Public servants

Baltimore’s “finest” (I guess they still call them that) arrest a young couple because they were lost and dared to ask the police for directions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H_iXI2DkDk&feature=youtu.be

And in this one, a Canton, Ohio police officer repeatedly threatens to shoot and kill people he has pulled over in traffic stops:

Anyone who thinks abuse of citizens by public servants is limited to police should read about the San Francisco Park and Rec employee who ran over a woman while she was sunbathing on the grass with her baby and dog in a San Francisco park, and instead of stopping, fled the scene of the accident. Neighbors had repeatedly complained about the man’s driving before, but nothing was done.

As the comments here illustrate, even liberal San Franciscans are outraged, and a lot of it has to do with the arrogance of government employees, especially those who got plum jobs via political patronage. They can’t be fired no matter what, they enjoy wonderful benefits, and the unions defend them to the hilt. And naturally when something like this happens, the taxpayers have to pay the multi-million dollar settlements.

The Park and Rec employee, btw, is a longtime lawn bowling champion. It seems to me that if the guy can see balls on the grass, he ought to be able to see a woman with her child and dog on the grass.

The sheer elitist arrogance involved reminds me of the Marquis St. Evremonde running over the little girl in A Tale Of Two Cities. But at least Evremonde stopped and threw the girl’s grieving father a gold coin.

Monsieur the Marquis ran his eyes over them all, as if they had been mere rats come out of their holes.

He took out his purse.

“It is extraordinary to me,” said he, “that you people cannot take care of yourselves and your children. One or the other of you is for ever in the way. How do I know what injury you have done my horses. See! Give him that.”

He threw out a gold coin for the valet to pick up, and all the heads craned forward that all the eyes might look down at it as it fell. The tall man called out again with a most unearthly cry, “Dead!”

As a fictional character, Evremonde was intended as a moral illustration of the evils of unaccountable elitism.

I’m starting to see Evremondes every day.