LIBERTARIAN PARTY OF COLORADO BLOG

Fake Cops not much different from real cops

Denver police advise drivers to be aware of a police impersonator who has been robbing people after pulling them over with emergency lights.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8124297

Just to be clear, the police claim he is not another cop. However I am not sure what he does that is all that different from what “real” cops do when they pull people over, except the fleecing happens later.

Somewhat related Arizona story: http://www.tuccille.com/blog/2008/01/attacked-by-cop-on-dark-road.html (thanks to a thousand cuts!)

Gov. Ritter wants Taxes, more taxes, and even more taxes!

Gov. Bill Ritter is working on legislation that would increase car registration fees an average of $100, raising $500 million for road and bridge repairs.

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The commission's other proposals included a 13-cent-a-gallon increase in the state fuel tax. The tax is now 22 cents a gallon and 20.5 cents a gallon on diesel fuel.

A fuel-tax increase would have to go to voters, as would other proposals to increase the state's sales and use tax and the severance tax on oil and gas exploration. The panel suggested a 1.7 percent severance-tax increase to raise $96 million.

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Some lawmakers are advocating for a severance-tax increase for higher education.

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The transportation panel also proposed tacking an extra $6-a-day fee on hotel-room or auto-rental bills to pay for road improvements. That fee would generate about $240 million and would not need voter approval.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8124936

These guys never get enough. Wasn’t the previous governor (Bill Owens) the one who said that he was all about roads, and that if we passed referendum C that the majority of the money would go towards road improvements? Now they want more money. Each and everyone of these tax increases is a bad idea. Don’t punish tourists and don’t punish the rest of us. The government has overextended itself and the solution is to unburden itself, rather than add burdens on the tax payers.

Lawmaker exposes himself

A lobbyist is accusing House Assistant Majority Leader Michael Garcia of exposing himself to her and making lewd comments at a bar.

The woman said she decided to register a complaint with Romanoff after learning about four similar allegations against Garcia over the past seven years.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_8131286

I am not sure if I even care about the incident itself, but it sure does illustrate how immoral our legislators are. This guy is also a teacher, he is just the kind of guy I don’t want having access to my money or my kids.

Money stolen from the Aurora police property room

Between June 2000 and August 2002, someone got into the police property room and stole money, carefully avoiding detection by taking a little money from each envelope.

Money had been taken from 24 envelopes totaling $6,381.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8113392

Just a reminder about this post Where the police "lost" $600,000 from the evidence vault. http://lpcolorado.blogs.com/lpcolorado/2008/01/aurora-police-l.html

Cops Ticket Car owners for warming up their cars

In a 4-hour span yesterday a squad of dozens of police officers wrote tickets for anyone who left their cars running and then went back in their homes, Friel said. The fines are between $75 and $105.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_8118296

I can understand the police wanting to reduce car thefts. However they make no distinction between cars warming up that are left unlocked and those are locked up while the engine is warming up. If the cops really wanted to prevent future cars from being stolen, why not a flyer advising people of the risks involved with “puffing” and no ticket? The ticket and the excessive fine associated with it makes the cops appear to be less concerned about crime and more interested in extorting money from citizens (even if their intentions are pure).

If the insurance companies are behind the law about “puffing”, then a better solution would be for the insurance companies to send their customers a description of their policies regarding compensation for cars that are left running and unlocked, and then are stolen. It should be up to them to dissuade customers from the practice of “puffing”, even if they will still offer compensation they could educate their customers about the risks involved in such a pratice.

"Free" bicycle helmets to reduce traffic?

Those who work in downtown Denver could get money or perks for taking public transportation or riding bikes during the month of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, courtesy of federal taxpayers.

Gift cards for $100, free and unlimited transit passes for the month of August, and even free bike locks, helmets and secure parking all are under consideration.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8104492

I don’t even think you have to be a libertarian to understand the absurdity of this. The idea that a person living somewhere like Alabama and paying federal taxes should have their money going towards buying bicycle helmets for people living in downtown Denver is so completely ridiculous that it is impossible for me to fathom what kind of person seriously thinks this is a proper use of federal tax money.

If traffic is bad enough during the convention, people will either need to just deal with it or they will alter their habits because it is in their best interest to do so in order to avoid the crowds and traffic. There is no reason to offer people bribes in order for them to try and find other ways of getting to work during the convention. In any case it will only be for a few days.

