they were, I’m pretty sure the cut-off for reporting cash transactions to the government (part of the War on Drugs) is $10,000.  Cops are scary enough. High school dropouts without any law enforcement training are worse.

Is it just me or does anybody else remember when the Soviet Union was the Evil Empire because they had to produce papers on demand and their government repressed its citizens?

I have written about my dislike of cops before (or maybe I haven’t but trust me here). This is the one of the reasons why. This guy writes a bunch of fake tickets because he didn’t like somebody then gets a paid vacation for 8 months. Then once he pleads guilty, he gets 3 years probation and has to pay $600? For fucking real? My personal opinion is that for law makers and law enforcement the penalties should be doubled for any infraction. After all their the one’s that are making and enforcing them, right?

In case I haven’t said so before, most of the cops I’ve had dealings with were guys who were too pussy to be bullies until somebody let them carry a gun around. Then they spend the rest of their days making up for lost time. I actually had one say to  me once while he was writing me a ticket, “you can call me officer or sir”. To which I replied, “I can call you anything I want to” which probably wasn’t the most diplomatic way to go about things but if you know me you probably aren’t surprised.