The Economist's Cookbook

Recipes For A More Free Society

  • "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they know about what they imagine they can design."

    - F.A. Hayek

You're An Asshole!

Posted by The_Chef On 2:52 PM 2 comments

Today's Recipient is one Judge Thomas V. Gainer Jr. from Chicago.

Let's do a bit of looking at this shall we?

1.) Cop gets videotaped drinking shots and other beverages before getting into his car.
2.) Cop causes an accident resulting in two fatalites.
3.) Cop cleared of all charges.

Prosecutors made two attempts to prove that Ardelean did. After the two-vehicle fatal crash Nov. 22 in Roscoe Village, Ardelean was charged with misdemeanor DUI -- later upgraded to a felony. But those charges were dismissed when Cook County Judge Don Panarese ruled there was "no indication" Ardelean, who was off-duty at the time, was drunk. Prosecutors reinstated charges after saying they had a lengthy surveillance videotape showing Ardelean drinking five shots and other drinks at a North Side bar shortly before the crash.

Prosecutors also suggested in pretrial hearings that police the night of the crash turned a blind eye to Ardelean's intoxication. Among other things, he wasn't arrested or given a Breathalyzer until seven hours after the crash. But Gainer ruled in April that the supervising officer who ultimately made the arrest didn't have strong enough evidence to do so. Gainer's ruling also suppressed key blood-alcohol evidence.

So what does the judge in this case do? Well he throws out the video evidence of course.

Now I ask my readers, if one of us had pulled a stunt like this, what would have happened to us? More appropriately, what would have happened to one of us if we had killed two cops while driving drunk?

Remember kids: The cops are not on your side. They are not your friend. They are NOT there to "protect and serve" you.

2 Response for the "You're An Asshole!"

  1. Make his award a double. He earned it.

  2. tom says:

    Cook County stole a really nice self-built custom from me way back when (when it was a misdemeanor, even) because I was "transporting it improperly" and I had to forfeit it as part of a plea.

    Think if I'd been drunk and had a badge I'd have been OK? I never thought of that. DAMN. If I could just go back in time and be a seriously corrupt Chicago area police officer, well, no, it was worth losing the 1911.

    I have to sleep with myself every night and I don't think I could if I ever worked for prats like that on purpose...Lots of those dudes make Batfook Max Kingery look like an Eagle Scout. The police report on my arrest wasn't even close to what happened. It was about as real as a Stephen King movie. Sometimes it's cheaper to eat a minor hit than to risk a bigger one...Chicago Political Machine and Police THRIVE on the fact that that is so.

    But on the other hand, when I die, I'll get to vote in every election in Chicago as a Democrat because I lived there once and they still have my old voter registraion number, no doubt. Although I never registered as a Demontwat, I bet they could make it so in my afterlife. :-)