My former colleagues played like a drum

A jury in Washington today convicted Igmar Guandique, 29, of murdering Chandra Levy in 2001. Now, will my former colleagues in the news business apologize to former U.S. Representative Gary Condit.
It's a story that has faded into the background. After Levy disappeared in 2001, her parents played the press like a drum by pointing the finger at Condit, a California Democrat. The theory was that Condit had an affair and disposed of the evidence. Her family asserted that Condit wasn't being forthcoming with the authorities.
Well, it wasn't true.
But that didn't make much difference to a lot of editors and reporters who dogged him for months. The story didn't really fall off the radar screen until 9/11. Predictably, Condit lost his re-election bid and his life was career went down the toilet. For a while, he ran an ice cream franchise but that went out of business. Now, he describes himself as retired.
When Condit testified in Guandique's trial this month, he continued to refuse to admit he had an affair with the 24-year-old former government intern. He said his refusal was on principle.
I don't blame Levy's parents for doing everything they could to drum up interest in their daughter's disappearance. I have a daughter and probably would think about doing the same thing. But that is no excuse for those editors and reporters who took up the banner for them and dragged Condit through the mud.
At worst, Condit had an affair with an adult woman who was about half his age. If every member of Congress -- or for that matter, every business executive or lawyer or judge or anything else -- was on the front pages for this kind of relationship, Washington would be a much emptier place.
We forget that when President Clinton was impeached for an affair with a White House intern, several Republican members of Congress leading the charge resigned from Congress after their similar affairs were outed.
Reporters and editors are supposed to keep things in perspective and not trash someone's reputation without proof. It's just wrong.
I spent 15 years as a reporter at the Houston Chronicle and looking back, I can see it is easy to forget that when I wrote a story, I was telling it to a half million people. It's easy for reporters and editors to go for the cheap story but they should remember that they are dealing with people's lives.
Yes, the Condit case also involved a bungled police investigation. But the focus on Condit allowed Guandique to hide in plain site until he went to prison a few years later for attacking young women in the park where Levy's body was found a year after her disappearance.
So, the long and short of it is that Levy's parents played the press with their speculation about Condit's involvement in their daughter's disappearance. And the press went along with it. They had a good story, even without the facts to back it up.
Is anyone going to give Condit his reputation back? How about his career?
Nope. They are shot.
And, will there be editorials in the Washington Post, the New York Times, on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CNN apologizing to Condit?
When pigs fly.
And, it will happen again, just count on it. Decades ago, retired Admiral Daniel Callaghan, a WWII hero who took to writing fiction, said the ethical standards among reporters is the lowest of any person involved. His theory was that no one wanted to "miss" a good "story" even if it wasn't true.
I think he was right.
As for my former colleagues, all I have to say is:
Shame On You.

Traffic arrests causing jail crowding?

Friday, the Houston Police Department announced that it would cease arresting people for minor traffic offenses, presumably those punishable by fines only, because they were causing a jail overload.
This raises the question of how many traffic offenders are arrested by the Houston Police Department and who they are. Are there enough arrests for traffic offenses that it can fill up the jail?
Police in Texas can arrest Texans -- but usually not those with out-of-state driver's licenses -- for any traffic offense except speeding and drinking while driving. Each police officer has the discretion to issue a traffic ticket or arrest the driver for things like driving without a buckled seat belt or making an illegal lane change or a turn without a signal.
And, the Supreme Court has held that it is constitutional for police to have discretion to arrest people and slap them in jail for crimes for which jail is not a possible punishment.
I've had my share of traffic tickets over the years and I've never been arrested. And, I can't recall any of my friends or colleagues being arrested for minor traffic violations. But, I've had a lot of clients arrested for failure to signal a turn.
The difference? Well, maybe it's because because I'm white and middle class and my arrested clients usually are neither.
Some probably arrested for what Chuck Miller, a former judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals, called "poor person in a no poor person zone." I've heard the same sentiment expressed but normally it comes with a racial connotation. I've seen people get arrested on traffic because they were white people in a no white people zone and, yes, you guessed it, black clients arrested in a no black people zone.
Why do the police arrest these folks for minor traffic violations. Well, if they can impound the car, they can search it and look for contraband like drugs. Shocking, isn't it.
Maybe my former colleagues at the Chronicle ought to take a look at the statistics of those arrested on minor traffic violations rather than being issued a citation. I'm curious how many of those people have River Oaks or Memorial home addresses and how many have Third or Fifth Ward addresses. And, I'm curious about their races. How many are white, black or Hispanic?
If I were a betting man, I would bet that the vast majority are young, minority males.
And, why you ask, can't they arrest people with out-of-state driver's licenses? It's because Texas, like most states, is a member of an interstate compact on traffic offenders. That compact which was passsed by the Legislature and approved by Congress, requires issuance of a ticket to persons from compact states if the officer has any discretion about arresting traffic offenders or giving them a ticket, the officer must give the driver the chance to sign the ticket and promise to appear.
The compact was adopted to prevent people from being arrested by Deputy Fife in Mayberry and being required to post a bond before being released.
Of course, most Houston police officers probably haven't heard about the compact. Or, they think it doesn't apply to people they think may have contraband.

