Pesky Intrusions
I’ll tell you what. It’s a good thing there’s a movement underway to keep that pesky bureaucratic, nasty, self-indulgent, self-important, burdensome, expensive and just plain pain in the ass government, out of our collective lives.Do you remember a few weeks back? Well, I’ll remind you. It seems that Mr. Ophadel Williams, aka Eric Williams, was driving for the World Wide Tours tour company and drove a bus owned by the Webster Trucking Company. He carted people from and to Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun Casino primarily on behalf of New York City carousers.
On the above referenced occasion, it appears as though Mr. Williams made a profoundly less than handily transacted vehicle manipulation and, instead, hoisted the large vehicle against an inanimate object. Of the 32 passengers on that fateful night, 15 were killed.
Let’s examine the record for a bit. “Who is this Mr. Ophadel Williams?” I hear you ask. It appears as though said Mr. Williams has himself a bit of history.
Let’s see, Williams was convicted of manslaughter for his role in fatally stabbing a man in 1990 and served just over two years, according to New York State Department of Correctional Services. He had initially been charged with second-degree murder. He also served about three years, from 1998 through the middle of 2002, for grand larceny for removing an $83,905 check from a Police Athletic League fund, according to Linda Foglia, correctional services spokeswoman. Williams used aliases in both those cases. He was imprisoned from 1998 to 2002.
He also was arrested by New York City police on June 4, 2003, for driving with a suspended license, and for possession of police radios. In 1987, he was arrested on charges of trying to get on public transportation without paying.
His driving privileges were suspended after he ignored tickets for speeding and driving without a license in 1995,
And, of course, these trifles were omitted in attempting to obtain gainful employ and so advising World Wide Tours of his background.
Thus far, New York State has boldly stepped where no man has stepped before. All present and future driving privileges are hereby revoked and refused. Small consolation for the relatives of the victims.
My friend Peter was jubiliant! “My faith in American justice has been restored.” Said he, with right hand placed over his heart and left index finger pointed heaven ward. I could all but hear the background music to the ‘Superman’ weekly television show as Superman stood, arms akimbo while Jackson Beck advised that Superman was fighting for “…truth, justice and the American way.” Sort of gets you right here doesn’t it?
As we discussed the safeguards with which we the American public impose upon those who access our local and Federal highways, we came to reaffirm the significance of the stature within which our government attempts to regulate the goings-on surrounding this bit of business.
And then it occurred to me: the mantra of Dick Armey, Reaganites and Tea-Partiers. Let the free market regulate trade. This mantra is more in response to the perception of the government’s meddling in private affairs. In fact, however, the government is ensuring that there is, in fact, a free market at all, by policing whether everyone’s playing fair. In this case, the government is in industry’s face in order to ensure public safety. The Tea Partiers have recently complained about this level of intrusion, too. Witness Rand Paul’s latest noise concerning our relative clean air these days and how government should keep out of policing so called pollutants. He fails, of course, to mention that part of the reason for cleaner air today is directly due in no small part to the clean-air and clean-manufacturing government imposed regulations which has been the rule of law over the past forty years.
And now here we have a reason for maintaining records which enable potential employers to perform background checks on potential employees. These records are here for a purpose. Let’s hear it, class: To protect us. Yes. That’s right. To protect us.
posted by Marty Brounstein @ 11:15 AM
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