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bicyclerider
Thursday, 24 July 2014
Gangster Government?
Topic: In the news

We are living in the time of gangster government.  Whether Obama bringing “the Chicago way” to Washington, a city that was hardly a pinnacle of honor to begin with, or whether it’s local county officials who refuse to explain themselves or account for the impositions they impose on citizens, it seems the most common aspect of all government, lately, is arrogance.

Arrogance is defined, according to Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, 1953, as “a sense of superiority which manifests itself in an overbearing manner; presumption in claiming rank, dignity or power” (page 49).  This could be an accurate and true description of the local or federal government – or of some jerk who thinks because he knows the right people, he can push citizens around, maybe even extort money from them, or something.  In short, the arrogance of the government of the type shared by  organized and not-so-organized crime.   New Jersey is familiar with both types.  Back to the concept of Gangster Government.

Most citizens often think of their government as arrogant when it purports to be able to give massive powers to one agency or individual, who will then be responsible for attempting to duplicate the function of every independent mind throughout the country in a given field.  Examples include the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”, and just about any “czar” position created at the federal level.

But government arrogance is manifest in other ways besides for the government trying to say one man or woman is capable of duplicating the free interaction of minds all over the nation.  It is also known for overt hostility to anything that threatens that strangle hold.  The government is not just overbearing and arrogant, it is emotionally needy.  The thing it hates most, if for people to realize it is irrelevant and not needed.  This it ferociously attacks any aspect of American life that might result in less direct dependence on government.  If people are allowed to own guns, they might not be at the mercy of the government for protection; they could protect themselves.  Horrors.  The government institutes a massive gun control agenda.  If people are economically successful, they might not be as dependant on the government financially.  Oh no!  So the Washington crowd torpedoes the economy with massive “bailouts” that started with the GOP and grew worse under Obama. 

If people risk being able to keep their own doctor and make decisions about their own health care coverage?  Unacceptable.  The government must step in and take control.

However, the government’s flaws, at many levels, are more than simply being an emotionally needy gangster bully and dangerous know-it-all.  For instance, the government also has low self-esteem, which means it is apt to be easily offended, and risk violence or coercion if offended, the same way some thug or gangster who feels he hasn’t been given enough “respect” might bust someone’s leg.

In this case, a prime example was the NJ Parkway authority pursuing an absurdist legal case against a small Florida eatery, according to an article in the July 24, 2014 Star-Ledger newspaper (pages 9, 11).  The restaurant employed a sign with a round green logo.  It was similar in layout to the NJ Parkway logo, but that’s where the similarities ended.  The sign said “New Jersey PIZZA, subs, cheesesteaks, pasta”.  But that was close enough for the New Jersey Parkway officials, who have filed a lawsuit alleging not only trademark infringement, but absurdly claiming treble damages because of the bogus argument that the eatery is trickign people into thinking it is run by the Parkway.

The Jersey-themed eatery is getting a taste of how things really work in the Garden State, whose legislative mascot should by the Garden Snake.  As in, lower than a snake in a wagon rut.

“Coming after someone down here, 1,300 miles away, that’s ridiculous,” said one of the restaurant owners, quoted in the Star-Ledger article.  It is added that “no one would mistake the restaurant with a government entity in charge of the roads”.  Probably not, unless there was a long line at the counter and really big holes in the floor. 

Nevertheless, the fact that the government’s position is absurd, is not an effective deterrent against it.  Many of the government’s positions are absurd, at many levels, and many of them are nevertheless persisted in.  Why?  Gangsters want respect.  For the Parkway Authorities, there are no serious worries about a small restaurant in Florida being mistaken for their agency.  However, that is not the point.  The point is that the agency, or key people in it, or its legal department, felt disrespected.  So they decided to employ the power of the state to assuage their bruised egos.  Gangster government.

We’re seeing gangster government at the federal level.  Blatant refusal to enforce immigration laws has resulted in a massive border crisis, with tens of thousands of illegal aliens, many of them minors, many of them unchecked for diseases, marching across the border.  But gangster government is not confined to the federal level.  Indeed, it sometimes seems typified by the government of the state that is famous for three things, corruption, traffic, and gangsters. But perhaps worse than the state government are county governments.

Citizens of Union County, NJ might sympathize with Parratt and DiMatteo, the Florida restaurant owners being hounded by the Parkway officials. 

New Jerseyans in this county are subject to a government that is not much better.  Union County is best known for it’s allegations of corruption, but among cyclists, it is best known for its absurdist ban on mountain biking at Watchung Reservation.

The ban was a reaction to a similar one passed in nearby Essex County, by County freeholders who ended up investigated, and one indicted, while County Executive Triffenger exited under a 20-count corruption indictment.  Matter were made more absurd when the rule in question was clearly an archaic artifact that predated offroad mountain biking for recreation and therefore could not have ever been intended to apply to it.  

In Union County, similar logic was used, with a rule that talked of "sidewalks" and "footpaths" being used to ban riding on singletrack at Watchung Reservation. But no one can get a straight answer as to how it happened.  The Board of Chosen Freeholders or some other county entity – possibly park’s man Daniel Bernier – acted to outlaw mountain bikers, the park’s most numerous trial users, but two decades later no one will come clean about how or why.  Rumors had it the reasons were similar to those for the blitzkrieg against the Florida eatery.  Someone, somewhere, within the power structure of the state felt slighted.  So the heavy hand of government was set in motion.

Now, over twenty years and one Star-Ledger article on July 6, 2014 later ("Cyclists" pursue access to Watchung trails"), no one – including the cyclists effected by the ban, ordinance, rule, or whatever – can get a straight answer as to what actually happened, which makes it difficult to go about challenging the ban.  As a result, riders are forced to ride under a black flag, or drive almost an hour to Morris Coutny, whose park system is run by people with sense.

But that’s the problem with gangster government.  Its power isn’t just misused to protect the fragile emotions of the agents of the state; it has no accountability after the fact, even when it is clearly wrong.

This isn’t purely a New Jersey problem, any more than it is a 21st century one.  In fact, back on July 4, 1776, the founders of this nation wrestled with a similar problem.  It was almost identical in nature to the problem we face, except the founders did not call their problem a gangster government.  They called it a monarchy.

Nevertheless, one would do well to study history, in particular, the many objections to the rule of King George III contained within the declaration of Independence.  It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that almost all of what was so Objectionable about the rule of the British monarch, is almost entirely true now, of our own gangster government, at varying levels.

One would do well to look up that definition of arrogance again.  The government that so often oversteps its bounds, at every level, would do best to recall that arrogance is only “the presumption in claiming rank, dignity or power”.  All of the latter are reserved for those who have earned them.  And the government surely has not.

Governmental gangsters may currently be a fact of life, but one looks forward to when, like actual gangsters, they end up behind bars, held to an accounting for all that they have done, and the reasons for which they have done it. 

Posted by blog/bicyclerider at 9:21 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, 30 July 2014 7:58 PM EDT
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