The outrage is in his lying. If he lies about this, he’s lying elsewhere. How many lies did he tell on the stand or in reports? I’d be more favorable to him if he had just said “it’s a perk of the job” or “we do more for our own”. Wouldn’t like it necessarily, but I would respect his honesty.

It’s a grim situation…any hope for change rests with the possibility of a civil libertarian interest group capable of loudly speaking the one language every police chief understands – that of political pressure.

One of the sad things that happens in most mid to large American cities is that you never get a critical mass of people who think like us. Oh sure, we’ll live downtown when we’re young and cool and politically harmless. But by the time we get serious ideas and become capable of credibly expressing them, we’ve usually moved out to some suburb with a couple kids and an employer who wouldn’t appreciate our presence on the executive board of a pro-drug legalization pressure group.

That leaves the cities to be populated overwhelmingly by older whites, working class whites, lower income blacks, and lower to middle income hispanics. And very sadly (to the chagrin of many commenters here), every one of those groups stand together in support of drug prohibition and traditional morality. They are the people of “nothing to hide, nothing to fear”.

“Yet there are many admirers of Csehy’s abilities. “I have never been in a courtroom with anyone who had a better skill set than him,” said Cumming defense attorney James Hardy II.”

I guess JH2 really, really, really, admires him . . .;-p

NONE of us will take even the first step toward becoming a police chief, because that would first mean becoming a cop.

Dag, OS. I was kinda leaning toward Ariel’s false dichotomy but you really sold it. I think you’re probably right: if one has integrity and honor and is honest, it doesn’t seem likely that person would want to be a cop in the first place. Ergo (I love saying “ergo” *snickergiggle*), I can see how that would make it difficult to get a chief with those qualities.

What’s the answer?

That was extremely well put.

The notion that we must choose between the venal and the tyrannical when selecting public officials is not mine, originally. If you dispute me on that count you’re also picking a fight with Locke, Hume, Montesquieu, Madison, Jefferson, and probably Radley Balko, etc.

The world is not divided between bad people and people “with honesty, honor, integrity, and some damned perspective”, as you put it. The world is populated by people who respond reliably to incentives, and who are occasionally inspired by ideas. Both the ideas and the incentives can lead people to do great good or terrible harm, depending on the circumstances.

A man with staunch integrity who follows a bad idea will do terrible harm. An unscrupulous man who cheats against that same bad idea may do great good. Either man will find it tempting to believe that the things which benefit him personally also happen to be the “right” things.

But why should you assume that your imagined man of “honesty, honor, and integrity” will somehow share YOUR values? What happens if he is relentlessly honorable about pursuing a competing set of values?

To put it another way, which would you rather have for Justice of the Supreme Court: Bill Bennett or Bill Clinton? Bennett is a noisy public champion of integrity. He’ll stay with the drug war long after the American people have turned against it; he has no fear of being hated. Bill Clinton, on other hand, is a career sleaze who can’t say the word “integrity” without getting big laughs. But even with no more elections to win, he’ll turn against the drug war the minute its poll trend predicts a durable move toward 55% percent opposed; he cares that much about being liked.

I know my preference. I cannot understand your wish. Because in the only world that exists, there is no third way. Neither you, nor I, nor Bosco, nor Radley, nor John McWhorter, nor any of the people you have in mind when it comes to honor and integrity…NONE of us will take even the first step toward becoming a police chief, because that would first mean becoming a cop.

So how is having a fair-minded, honest, civil libertarian police chief one of your options? And if that can’t happen in Berkeley, of all places, then what business do you have still hoping for it?

Hey Radley, absolutely no hostility or “But you said” or “I told you so” here, but how do you react to this? I’ve held ever since Citizen’s United (well, since before) that money is the biggest political polluter in this country, and those with a lot of money can buy policies that provide a narrow set of benefits that they’ll enjoy, but are frequently detrimental to everyone.

Or put another way, those who have want to shore up their position, not level the playing field. A bought government is not a Democracy, or a Republic.

Now that it turns out that that 80% of the money raised by SuperPACs has gone to the candidates of the “Party of the ultra-rich, and the hornswaggled”… I wonder what your thoughts are.

Really, neither. Talk about a false choice fallacy. Oh, wait you weren’t.

And I apologize for being snarky, but those aren’t our two choices and you shouldn’t present it as such. How about someone with honesty, honor, integrity, and some damned perspective?

http://www.610wiod.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104673&article=10155554

What is it with police refusing to listen to people during raids? They won’t let you tie your dog up, etc.

Why does the city tolerate this? Everything he says in response to his actions are a lie. Either he misappropriated taxpayer money and personnel resources for personal benefit, or, he has a shitty sense of his priorities as the head of ‘public safety’.

The Left (meaning, the entire city populace) should’ve been marching in the streets everyday after sending the Public Information Officer to the journalist’s house.

I just don’t get the Left’s actions and causes when it concerns basic liberties.

He should have called PeeWee instead.

Lesh’s Cannondale hybrid was stolen after he loaned it to a friend who’d secured it with a cable lock, which are easy to cut if you’re a theft with a pair of boltcutters handy.

But Lesh located the bike on Craiglist shortly after last weekend’s theft — his bike had a prominent sticker on it, so he was certain it was his.

The ad asked for $100, and Lesh called the police, who told him they wouldn’t be able to respond right away.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Vigilante-Bicyclist-Gets-His-Stolen-Bike-Back-150871045.html