Mitt Romney Once Harangued a Neighbor for Smoking Pot, Then Called the Cops
Mitt Romney is one uptight sonofabitch, according to his neighbors in La Jolla, Calif., where the GOP presidential nominee is known to be the kind of guy who will bust your chops if he catches you having a brew and a toke on the sand:
The Romneys rarely entertain neighbors, but they have tried to weave themselves into the fabric of local life. Mr. Romney and his wife take regular walks around La Jolla, exchanging pleasantries with fellow strollers and occasionally enforcing the law. A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop.
The issue appears to be a recurring nuisance for the Romneys. Mr. Quint, who lives on the waterfront near Mr. Romney, said that a police officer had asked him, on a weekend when the candidate was in town, to report any pot smoking on the beach. The officer explained to him that "your neighbors have complained," Mr. Quint recalled. "He was pretty clear that it was the Romneys."
Buzzkill courtesy of The New York Times.
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I think it’s pretty clear by now that Mitt Romney is that guy.
But the whole thing about how basketball, football, etc., are examples of “sport.” I don’t get that at all.
Flip Flopney is just despicable….
We should definitely keep Obama in there. He doesnt scold people about using drugs, he just has them shot.
I think it is safe to say that after Flip wins, and he will win, the WOD will continue as it is now, and that is tragic.
the WOD will continue as it is now
I would love to believe that, if I didn’t really believe that it will expand, and I am sure that it will.
Of course it will. Ending the WOD, like any substantial policy change, will take several cycles of electing people amenable to ending the WOD. Which of the two alternatives do you suppose would move in the direction of more liberalism and progressiveness on drug policy over time?
Well since Obama has ramped up the drug war and we don’t know for sure what Romney would do yet I supposed Romney has a marginally better chance of moving in that direction.
The party matters more than the person. But I can’t think of another Republican personality less likely to favor drug law liberalization than Mitt Romney.
It’s drug war moral nannies of the right who forbid political movement in either party on drug policy. The left is inherently for liberalization but have no incentive to spend political capital on the issue. Same with libertarians apparently. Rand Paul has weaseled into a federalist argument on the issue, and his stated reason for being against increased incarcerations for drug use? Because putting more people in prison means making more Muslims.
The skittishness all around doesn’t seem to track with public opinion, but the fact is nobody wants to talk about drug liberalization because of a bad risk/reward ratio.
If you ask me step one is to stop rewarding parties who exploit racial fear for political gain. Because, though it would have an equivalent political impact, we sure as hell aren’t gonna start arresting a proportionate number of white people for drug offenses.
Sadly, the position of both Pauls on drugs is about the best for which we can hope. At least they would actually leave the states alone. Hopefully over the next ten years we will see more and more decriminalization and tolerance.
You mean the party that gives lip service to decriminalization and/or legalization but doesn’t do a damn thing about it? Or the team that openly despises drug users?
Oh and the team that exploits racial fear for political gain would be: The Republocrats. Or is that the Democricans?
And in case you were wondering, Romney’s stated position is against medical marijuana and not changing federal drug laws.
T o n y|6.6.12 @ 10:49PM|#
“Of course it will. Ending the WOD, like any substantial policy change, will take several cycles of electing people amenable to ending the WOD.”
Yes, shithead, totally ending the WOD will take that.
Now shithead, please defend your fave pres who has upped the ante on the prosecution of the WOD.
Go ahead, shithead, tell us how your fave pres has made *any* attempt at ending it rather than increasing the enforcement.
Or, shithead, simply admit you’re defending and excusing one more shithead.
Would he gain your vote if he were “soft on drugs?” No, didn’t think so. So whose votes would he gain?
In other words, you admit that Obama is no better than Romney on this issue. Which makes you a hypocritical bastard for trying to use it against Romney and to promote Obama.
Standard fare for you, though.
I said nothing about Obama, I am referring to political coalitions, or legislative power. In any country, if you want to liberalize drug laws, do you elect right-wing or leftist coalitions?
Watching Sevo and Tony argue is like watching two retarded gorillas fight over a spoiled banana.
In this country? Neither, because the Democrats are about as likely to give up the WoD as they are to cut the budget. In other words, hell will freeze over first.
They’re like the GOP and small government; they talk a good game (sometimes) but when they’re put in power they do the exact opposite.
What do Thomas Sowell, William F. Buckley, George Schultz, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo, Charles Murray, and David Boaz have in common (aside from being right wingers)?
10 seconds, Bob.
They’re all men?