Crime doesn't pay. But traffic tickets do.

Two posts in one day. Amazing.
USA Today had another interesting story on page one. It's about increased enforcement of traffic laws because cities and counties need the money.
Gee. Like Captain Louis Renault, the character played by Claude Rains in Casablanca, I'm shocked.
You can bet that police officers who hear rumors of layoffs will be quick to write tickets in the hope of keeping their jobs.
But, public officials shouldn't count on that fine money to keep flowing. Back in the 1980s, when Kathy Whitmire was mayor of Houston, members of the police department used ticket fines to jerk her administration around.
At one point during her administration, the police were writing tickets galore. The money just poured into municipal court and the city coffers. And, Whitmire counted on that money to balance her budget.
But, she was unpopular with many police officers. So, when she was committed to spending that money, all of a sudden the police turned off the money spigot. It was darn difficult to get a traffic ticket in Houston. The income from fines plummeted.
Enough said.

As long as judges are for hire, justice is for sale

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Gays in the military. What's the big deal?

This topic has raised its head again. President Clinton's don't ask, don't tell policy isn't working so, it's time to reconsider how gays should be treated by the American military.
My position is the same as the late Sen. Barry Goldwater's position. Goldwater, a retired major general in the Air Force Reserve, in the early 1990s was asked about whether gays should be allowed in the military. It was after he retired from the Senate, where he had been chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
That right-wing extremist from the 1964 presidential campaign said simply: What's the big deal. Gays always have been in the military and they always will be.
However, it is refreshing to see General Colin Powell climb on board the gays in the military bandwagon. When he was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, he opposed allowing gays in the military saying it would ruin unit cohesion. That's exactly the same argument used in the 1940s by people who wanted to keep the Army segregated and to keep African Americans like Powell in menial jobs and in black units with white officers.
While I am sure Powell would have made a fine truck driver for the Army, it would have been a waste of talent to keep him in that kind of position seeing the excellent job he did as national security advisor to President Reagan, chairman of the joint chiefs under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Clinton and as secretary of state under the second President Bush.
It's the same with gays in the military. The military spends thousands of dollars and incredible amounts of time training people and giving them experience to do their jobs only to kick them out when it turns out they are gay. While I don't have any statistics, I am told that it is especially hard on lesbians. As a society, we can't afford to waste this talent and the training.
Sexual preference should be treated like race.
The military had terrible racial problems during the Vietnam era. There was a race riot on the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk. There were simply awful racial problems throughout the military. I was in when we worked to get racism out of the Army.
Today, the U.S. Army is probably the most non-racial entity in America. Soldiers are judged by how well they perform their duties, not by the color of their skins. I am sure there are racists in the Army but if they start acting on it, they either cure problem or they are shown the door.
The same will happen when gays are allowed to serve openly. There may be problems at first but the military will work them out.