Thomas Fleming, Crossing the I in Idiot and the T in Tyranny

“Click it or Ticket” is the current slogan. But there is also Drive Hammered, Get Nailed. Slow Down or Pay Up, Buckle Up, IT’S THE LAW. There has been a lot of discussion on websites about the ineffectiveness of these campaigns, especially when they are promoted by police officers, who are among the worst drivers in the country and who, despite privileges that come close to immunities, are at least as prone as lesser men, to driving under the influence. Anyone remember Eliot Ness? The sanctimonious alcoholic who failed to convict Al Capone? He was involved in a drunk-driving accident, though he did escape the consequences.

But it is not the futility or the hypocrisy of these campaigns that disturb me so much as it is the bullying tone. We the taxpayers who pay the salaries have to be preached at by a set of goons, many of whom could not hold a job selling shoes at the mall. Imagine the effect these slogans have on the mind of an overpaid unionized patrolman who already resents the entire middle class for failing to give him the even higher salary he thinks he is entitled to.

Yes, yes, I am only talking about bad cops, though funnily enough they make up the overwhelming majority of the cops with whom I have dealt with in the past decade. But, if we did have any residual belief that we were citizens in a free country, these ad campaigns should eliminate them. But where is the outcry from elected officials?