If Obama said consistently that all federal drug laws should be repealed and that he woudl make that a priority, I’d probably vote for him.
Which of the two alternatives do you suppose would move in the direction of more liberalism and progressiveness on drug policy over time?
Wasn’t it progressivism that gave us drug prohibition in the first place?
For a while Democrats did seem marginally better on drug policy, but now I can’t see much difference. In NH, there have been a few medical MJ and decriminalization bills passed by the republican controlled legislature and vetoed by the Democrat governor. I think you have to look at the individual candidates on this issue. Neither party is really any good generally on the issue.
Yeah, at least Obama would invite that guy over for a bear summit.
Do they shoot the bear?
“A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop.”
OK. I’m not about to claim Mittens didn’t do this.
But, hey, that reads exactly like ‘my wife’s hairdresser’s cousin knows someone who…’,
I really, really doubt that Mittens is that brave.
You’re probably right. Hey, anyone smoking a j could chew his face off!
It’s all pretty vague and I guess I am as uncool as Romney.
If I came across a kid in his early teens drinking and doping in my residential neighborhood, I would send him home with a lecture and some threats (telling parents, cops, etc…).
If it was an adult doing it (in an open area – not their own property) I would definitely call the cops. Do your highing on your own property or at least away from me and my house.
Why would you do this? Because it’s illegal?
A more important question: is it wrong? Should a pot smoker feel a sense of mens rea in the absence of said restriction? If not for society pouring negative drug messages into their brain non-stop since they could walk, no person would feel guilty for lighting up. There are various laws against murder but I doubt that most people will suddenly start killing if murder laws were repealed. People, in general, feel guilty when they commit that act. Not so with the lit doob.
I let the guy go. The law is unjust and the government does not appear to any longer have the consent of the governed in this matter. Think of it as public jury nullification.
Yeah, some old fart like you is going to make an impression like that. It’s this sort of authoritarian, condescending behavior while simultaneously “punishing them for thheir own good” (seriously – calling the cops helps the kid…how?) with regard to drugs that’s caused kids not to listen to anything we say anymore. We have much to offer but they’ve tuned us out. They know better.
Putz
I don’t care what they do elsewhere. I care about location.
A kid I don’t recognize smoking dope and drinking in my neighborhood? Nope – goodbye.
A neighbor’s kid – the lecture is going to “are you so stupid you do this in plain sight?”
I don’t care who thinks I’m a putz.
That said, highing would be a cool, newly-introduced gerund – if “being high” was a noun. But it’s not so, in addition to being to being just plain wrong about drugs, you’re not even able to make a grammatically correct, cool sounding way to say “under the influence” without sounding like a geezer.
You’re not helping!
Well, I guess you are a dick too.
Yes I’m a dick – stay the fuck off my lawn and don’t go near me or my kids while drinking or drugging. Stay away from my neighbors too. Take that shit somewhere else.
I do not care in the least what you do elsewhere.
Drake, feel free to tell people on your property or in public to stop drinking/smoking if you like.
Its the trying to get them jackbooted and their lives wrecked that we object to. Your preference that nobody near you do something you disapprove of is all very well, but thinking it entitles you to have somebody beaten, jailed, and their life blighted by a criminal record that pisses us off.
So when Mitt Romney or I tell you to go away, you should do so. I’m not a drug warrior but I have little patience for stupidity. Smoking pot and underage drinking in public is stupid.
I’m not a drug warrior, but I’ll call the dogs on you if you dare get high in my vicinity.
You might want to rethink that position.
No – I’ll call if you don’t go away. Understand?
We completely understand.
So “Stupid” = deserves to be beaten, jailed and life ruined. Got it. You’re obviously a wonderful person, and a great parent, Drake.
I would love for him to come over to my place and try to bust my chops for having a brew. (:
Too vague to tell, but it doesn’t sound like the kid was at his own place.
Romney is a narc? In related news, water is wet.
Romney is a narc?
Nope, just a neocon RINO jackass.
Yeah, it makes good sense to hold this sort of behavior against a guy running to be the person generally understood to be in charge of executing the laws.
Isn’t California the state where people sick the cops on you just for smoking a cigarette on the beach?
Joints are ok though.
Joints are ok though.
I’m going to have to sick [sic] the spelling police on you.
Sick is a perfectly acceptable variant spelling of that word.I think it should be the preferred one. “Siccing” “sics” and “sicced” all look kinda goofy don’t they?
I googled repeatedly until I finally found a link that supported my joke opportunity. I stand by my due diligence.
A state full of Brett Kimberlins and the next president fits right in. That’s. just. swell.
