Posted on 05/07/2003 4:13:42 AM PDT by .30Carbine
Vermont Cop Story: AP's Bias or America's?
May 6, 2003
I spent Tuesday's Hour One discussing this story about Vermont police officer John Mott. While off duty at 1:30 AM, Mott entered a high school through an open service door. He then asked a janitor to unlock a classroom so he could take pictures of displays by "passionate pacifist" teacher Tom Treece to present to an attorney.
The Associated Press headlines this story: "Vt. Cop Photographed Class Projects," pointing a finger at the cop as the villain. We had to go to a local paper, the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, to find the classroom details. But this is not a media bias story. I held off giving my opinion on these events just to see what my audience's reaction would be, as you'll see below. More:
The officer reports taking pictures of "a poster of President Bush with duct tape over his mouth and a large papier-mâché combat boot with the American flag stuffed inside stepping on a doll, along with pictures of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and his co-thug reactionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. They aren't "pacifists"! Besides, the whole so-called peace movement was organized around defending and protecting Saddam Hussein! The slogan: "All hail the idiot boy king" was posted next to a picture of President Bush as, Treece claimed, "a reason to reject the high school budget."
If Mr. Treece posted pictures of me and Ronald Reagan on the wall, this cop would be a hero and the teacher would be on his way out. Apparently there were "rumors" about this teacher's curriculum, so this officer investigated. It's reported that there's a "backlash" against Officer Mott, but not that there was any sort of backlash against the class content. Why does it take a cop, taking pictures at 1:30 AM on his own time, to find out what's going on in this class? Where are the parents?
Is this not a public school? Our legal division doesn't see any constitutional issue on the officer entering the classroom in his private or public capacity; there's no expectation of privacy in a public school. We had a police officer call us up and say that Mott was off duty and out of his jurisdiction, so he shouldn't have entered the school or asked to be let into the locked classroom. You can hear such calls below along with my lengthily reporting of the details. I dedicated more than an hour to this story, and here's why:
After 70 minutes of discussion, all my e-mails and calls similarly focused on the cop - just like AP did. "So what, Rush?" So we hear education this and education that all the time in this country. Everybody claims to care about teaching "the children." But if we really cared about education, 90% of the garbage going on inside classrooms wouldn't be permitted. We would have parents involved in their children's education that know every word on the chalkboard and in the books. A police officer - who from this story doesn't seem to have any kids in the school much less in Treece's class - wouldn't have to enter through a service door and then ask a janitor to unlock the classroom for him. The parents would have expressed their outrage; instead, there wasn't a peep.
What part of ON DUTY and OUTSIDE HIS JURISDICTION do you not understand? He had NO BUSINESS going outside his jurisdiction while on duty to pursue a personal political agenda.
Wrong on both counts. The government owns the building, and citizens can indeed be prohibited from entry onto government lands. Just try wandering into the Naval Special Weapons Depot in Virginia sometime...
As a parallel example, I own Ford stock. I may not, however, legally wander into a Ford plant, or take a new Ford automobile from the line, or take parts, despite the fact that I OWN part of the company.
Unfortunately, no. I've learned to think for myself.
The only issue is whether he is barred from going on school grounds for personal issues while he is on a break.
No, the issues are much more complicated than that. Post 22 sums it up quite well.
FBI Offices
The White House
Court Houses
Military Installations
Aircraft Carriers(sic).
The Senate.
Grand Jury rooms
DA's offices
Prisons
Police Station Houses
DMV Offices
Public Schools
etc....
Anyone on this thread really believe that they have unfettered 24/7 access to these taxpayer owned facilities? Any of you willing to personally test the theory?
With my apologies to those more rational posters who understand that the public does not necessarily mean the individual.
You need it to be more complicated because there was nothing he did wrong. He was on his own time in a public building that was opened.
If the door is opened and there are no signs warning against entry then yes.
Nice try, but no stogie. In the end what matters is what his supervisors decide. There is a lot of additional info here that we don't have, such as the policy of the police department regarding personal business while on duty.
Without permission, no.
But the officer didn't climb in a window.
Like I said that is the only issue and its between him and his employer.
There may be some ethical issues beyond the employer relationship, such as those mentioned in post #22. The school district may have legal options here. Superheated topics like this generally don't have all the facts - but I think that both men - the teacher and the cop - are engaging on problematic conduct while conducting public business, and both should face some kind of sanction. I imagine the cop's bosses will do their job. If the school board does not do theirs regarding this teacher, then folks should work to replace the school board.
I also listened to Rush and then combed FR threads to see if this was being discussed. I found nothing even using every search parameter I could think of. Would you please post a link to yesterdays thread? Thank you!
PS: I live in Montpelier, VT which is about six miles from Barre. Rush's point was well taken here in the TigersEye/.30Carbine household. We were already wondering how it is that parents can be kept from visiting their childs classrooms.
The article said a shool employee let him in...Tresspassing???...Broke the law???
What kind of police state do you want us to live in???
The school system (ie the school board)had already dug in their heels in defense of this teacher. They had no intention of firing him and probably couldn't because of the teacher's union. It has been citizens of Barre that have called for his removal and it is the citizens of Barre that had no chance of getting him fired. The "school system" has aready cited First Amendment rights in this teacher's defense.
Anyway, the point of the list is to counter those posters who aver that every public building is open at anytime to any taxpayer, which is of course reducto in absurdum.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.