http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/local-government-stupidity-contest/ Local Government Stupidity Contest
This post could be entitled, “So many dumb bureaucrats, so little time,” but let’s have some fun and turn it into a contest. Which bone-headed decision by a local government best exemplifies mindless bureaucracy, politically correct nonsense, and government waste? Contestant Number One is Sgt Brian Albert of the Baltimore County Natural Resources Police <http://www.wbaltv.com/r/26190428/detail.html>, who fined two men $90 each for the vicious, horrible, nasty crime of …(please don’t faint)… rescuing a deer. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. Two hardened criminals used an inflatable raft to free a helpless animal, but they flouted the law by not wearing life jackets. Since I already did a blog post about a man being fined for rescuing a wounded deer<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/great-moments-in-state-government-stupidity/>, I guess the moral of the story is that bureaucrats don’t like Bambi. Contestant Number Two is the Metro Police in Washington, DC, which has decided to harass random travelers <http://www.wtop.com/?sid=2208581&nid=25>by searching their bags before they board the subway. This is akin to the TSA’s mindless bureaucracy<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/time-to-shut-down-the-tsa/>– but even worse. There surely are nut-jobs who would like to blow up Americans, but they could do that on a bus, on a crowded street during rush hour, or any other place where a large number of people are gathered. Heck, they can drive a car into a crowd. Good intelligence by the CIA and FBI is the way to stop these crackpots, not empty security theater that makes life more difficult for law-abiding people. Contestant Number Three is the St. Paul School District in Minnesota, which has turned all schools into “sweet-free zones.”<http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/112131574.html>This ban also applies to salty foods, however that is defined, and deals “a blow to booster clubs and parent organizations, too, which won’t be able to sell hot chocolate, doughnuts, candy bars and cookies at school events.” I actually agree with Michelle Obama that American kids are overweight, but I also know that government intervention isn’t going to solve the problem<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/the-first-ladys-misguided-crusade/>unless we want a police state that bans video games, TVs, computers, and the other technological developments that are responsible for sedentary kids. Contestant Number Four is Battlefield High School, in Haymarket, VA, which disciplined 10 unrepentant gang members<http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=126671&catid=188>. What did these thugs do to warrant detention? Brace yourself and make sure no children are looking over your shoulders, because these hoodlums belong to a particularly nasty group called the Christmas Sweater Club and they got in trouble for handing out miniature candy canes. One school administrator (Mrs. Grinch?) explained that “not everyone wants Christmas cheer,” thus turning Jay Leno’s parody into reality<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/jay-leno-al-qaeda-and-the-war-against-christmas/> . So who wins the prize? I’m not technologically advanced enough to include a poll with this question, so the only thing we can really conclude is that governments do dumb things. That’s true at the national level, the state level, and the local level. I just wish I could write like Dave Barry. He had a hilarious column many years ago<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/classic-political-humor-from-dave-barry/>that was based on various examples of government stupidity. This post is more likely to make you cry rather than laugh, which is not good at this time of year. Nonetheless, feel free to comment if you think one of these stories stands out. The bad news is that governments do a lot of things they shouldn’t do. The good news is that I never run out of material. I’ve even created some sub-categories, such as my U.S. vs U.K. government stupidity contest<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/the-united-kingdom-is-doomed-by-a-perniciously-wimpy-form-of-political-correctness/>and my great-moments-in-local-government series<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/great-moments-in-local-government-pick-your-favorite-example-of-thuggery-and-incompetence/> . But I never thought I would have a special category about bureaucrats vs. Bambi. 1. Bureaucrats in Virginia filed three misdemeanor charges against a man<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/great-moments-in-state-government-stupidity/>for the horrible crime of rescuing a deer that was hit by a car. 2. Bureaucrats in Maryland fined two men $90 each<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/12/24/local-government-stupidity-contest/>for not having life jackets when they had the gall to rescue a deer that fell through some ice. 3. Bureaucrats in Indiana are threatening prison time for a family<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/great-moments-in-state-government-pinhead-bureaucrats-threaten-family-with-possible-prison-sentence-for-rescuing-a-baby-deer/>that rescued a baby deer from coyotes. The paper pushers of the world seem to harbor a special grudge against these harmless ruminants, since we now have another story about a baby deer. But this time, Bambi was the victim, not the family. Here are some of the unbelievable details from a local news report<http://www.wisn.com/news/armed-agents-raid-animal-shelter-for-baby-deer/-/9373668/21272108/-/wvh1n7z/-/index.html> . Two weeks ago, Schulze was working in the barn at the Society of St. Francis on the Kenosha-Illinois border when a swarm of squad cars arrived and officers unloaded with a search warrant. “(There were) nine DNR agents and four deputy sheriffs, and they were all armed to the teeth,” Schulze said. The focus of their search was a baby fawn brought there by an Illinois family worried she had been abandoned by her mother. My first reaction when reading this was “what the @#$*?” Is he public sector really so bloated that 13 bureaucrats have nothing better to do than to serve a search warrant for a baby deer? And why on earth were they heavily armed? Were they expecting Osama Bin Bambi? But don’t answer yet, because it gets more absurd. The Department of Natural Resources began investigating after two anonymous calls reporting a baby deer at the no-kill shelter. The warden drafted an affidavit for the search warrant, complete with aerial photos in which he described getting himself into a position where he was able to see the fawn going in and out of the barn. I’m not sure what part of this excerpt gets me more upset, the fact that some snitch informed on the shelter for having a baby deer, or the fact that the government is so wasteful that bureaucrats went through the cost of arranging aerial surveillance! Dangerous criminal executed As a taxpayer, I get agitated about the waste of money. As a decent human being, this next part bothers me even more. “I was thinking in my mind they were going to take the deer and take it to a wildlife shelter, and here they come carrying the baby deer over their shoulder. She was in a body bag,” Schulze said. “I said, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said, ‘That’s our policy,’ and I said, ‘That’s one hell of a policy.’” The local cops justified the overkill approach by equating an animal shelter with a crack house. “Could you have made a phone call before showing up, I mean, that’s a lot of resources,” WISN 12 News investigative reporter Colleen Henry asked. “If a sheriff’s department is going in to do a search warrant on a drug bust, they don’t call them and ask them to voluntarily surrender their marijuana or whatever drug that they have before they show up,” Niemeyer said, Horrified citizens are complaining and fighting back, though I’m not holding my breath that justice will be served. Schultz said she plans to sue the DNR for removing Giggles without even a court hearing. She also questioned what such an operation costs taxpayers. “They went way over the top for a little tiny baby deer,” Schultz said, Remember, though, that this type of government thuggery is hardly unusual. The Food and Drug Administration raided a dairy<https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/the-federal-milk-police-are-protecting-us-praise-the-lord/>for the terrible crime of selling unpasteurized milk to people who prefer unpasteurized milk. New York City imposed a $30,000 fine on a small shop<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/great-moments-in-local-government-the-new-york-city-edition/>because it sold a toy gun. The pinheads at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission went after Hooters<https://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/from-hooters-to-marylous-great-moments-in-eeoc-bureaucracy/>for not having any male waiters in hot pants and tight t-shirts. An unlucky guy wound up in legal hot water for releasing some heart-shaped balloons<http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/great-moments-in-state-government/>to impress his sweetheart. Yup, our tax dollars at work. And Obama thinks government is too small and needs more of our money so it can do even more things. __._,_.___ __,_._,___ -- -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PoliticalForum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