Let me guess, Team Blue will cackle about what a square Romney is while their guy ramps up the war on marijuana to unseen levels. Team Red will applaud their Romney’s tough-on-crime attitude and contrast it with their fantastical image of Obama as a live-and-let-live pothead hippie.
OT:
As a resident of San Francisco, I had the pleasure of watching your tax dollars at work delivering out cherished leader to, well, collect money for his campaign.
Unfortunately, he chose to mess up traffic in the city of San Francisco rather than deliver his inspiring talk on “hope and change” at the shuttered Solyndra plant in Fremont where there is clear evidence of his message. Our resident not-too-sharp-knife of a mayor did the intro:
“President Obama ‘has been thinking the same things that we’ve been doing in San Francisco,” he said. “We’re creating jobs?we’re using our innovation locally to do that..and this is exactly the same page that President Obama has had.”
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05el…..nge/?tsp=1
If he is reelected (much less likely after bogarting the DNC money hit and not letting the Wisconsin SEIU partake), it’s so nice to know that he is incapable of learning from his mistakes. Especially the expensive ones that cost all of us.
If he is re-elected, secessionist groups are going to see a lot of new members. Sadly, if Romney wins a lot of those same people will assume that everything is just hunky-dory.
Romney was just mad the guy wouldn’t share, lol.
http://www.buycrapatmywebsite.com
Asking people to stop smoking hooters at La Jolla Shores is like asking Mormons to stop wearing temple garments.
I wonder if he’s been to Black’s Beach yet? It’s been a nudist beach at least since I first lived in San Diego as a kid in 1979. Black’s is just at the north end of La Jolla–he couldn’t possibly NOT have walked through it at least once.
If you’re not gonna walk down the beach every once in a while, then why the hell move to La Jolla?
Just for the record, Black’s has some of the best surfing in San Diego County.
…and that’s how I know about it.
ditto. it also offered an opportunity to surf nude, which was fun as a novelty but not practical for more than a few waves.
great surf spot.
Hey dick wad, why haven’t you been on any of the police threads? There is all kinds of procedures that were followed and everything. Oh, and, die in a fire with your progeny you cock-gobbling jack-booted thug.
as i have already explained, i’ve been out on injured leave and have some medical issues. i’m not ON the net that much right now
furthermore, i don’t have any obligation to post on any particular cop issue. some i find interesting, others i don’t.
i’m as fierce a critic of excessive force as anybody, i merely understand WHAT is is, more importantly, what it is NOT, and unlike most bigots, don’t jump to conclusions based on little to no evidence, except for histrionic articles written with little investigation done of actual case facts
Quetion for Officer Dunphy: if you’re off-duty, do you arrest the kid smoking the joint on the beach? Moreover, do you see any of the effects of prohibition about which we argue so much here and use thinking, logical discrestion on the kid?
Because, as I noted above, arresting that kid isn’t making his or anyone else’s life better. But it will boost someone’s drug arrest stats – which, unofficially or not, must have some impact on the officer’s career advancement – so I assume that there’s some motivation to simply… do exactly the wrong thing in this case.
What do you do, Dunphy?
what do i do? nothing. no self-respecting cop makes such an arrest off duty. also, last i checked, in california, possession of small amounts of MJ isn’t even a crime, it’s punishable as a civil infraaction, like a speeding ticket.
officers are (at least in agencies i have worked) strongly discouraged from taking off duty action for any sort of victimless crime, and many nonviolent crimes
the last time i took action off duty was when a woman was beating another with a bat. i tackled her, disarmed her, and held her for the local PD.
one could argue that arresting the kid WOULD make his life better. maybe it would push some sense into his brain (they call it dope for a reason), and make him realize that openly smoking pot like that is fantastically stupid, but i’d still say no.
i’ve witnessed people smoking pot on DOZENS of occasions off duty, including at parties, or whatever. if i’m at a party, the ethical thing to do is leave. i could get in trouble for continuing to hang out there if i knew there was a bunch of drug use going on, even pot.
i’ve also seen people doing cocaine off duty (in a nightclub), and again i did nothing.
Judge Ito’s niece Elizabeth lived in my city in the 90’s (no idea where she is now) and I used to hang with her. Very pretty, long, tall, great bone structure, bit of a poseur personality though. Anyway, she told me she was out bathing at a nude beach near La Jolla, likely the same one I guess. When she heard a one note klang! klang! klang! sound. She looked up. Some Mexican dude was walking by with serious ball point metal pieces pierced on his junk that struck together every time he stepped forward. It looked very painful from her pov, but he never once winced.
