On thugs, police overreach, and partisan hacks

David Wissig exhibits the kind of concern for civil liberties and privacy concerns we've come to expect from the party in power and its swamp fevered supporters.

I found out about this last night from people who attended the court case and this morning, the story is in The Baltimore Sun.

A man caught using a bayonet to cut up two large Bush-Cheney signs in Ellicott City during a spate of political-sign vandalism last fall was convicted of property destruction yesterday by Howard County District Judge Neil Edward Axel. Two other charges were dismissed.

Peter Lizon, 31, was given a year’s probation, and ordered to pay $328.04 in restitution to the Howard County Republican Party and provide 32 hours of community service.
….
Police watched as a minivan approached and stopped behind the signs about 4:45 p.m. Oct. 1, Detective Edward Upton testified. Lizon and his wife got out, and Peter Lizon retrieved gloves and a bayonet and began cutting out the centers of the two 4-by-8-foot panels set in a “V” shape, police said, while his wife appeared to keep a lookout. Officers, who were watching from both sides of U.S. 40, closed in and arrested the pair.

“It did have an impact on the community and the political process,” Axel said. The incident “reflects an escalation in society about the way campaigns are being conducted. What’s getting lost is the message,” he said.

If that isn’t enough good news, there was this additional piece of news that came out.

He faces a marijuana charge in Baltimore County, his attorney said, because two plants were discovered in his former Randallstown apartment by police who searched it while he and his wife were in jail.

Stephanie Lizon, 35, faces trial March 22 on property-destruction charges.

Personally, I thought the death penalty would have been too light a punishment, but at least there was a conviction of this thug. The additional charges of marijuana possession due to the police searching the thugs’ home over the sign destruction is an added bonus…..

Interesting that Wissig elides right over a paragraph in the Sun's story describing other acts of vandalism leading up to the election, including "a bullet fired into the home of a Democratic activist."

So, someone fires a bullet into the home of a Democrat and police start staking out Bush/Cheney signs. Then, for reasons that go unexplained in the story, the Ellicott City police decide that further investigation is needed, so they search this unfortunate couple's home. Looking for what, we're not told. Maybe a muzzle-loader to go with the bayonet.

And that's applauded by this prose stylist. Hackstatic!

Speaking of partisan hackery and self-justification, Krugman decides it's time to pull down the statue of Alan Greenspan, something I suggested the other day (Paul reads my blog, I feel sure of it).

On Wednesday Mr. Greenspan endorsed Social Security privatization. But there's a difference between 2001 and 2005. In 2001, Mr. Greenspan offered a convoluted, implausible justification for supporting everything the Bush administration wanted. This time, he offered no justification at all.

In 2001, some readers may recall, Mr. Greenspan argued that we needed to cut taxes to prevent the federal government from running excessively large surpluses. Even at the time it seemed obvious from his tortured logic that he was looking for some excuse, any excuse, to help out a Republican administration. His lack of sincerity was confirmed when projected surpluses turned into large deficits, and he nonetheless supported even more tax cuts.

This week, Mr. Greenspan offered no excuse for supporting privatization. In fact, he agreed with two of the main critiques of the administration's plan: that it would do nothing to improve the Social Security system's finances, and that it would lead to a dangerous increase in debt. Yet he still came out in favor of the idea.

Read, as they say, the whole thing.