Authoritarian wannabes

The Grand Ol' Police blotter now features not only Giuliani's aides. It seems that a senior aide to Mitt "Double Guantanamo" Romney has been watching too many episodes of Reno 911, thinking they're real.

Mitt Romney's director of operations is taking a leave of absence from the presidential campaign after becoming the focus of an investigation into allegations that he posed as a state trooper in a recorded phone call complaining about a company's driver, the campaign announced today.

The Globe reported today that Jay Garrity is the primary target in a State Police investigation into a May 13 call to a Wilmington drain and sewer cleaning business, in which a caller complained about the erratic driving of a company van.

During the phone call, a recording of which was made by the answering service and obtained by the Globe, a man calling himself "Trooper Garrity of the Massachusetts State Police" threatens to cite the driver he says he saw speeding and cutting off cars in the Ted Williams Tunnel.

Also this week, the New Hampshire attorney general's office opened an investigation into a charge that a Romney campaign aide -- identified as Garrity -- pulled over a reporter following a campaign vehicle and claimed to have run his license.

"He has taken a leave of absence from the campaign in order to address these complaints," said Kevin Madden, spokesman for the Romney campaign.

A lawyer for Garrity denied both allegations.

[...]

These were not the first times Garrity was accused of having law enforcement aspirations.

In 2004, he was cited by Boston police for having police equipment, such as flashing lights, mounted in his Crown Victoria without the proper permits.

They live in a fantasy world where they are all, in fact, "law enforcement officials," obsessed with the trappings of badges (or, in Garrity's case, "I don't need no stinkin' badge"), flashing lights, and who knows what hanging in their closets. Geez, the fact he even owns a Crown Vic is weird enough. They need to be kept far, far away from real power over people since they are so quick to use fake power to harass people.