Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/13/6k-in-frisbees.html
…
6 Likes
Electing law enforcement officials who are responsible to no one but the voters (those who care to vote) is about the stupidest model I can thing of. Why do I suspect the degree of minority voter suppression in these elections might be rather high?
21 Likes
That’s a man who is hiding something. What could it have been? My bet – and I’m probably wrong – is “confiscated” kiddy porn. But whatever it is, he did not want it found.
Thank the lord for all these wonderful people.
18 Likes
Some of these allegations seem pretty weak. Spending $13k on a $10k washer because he bought it locally instead of online? This is wrongdoing? Spending $6,200 on public outreach items (frisbees, etc…) is exactly what that money is intended to be used for.
It doesn’t make the case look all that strong when you’re talking about 3 or 4 actual bad actors and then a bunch of mostly harmless pranks and absolute molehills. That dude who stole 3/4 of a million bucks from the prison meal fund should be prosecuted. The guy who systematically destroyed evidence before leaving office is awfully suspicious. Guy who stocked up on non-perishables from the discretionary fund I’m not so sure about.
3 Likes
It is odd - How are voters supposed to judge the law enforcement credentials of a senior police officer? Wouldn’t the usual method of recruiting/promoting worthy experienced officers be the better way of doing things?
They’ll be voting for judges next! 
8 Likes
So if I (a non-police officer) drilled holes in police hard drives and cell phones, would you call that “awfully suspicious” or maybe something else?
6 Likes
Sure, if it says something like “X County Sheriff’s Department”. Those are still useable after he’s gone. He put his name on them which was either dodgy campaign spending or a waste of money, especially if he ordered them knowing he was leaving office, which makes it a petty little power trip.
These aren’t pranks, they’re pissy little passive-aggressive fits or outright criminal behaviour from so-called law enforcement professionals.
18 Likes
This was all spending that was done after they lost the election, solely for the point of emptying the coffers of the people who replaced them. Spending thousands on things they use for their job is not the same as wasting thousands in tax dollars to make it harder for someone else to do their job.
14 Likes
Holy Alabama! They’re acting like Republicans…
4 Likes
I’m guessing a whole lot of things. E.g. systematic and long-time corruption and misappropriation of funds.
Given the seriousness of the other accusations, I have to wonder if some sort of kickback was involved…
With his name on them, after he lost the election. These are pretty consistently “fuck you” ways of wasting public money to punish their successor for winning the vote, even when they’re not outright theft.
11 Likes
That’s weird, I wouldn’t expect a cop to be petty, wasteful, and childish.
Oh, wait.
4 Likes
this is yet another argument for those who lose elections to be escorted by security out of the building immediately, before they are able to pull shit like this or make lame duck power grabs á la the North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan GOP
4 Likes
Exactly! All elected officials voted out of office should be immediately escorted from the premises by security.
The idea that they get months to mess around before leaving makes me nuts. At best I would expect that an outgoing official is going to be neglectful of things that are difficult. At worst, stuff you see in this article.
1 Like
“Just some good ol’ boys, never meaning no harm…”
3 Likes
This is the problem of executive branch being elected. You can’t stop the day to day operations and there’s a time frame where the old officer is still in charge. Elected legislative doesn’t have this problem because a new law isn’t blocking operations. Not to mention the problem that an elected judge is.
1 Like
Would the answer change if the devices had been smashed with a hammer?
1 Like
'Bama’s gonna 'bama.
<— Raised in the south. Will never live there again.
Yeah. It makes some amount of sense for the presidency because you ideally need to be briefed on a bunch of things and select people for key support roles before taking office.
Still, it’s mostly a holdover from the days when it took months to count votes and have the winners travel around the country and so on.
How about DBAN?
Drilling holes through hard drives is one of the ways you can make sure the data on them are not accessed. That is the only “iffy” one I see on the list. Maybe that group of people were just ignorant of how to remove data in a non-destructive way and were just trying to protect the data. Trying to wipe the data on hard drives of a previous administration isn’t necessarily criminal (unless they were trying to cover up criminal acts).
The rest of the crap is petty and/or criminal… and shameful. Another reason Alabama is on my do-not-go-to list. They obviously have some law enforcement that acts like kings of little fiefdoms.
We had a situation here several years ago where a new sheriff was elected and promptly went through the department and purged any staff who had been supportive of the old sheriff (who he had defeated.) Never heard of any destruction of property, but destruction of peoples’ lives certainly was done.
2 Likes
