California city officials typically spare police officers even
modest reductions in the pay and pension packages that are a main
source of local budget problems, even when the other alternatives
are cuts in public services or even municipal bankruptcy.
The common explanation is politicians are afraid of the cop unions’ political muscle come election time. That is true, but disturbing behavior by operatives associated with the Costa Mesa police union paints a much darker picture of the fear such unions instill in local officials. The incident has statewide and even national implications.
Costa Mesa Councilman Jim Righeimer had finished speaking at a community meeting last Wednesday, and then headed to a pub owned by fellow councilman Gary Monahan. Righeimer drank two sodas and drove home. After arriving home, a Costa Mesa cop showed up at his door and asked him to step outside and take a sobriety test, which he passed.
That a police officer can ask for a sobriety test after you have returned home is troubling enough, but the details of the case are even more astonishing.
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/08/31/police-unions-cross-line-while-bullying
The common explanation is politicians are afraid of the cop unions’ political muscle come election time. That is true, but disturbing behavior by operatives associated with the Costa Mesa police union paints a much darker picture of the fear such unions instill in local officials. The incident has statewide and even national implications.
Costa Mesa Councilman Jim Righeimer had finished speaking at a community meeting last Wednesday, and then headed to a pub owned by fellow councilman Gary Monahan. Righeimer drank two sodas and drove home. After arriving home, a Costa Mesa cop showed up at his door and asked him to step outside and take a sobriety test, which he passed.
That a police officer can ask for a sobriety test after you have returned home is troubling enough, but the details of the case are even more astonishing.
Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2012/08/31/police-unions-cross-line-while-bullying
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