Beware Republicans Professing Freedom And Small Government (Especially Those Bearing Cameras)

A pair of Republican elected officials, apparently overlooking their ostensible advocacy of freedom and limited government, are ostentatiously celebrating the expenditure of substantial taxpayer funds on a license plate surveillance system for police cars from several municipalities.

Tim Murphy is one of the members of Congress playing a foolish game of chicken with the federal debt ceiling (when he is not securing funding for an expansion of government surveillance whose primary asserted justification is, of course, doobie-hunting). Steven Toprani is the junior varsity district attorney in Washington County who misunderstands the roles and relationships of prosecutors and judges in our criminal justice system.

We continue to believe that, if unblinking crime-detecting cameras are to be installed in public places, the obvious first choices for mountings are (1) the hoods of taxpayer-funded vehicles and (2) the offices of elected officials.

Infytune: Long Train Running, The Doobie Brothers
Infytune: Piece Of My Heart, Big Brother and the Holding Company
Infytune: For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield