Membership Has Its Privileges
Radley Balko | October 10, 2008, 1:26pm
Chicago may revise its strictest-in-the-country ban on using cell phones while driving—but only because one of the city's aldermen got caught breaking the law.
Chicago motorists who get caught talking on cell phones while driving without a hands-free device would no longer lose their driver's licenses, under a mayoral plan that would have spared a North Side alderman political embarrassment.
Last year, Ald. Tom Tunney (44th) got pulled over and ticketed for yakking on his cell phone while driving. He was forced to hand over his license like thousands of other motorists.
Tunney then called Town Hall District Cmdr. Gary Yamashiroya and demanded to know why officers in an "understaffed police district" with serious unsolved crimes were "assigned to pull people over solely for cell phone violations."
In response, Yamashiroya ordered a police officer -- not the one who wrote the $50 ticket -- to hand-deliver Tunney's driver's license to the alderman's ward office.
Motorists generally get licenses back only after they go to court or pay their fines.
Earlier this year, Chicago Alderman Dick Mell introduced a bill granting a grace period for Chicagoans who may have forgotten to register their guns (this would apply only to the handful of privileged Chicagoans permitted to own a gun). The reason for Mell's bill? He himself had forgotten to register his guns before the deadline.
Now you see how Chicago's aldermen could make the city one of the most paternalistic in the country. They either don't have to abide by the laws they pass, or they can simply pass a new law exonerating themselves should they get caught.
Jeff Carter | October 11, 2008, 7:49am | #
I agree with many of the above comments about Chicago. I live in the city. I moved here from the suburbs. Great restaurants, decent nightlife.
The sales tax, and all the other taxes are very tough to swallow. I don't shop in Chicago anymore, and I almost never buy gas here. The reason I live here is my job, and once that is done I will be gone.
Corruption and the machine make the city run really well sometimes-but the cost of that corruption is less freedom and extremely high taxes. There are no checks and balances in Chicago. Daley is a dictator.
But many of the people I have met down here are socialists too! They want a nanny state. They think that their taxes actually go to help poor people, not enrich friends of Daley or his machine. The machine will steal votes to stay in power. The ballot box here is corrupt.
The above comments about Cook County government are also true. In order to stay in power, Daley cut a deal with Jesse Jackson. He gave the blacks the county-with oversight from his brother on the county board. Daley gets the city. You ever hear a peep out of Jesse in Chicago anymore? That's because his sons were given the Budweiser distributorship. They have all the ballpark and stadium revenues, plus the bars. I know a lot of people that will only drink Miller because of it.
Chicago is photogenic. It has great theatre. Maybe the best restaurants in the country. But it's so full of graft and corruption it stinks. Wait until Obama gets in the White House; you will see so much earmarked money come here on the table and under the table you won''t know what hit you, until it's too late.
Daley wants the 2016 Olympics not because it's good for the city, but he knows all the public works projects he will have to do to get ready. He will line the pockets of his friends before he dies. (he is not a spring chicken anymore, and his father died of a heart attack at a slightly younger age than him.
All the Daleys are as corrupt as they come. Tammany Hall lives. "We don't want nobody nobody sent."
