Readers know that I’ve written frequently about the Star Packaging raid. The owner of Star Packaging, Alan Petrie (to whom I have no connection) faces multiple counts of supposed conspiracy to commit ‘identity theft’ for hiring Mexican workers. As I have written before, in my post entitled The Identity Theft Excuse, Petrie and the Mexican workers did not commit anything remotely like conventional identity theft. Police investigator Larry Meyer was looking for Mexican workers, not people committing identity theft.
Meyer is a defendant in a federal civil suit accusing him of harassing another business owner on the basis of that owner’s Mexican workforce, and of destroying evidence (as detailed in an affidavit from a former Walworth County Assistant District Attorney).
There’s more than one way to handle the Star Packaging raid — (1) admit that it was racially motivated, and accept the resignations of those who participated or lied about it, or (2) do everything you can to keep defending the supposed integrity of the raid, and those who initiated and approved it. Coan, the now-retied Meyer, and the Walworth County District Attorney’s office will defend that raid to the bitter end. They will admit no errors, no mistakes, no bias.
Coan is perfect for his role — he is, as I have described him,
not speaking to persuade the whole town, or even a large part of it; his words are reassurance for a small, mostly town-bred, elite. They want — and expect — that he will never yield or admit fault on any significant matter. Second, his simple, ceaseless defense of the Whitewater force has the consequence of dissuading common, thoughtful residents from the hope of correcting the problems within the force, and of making it truly professional. Finally, Coan may believe — perhaps correctly, too — that if he repeats the same contentions long enough, others will believe them….Coan is a Mynah bird of excuses, rationalizations, and self-praise, of himself, and the Whitewater police.
The inflexibility of Coan, the Whitewater Police, and their defenders in Elkhorn is dishonest, and child-like in its inflexibility. It has worked for them for years, however, and they hope that it will save them now, too.