Why would he fuck with people at the Shores when he overlooks Sea Lane?
I didn’t know exactly where he lived, but if I were him at this point?
I’d totally sell that house.
Everybody in the whole friggin’ country knows his home address now. And there’s public access to his house!
Sounds like he belongs in Fairbanks Ranch anyway.
Maybe Rancho Santa Fe? I used to go on great road bike rides back in that area. Some very nice homes with plenty of privacy.
Mitt Romney is a bigger buzzkill than Buzz Killington.
Another reason to hate Romney. I can’t stand people who can’t mind their own fucking business.
Reminds me of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9ySCcnoo3c
I wonder if this story is even true?
If so, who cares? He can accost people for smoking pot if he wants to. This is America and he can disagree with his neighbors.
You’re right.
It’s not like he nationalized two-thirds of the American auto industry.
Yeah in America you have the right to be a busybody shithead but nobody has to like them or vote them into office.
I have no love for Romney, but this story sounds like a piece of shit.
It just don’t pass the sniff test.
It rings true to me.
He’s been a teetotaler all his life.
I don’t think there’s anything in Romney’s Utah or Massachusetts experience that would prepare him for what’s commonly accepted in La Jolla.
The idea that people could be smoking out like nobody cares? I can imagine that blowing his mind.
I’ve read some biographical stuff about Romeny, and the personality quirk that sticks out–the one his father warned him about–is not being able to relate well to ordinary people.
Having come from sheltered privilege, these things seem much different to him than they do to us. They’re not just people breaking the law. They’re moral publicly displayed moral failures.
I don’t know whether the story’s true for sure, but, like I said, it rings true. Hell, I yelled at some kids that were smoking on the other side of the wall from my house a while back myself.
Seems like it was just yesterday I was one of those kids that…
Hey you kids, get off of my lawn!
I don’t know. If you read the whole NY times piece, it reads like nothing but a bunch of rich bitch team blue partisans who don’t want Willard living in their neighbourhood.
The neighbors quoted seemed to be mostly whiny-ass Team Bluers who would totally be kissing ass if it was Obama living there. For La Jolla, it seemed to be strangely devoid of quotes from Team Red folks — oh, wait, this was done by the NYT. Nevermind.
That being said, I can totally see a devout Mormon like Romney lecturing some kid about smoking pot in public, and even threatening to call the cops.
I’ve harangued people for smoking weed publicly when I was actually smoking with them. Use a little discretion.
I do the same thing when people when I see two teens kissing. I mean, use a little discretion.
/what?
As unexcited as ROMNIAC gets everything about anything else, I find him getting exercised about this one particular thing very unlikely.
I’ve read some biographical stuff about Romeny, and the personality quirk that sticks out–the one his father warned him about–is not being able to relate well to ordinary people.
“I like to fire people.”
You know what he meant.
Yeah, it didn’t occur to him, that statement wouldn’t sell well to ordinary people. …but it should have.
There was a pretty good review of a couple of Romney books a while back in the NYRB. They give some pretty good biographical information. I mean, I’d rather have just about anybody running rather than another four years of Obama, but how much do we really know about Romney as a person?
R.B. Scott, a longtime magazine and newspaper journalist who is a fellow Mormon and former occasional Romney adviser who tried to enlist Romney’s cooperation in his book, Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics, cannot escape (and to his credit does not shy away from) pursuing certain dark corners of Romney’s character and identifying his weaker points:
“His inability to empathize with common folk had long been his hoary hoodoo. His father had warned him about it. As a Mormon stake [roughly, a diocese] president, he was kind if often impatient and patronizing with members who didn’t measure up or were beneath him in rank and in intellectual and spiritual prowess. And on and on it went.”
http://www.nybooks.com/article…..tt-romney/
It’s not a long article, but it’s got some interesting stuff in there. Does the guy described in that article tell his neighbors to cut out the partying?
Um…yeah. I think so.
i think if you look at the background of most of our former presidents and candidates in recent memory, they mostly also would have difficulty with the “common folk”. look at the backgrounds of the bushes, kerry, obama, etc.
Incidentally, the New York Times shouldn’t have printed a picture of his house like that.
That was wrong.
They print pictures of Obama’s house all the time.
They showed bunches of pics of it when they were doing the tax return analysis.
Why not?
There are thousands of kooks out there who mean Romney harm.
His house backs up to a publicly accessible beach.
You’re posting under a pseudonym, presumably, because you don’t want people to know who you are. How much worse would it be for someone like Romney, when all the kooks out there now know not just his name, not just his home address, but also how to get into his house?
