Posted 8:43 PM by extinct

Hypocrisy in defense of liberty is no vice

Hypocrisy, the adage goes, is the tribute vice pays to virtue. But are we even losing that miniscule sense of decency?

In a deadwood Washington Post article (July 14, A16), District of Columbia Metro (i.e. subway) Transit Police Chief Polly Hanson -- clearly no pollyanna -- speaks of doing random searches of passenger handbags:

It's something I very much want to do. The timing is important on something like that, and I feel that this is a time when it would be well received."

As a rider of said system, I am not sure I find random searches wholly unreasonable. But whatever happened to the decency of a police official in a free Bill of Rights-bred society at least pretending that this is a regrettable necessity reluctantly sought and temperately argued.

Please, tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies. As in "it may unfortunately be essential to basic security to implement such steps though we had earnestly hoped to avoid them, and it is terrible to discuss this at this awful time."

That a public official feels no need to even grudgingly defer to a pretense of caring about freedom and privacy is truly sad but hey....

"9/11 changed everything."

Indeed: vice does not even owe virtue courtesy, much less tribute.