Sep 20 2008
Brown Uses His Position to Reduce His Own Fine
In a nut shell, Congressman Henry Brown started a fire on his property in 2004 that spread to a nearby national forest, negligent behavior that comes with criminal liability, or at least it used to until Brown had the law changed. He was charged and fined almost $6,000 for the incident after a top Forest Service law enforcement agent was given the go ahead by the U.S. Attorney to do. Brown eventually paid a reduced fine of under $5,000 after he huffed and puffed around Capitol Hill and entangled several Federal officials in the mess eventually costing taxpayers $100,000 to save himself $1,000.
Brown claims he was treated unfairly and made an example of because he was an elected official and he was just shocked at this treatment he received.
“I was so taken aback that I’d be treated so impersonal — like I was some kind of crook,†Brown said Wednesday. “Those were criminal charges that were filed against me. I felt like I was the victim.â€
Well duh, McFly! You mean after all of these years in Washington you haven’t figured out that the government which is supposed to be of and by the people shits on us regular schmoes every day of the week? How many mistakes does the government make that it never has to pay up for? Do you think a regular guy off the street could have fought back against the Federal bureaucracy that you have easy access to?
So what happened here? Was the Federal law too harsh and unfairly criminalizing people over an accident? Was this an instance of Congress not giving a crap about the effects their laws have on people until one of them experiences it personally? Or did Brown take advantage of his position as an elected official and use it as a bully pulpit to achieve, as Mr. Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said “ticket-fixing at the highest levels?”
