Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Lay off the Mayor's kid

DWI law and the brutal way it is enforced is already wrapped up in enough hypocrisy.  The legal limit that defines impairment is absurdly low.  The long term legal consequences of an arrest are unnecessarily harsh.  And, of course, police departments take full advantage of the low hanging fruit presented by this ugly legal apparatus in order to appear "pro-active" or whatever horrible word you want to use for embellishing your image at the expense of the vulnerable.There's no need to compound all that by making hay out of one kid's misfortune just because his dad happens to be the mayor.

The real sad news here is that today the Mayor will demonstrate he has learned nothing from this at all as he announces a new city initiative to take similarly meaningless "pro-active" action against so-called nuisance bars.

Bars don't cause crime.  Desperate people who grow up with few choices cause crime.  Shutting down bars won't change that. But it does give the Mayor and his law enforcement team an opportunity to crack down on social activities in poor neighborhoods.  And that is about as pro-active as it gets.

Update:  Why we passed up the opportunity plug in this song, I'll never know. Sorry.





Upperdate: As the details of this story have come to light, it's become clear that we're talking about an actual crash involving alcohol which is... you know... bad. But still. Lay off the kid.

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