Update on San Diego Terror Tactics
As "they" so often point out, the truth is often stranger than fiction.
Almost four weeks ago to the day, I posted a commentary concerning San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre's decision to use standard terror tactics to collect city debts from "deadbeats" (See November 21 entry below). In that post I mentioned that the majority of the debts being collected are of a dubious nature, and many of them are owed by government agencies--including the city of San Diego itself.
Well, today, the San Diego Tribune reported that Mr. Aguirre himself has been fined $9,000 by the San Diego Ethics Commission, for failing to properly disclose how he spent appromixately $316,000 during his campaign for City Attorney--the position from which he launched his campaign of public humiliation (i.e., terror) against 500,000 San Diego "deadbeats" who have not paid their various fines, fees and such. I can only assume that unlike many of the half million relatively impoverished people he is attempting to collect debts from, Mr. Aguirre can probably handle a $9,000 fine out of pocket. At the very least, we know that if Mr. Aguirre does not have a spare $9,000 laying around, he will be certain to post his own name on his own "deadbeat" website. Right? Because Aguirre is an honorable man.
To be fair, the ethics commission did not find any intent to mislead or misrepresent his management of campaign funds. He simply failed to follow the rules properly, and having run for public office myself I can assure you that the ethics rules for campaign finance run slightly south of comprehensibility.
But then again, that is my point. Most debtors who don't pay are not "deadbeats" or criminals at all. Something--often beyond their control--happens to interfere with their ability to repay debts on the rigid, inflexible schedule demanded by creditors. For example, they might suddenly be hit with an unexpected $9,000 fine when they don't have that much cash laying around.
The question is this: Is Mr. Aguirre a clear enough thinker to make the connection, or will he think that his case is somehow a "special" circumstance, and it is only those 500,000 accounts that did not get fined by the ethics commission who are "deadbeats".
The American Debtors Prison is ultimately founded on hypocrisy, stupidity, absurdity and irony (in addition to pure greed, powerlust and other creditor character flaws). However, it is precisely because of this that sometimes, by random chance, the irony actually turns the tables on the wardens. Like when a bank or financial corporation (that claims by definition to know how to handle finances better than the "masses") goes bankrupt. Or when a man who uses the sheer terror of public humiliation to collect debts himself ends up in the news for committing an ethics violation.
All the best,
Paul
Almost four weeks ago to the day, I posted a commentary concerning San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre's decision to use standard terror tactics to collect city debts from "deadbeats" (See November 21 entry below). In that post I mentioned that the majority of the debts being collected are of a dubious nature, and many of them are owed by government agencies--including the city of San Diego itself.
Well, today, the San Diego Tribune reported that Mr. Aguirre himself has been fined $9,000 by the San Diego Ethics Commission, for failing to properly disclose how he spent appromixately $316,000 during his campaign for City Attorney--the position from which he launched his campaign of public humiliation (i.e., terror) against 500,000 San Diego "deadbeats" who have not paid their various fines, fees and such. I can only assume that unlike many of the half million relatively impoverished people he is attempting to collect debts from, Mr. Aguirre can probably handle a $9,000 fine out of pocket. At the very least, we know that if Mr. Aguirre does not have a spare $9,000 laying around, he will be certain to post his own name on his own "deadbeat" website. Right? Because Aguirre is an honorable man.
To be fair, the ethics commission did not find any intent to mislead or misrepresent his management of campaign funds. He simply failed to follow the rules properly, and having run for public office myself I can assure you that the ethics rules for campaign finance run slightly south of comprehensibility.
But then again, that is my point. Most debtors who don't pay are not "deadbeats" or criminals at all. Something--often beyond their control--happens to interfere with their ability to repay debts on the rigid, inflexible schedule demanded by creditors. For example, they might suddenly be hit with an unexpected $9,000 fine when they don't have that much cash laying around.
The question is this: Is Mr. Aguirre a clear enough thinker to make the connection, or will he think that his case is somehow a "special" circumstance, and it is only those 500,000 accounts that did not get fined by the ethics commission who are "deadbeats".
The American Debtors Prison is ultimately founded on hypocrisy, stupidity, absurdity and irony (in addition to pure greed, powerlust and other creditor character flaws). However, it is precisely because of this that sometimes, by random chance, the irony actually turns the tables on the wardens. Like when a bank or financial corporation (that claims by definition to know how to handle finances better than the "masses") goes bankrupt. Or when a man who uses the sheer terror of public humiliation to collect debts himself ends up in the news for committing an ethics violation.
All the best,
Paul
posted by Paul at 5:46 PM
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