That’s wrong.
If some anonymous commenter posted Romney’s address on the New York Times website, they would have the sense to take it down. So why would they effectively print the same information themselves?
That’s certainly worse than Palin talking about “Don’t retreat, reload!” That’s basically saying “All you kooks out there who don’t like Romney? Here’s where you can find him and/or his family.”
I’ve seen a picture of Obama’s house a few times.
Hi, Ken Shultz, I’m John Walstrum from MD (I think you are too).
I post as Pi Guy because it says more about me (I think) to people who don’t know me on the internet. I cross-post to my FB page when it suits me. And it’s kinda fun, kinda like being part of a club. Or a gang.
Jeebus, Duude – this is the 21t Century and we have the Intergoogles. Someone with just a little bit of gumption could ferret out who I am, where I live, and whether or not these are my real teeth without much effort.
No – I am not hiding. I just picked a screen name when prompted 8 or 10 years ago. But I guess you feel brave and confident commenting openly – if “Ken Scultz” is your real name.
I grew up in Laurel.
And, for this, I commiserate.
And I’m with you every time you bash MD pols. They suck hairy donkey balls.
Hence, the old Vulcan proverb: “Only Romney could end the War on Drugs.”
Thank God we now know that ROMNIAC picked on a kid in high school, was mean to his dog on a long trip, and now tattles on pot smokers.
Wasting our time with the legal-academic career of our current president, however, was completely beneath the MSM, because one’s thoughts and writings on constitutional law have literally nothing to do with the job of choosing USSC Justices.
These Mittens stories are now parodies of themselves.
This one is different than the others. For one thing it is a recent thing and not something in a distant path. Being a nosy busybody is not a good trait for an elected official.
Also, just because Obama is a shithead doesn’t preclude Romney from being a shithead as well.
I don’t see this as different at all.
Spending time on the personalities of the candidates as opposed to spending time on the details of their governance just reminds me how much of the election is no more than a high school prom queen election writ large.
Mitt is a tattletale. Obama laughs that he gets away with not just a dabble in coke and weed while others whose only difference from him is being caught, rot in jail.
I know which I think is worse, but more importantly, I think this kind of shit should be ignored as much as possible.
People with good traits don’t go into politics at a high level. Rising through the ranks essentially requires rank egotism and ruthlessness.
Being a nosy busybody is an unfortunately common trait for an elected official.
Holy shit! Yglesias gets one right.
Whoa, are we in Tianamen? Because I see a square!
Snitches get stitches, bitchez!
That looks like it might jsut work dude.
http://www.Anon-Privacy.tk
oddly enough, I could see my old man haranguing someone for smoking pot. Of course as an ex-(cigarette) smoker, he’s just weird about stuff like that.
Mr. Quint, who lives on the waterfront near…
“If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don’t want no volunteers, I don’t want no mates, there’s too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing.”
Wait, the dude who wants to be president is an authoritarian dick? How does that separate him from the other guy? Because being a pot scold is less cool than being a food scold?
Romney sucks, but…
Slow news day? Some stoner thinks Romney may have complained about drug use. Who cares? If you had some actual proof that it was the Romney’s that complained then maybe I would care but I doubt it. It’s no haircut.
It’s Mike Riggs. ANYTHING he can find against Romney is getting posted.
Oh my God, Reason is shattering my image of Romney as a free-wheeling libertine.
Seriously? How many marijuana users and legal distributors have been “harangued” by BO’s henchmen? And BO doesn’t even have the excuse of a lifetime of aversion to the stuff.
If only Romney could be a sweetheart like yours truly, a less well-off peaceful anarchist.
I was responsible for a Marine being court martialed for smoking mj. The difference is said Marine was on guard duty.
My neighbor, on the other hand, freely smoked in my presence on his leisure time. (I don’t use it personally.)
Rombama isn’t the answer to our problems. Elect Ron Paul, tell the government to GTFO out of our lives and our wallets and leave us the fuck alone.
And if they won’t comply, because those bitches are our servants, then we should kill them. The body politic needs to be ready to stamp out a few government authority figures who can’t behave according to the very limited charter/job description provided in the Consitution.
That’s the answer to our problems. Not electing the drones that the government has put in front of you. There is no choice here. You’ve all been fooled if you still think you were given a choice.
Wow…. What a well-sourced piece of reporting…..
Freedom for me…but not for thee. Stop smoking that pot!
Just another example how far Romney is detached from reality and the human race.