Reason.tv has announced the Nanny of the Month for August 2010 — Quincy, Illinois Police Chief Rob Copely. Copely set up –wait for it — a sting operation to catch a driver who took tips to keep drunk drivers off the street.
A video like this shows the divide between current leaders like Copely and the public. Copely, and most of those with whom he surrounds himself, probably consider his explanation for the arrest a sensible one, and deserving of deference. It’s all so rational, you see, and spelled out in his state’s statutes and city’s ordinances.
Still, ever-greater numbers of people have come to see charges in cases like this as both wasteful of resources and hypocritical. It’s wasteful because people understand that policing is expensive, and so officers and equipment are at a premium, and should be directed toward serious offenses. (The ever-greater cost of policing has brought new equipment to police forces, but also made it harder for communities to tolerate a leader whose initiatives bring taxpayer ire. News travels faster than ever, to more people than ever, and the price of foolishness is high.)
It’s also hypocritical to say that this charge had to be brought. Ordinary people have come to see that leaders exercise discretion in charging — for their friends — too often. No one had to charge this man, and any sensible person in his town knows as much.
What’s funny is that older leaders like Copley talk to others like themselves, along with a few office toadies, and so have no idea how a story like this sounds to most normal people. They’re told by those around them that their actions make sense, and that, truly, they’re the victims when bad publicity hits. (“Oh, Chief, those ungrateful complainers, misfits, anarchists, pyromaniacs, whatever, etc. just don’t deserve a great man like you.”)
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJldSvf7X8Q.
Here’s the description accompanying the video:
Did you hear about the Oregon health inspector who shut down a seven-year-old girl’s lemonade stand? How about the California mayor who put the kibosh on a three-year-old’s vegetable stand?.
Sure they’re both big-time buttinskys, but this month top honors go to the top cop who busted a guy who was offering free rides to keep drunk drivers off the road.
Presenting Reason.tv’s Nanny of the Month for August 2010: Quincy, Illinois Police Chief Rob Copely!
“Nanny of the Month” is written and produced by Ted Balaker. Associate Producer: Alex Manning; Animation: Meredith Bragg.
Approximately one minute.