Not just like us... they ARE us.

A recurring theme on this blog has been the exceptions to various laws made for law enforcement officers. The idea that law enforcement officers are somehow special, and deserving of rights that ordinary citizens do not have, is not only wrong, but actually dangerous. "Special rights" breeds all kinds of abuses.

Most of the "special rights" relate to firearms. It's supposedly OK for a police officer to possess and own a newly-manufactured machine gun, even though ordinary citizens cannot -- and even though the only crime committed with a legally-owned machine gun was committed by a police officer. It's OK for police officers to carry a concealed firearm while off duty, outside of their jurisdiction, and even after retirement, but not for ordinary citizens.

But there are other "special rights" hidden in the system that are only now coming to light. And the stench is at least as bad as the firearms "rights".

Authorities gave Michelle Szuhay another woman's identity to use while undercover.

Haley Dawson has never been a stripper.

But Ohio liquor-control agents took her identity and gave it to a
22-year-old college student who they had recruited to work undercover as a nude dancer.

It's now OK for police officers (at least in Ohio; I wouldn't be surprised if other states have similar laws) to steal someone's identity as part of an investigation. Even if the person's identity they appropriate is still alive. Even if the stolen identity involves working as a stripper. What kind of damage could that do to someone's reputation?

There's a saying in the anti-spam community. It's based on the fact that spammers often define spam narrowly, in a way that excludes their business model, and think that makes it OK for them to spam while claiming to be anti-spam themselves. The saying goes: "Spam is what we don't do."

I think government needs a similar line: "Crime is what we don't do."

Because we all know that governments, even the best of governments, behave like criminals -- enforcing their decisions by threat and application of violence, and carefully writes the laws they enforce so as to exclude their own conduct.

Posted on 2005-04-13 11:27:35.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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