$5 billion high-speed train touted as "ONLY" solution

A $5 billion high-speed train is the only way to unclog Interstate 70's weekend ski traffic, the man who spent seven years studying the problem said Monday.

Nothing else - from Sen. Chris Romer's congestion-based pricing idea to a $4 billion plan to "six-lane" the highway - will come close to solving the problem, said Miller Hudson, former executive director of the Intermountain Fixed Guideway Authority.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jan/28/ski-train-only-solution-expert-says/

An extra lane of blacktop can accommodate many more travelers than any train invented.

The best solution to me would be to allow a private company build a toll road either along I-70 or above the current road, in a double decker fashion. If the demand is really there then an entrapaneur should be willing to invest the money knowing the rewards will be high and long term. If a business person agreed with the assessment that the only solution is a high speed train then they could build a train instead of a toll road. Either way the solution should be a private one.

Just say NO to the Porno Tax!

A state lawmaker wants to tax in-room adult movies ordered at hotels to help fund child sex-abuse investigations.

The current version of House Bill 1086, sponsored by Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, would impose a 99-cent fee on all in-room movies ordered at hotels. Stephens, though, said she plans to narrow her proposal to apply to just adult movies.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8088696

What does adult porno have to do with child sexual abuse? Most adults have viewed porno and are not child molesters.

The people who are likely to be negatively affected by this law are probably not people typically involved in child abuse. I expect it is businessmen traveling into the state for conferences or other work related reasons who are the main users of hotel porn. Does Rep. Stephens have any statistics that say users of hotel porn are somehow more likely to abuse children than others? She makes the claim that "Most of our sexual predators in prison are addicted to pornography", but what does this mean? Does this mean that most consumers of pornography are sexual predators? Is it a case that people likely to be involved in sexually predatory activity are also consumers of porno, but those people would likely be sexual predators even if they had never viewed a single bit of pornography? That is what I think the case is, and if I am correct then the proposed tax makes even less sense.

I think we already give the police plenty of our money to investigate crime. If they need to direct more resources towards child sex crimes, then they should direct fewer resources to all of these prostitution stings they have been getting in trouble for lately.

Denver officer fired for alleged misconduct

One Denver police officer has been fired and another suspended amid allegations of misconduct, a police spokesman and public safety manager both said Friday night.

A local television station reported that both officers were accused of on-duty sex in uniform. Citing anonymous "police contacts," CBS4 reported on its website that Hurst was accused of having sex with a suspected prostitute in the bathroom of an East Colfax Taco Bell.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8083187

The details about this case are a bit sketchy.

Even though Libertarians believe prostitution should be legal. The problem when the police are caught with prostitutes is that normally they are not paying customers and the transaction is non-consensual. It is typically a situation where the cop is threatening the prostitute into having sex with him, or else he will take her to jail. It is an abusive situation caused solely by the fact that prostitution is illegal and it allows the police to abuse these women. At the very least, cops involved in this behavior should be charged with rape. Even if this was not the case here, the cop was apparently on duty when this happened and should be fired from his job. I don’t know of many private employers who allow their employees to have sex while on company time.

Police pay Hells Angels $14,000 to settle lawsuit

For the second time in five years, Denver police apologized to the Hells Angels motorcycle club for possibly violating the group's Constitutional rights.

In a settlement released Thursday, attorney David Lane said Denver and Mountain View police agreed to pay a total of $14,000 to the group, and apologize for a Sept. 2, 2005 traffic stop in Mountain View.

During that stop, which the Angels lawsuit said was made without probable cause, Denver police arrived for backup and held the Hells Angels at the rifle-point for about an hour while each was searched.

In his letter, Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe apologizes, and wrote, "at no time did any officer or the City and County of Denver ever intend to violate your Constitutional rights

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8067284

It is a taxpayer funded attorney defending the police. The settlement money is coming out of taxpayer’s pockets. What is absent from this article is, how does the police department plan to prevent further incidents like this? How are they going to ensure that in the future the police cannot plead ignorance of the law as their defense? The idea that police didn’t intend to violate anyone’s rights seems rather laughable, but if true then they need a refresher course on the constitution. The article didn’t mention any punishment given to the offending officers either, and I expect that is because no punishment was given.