Understanding Elitist Washington D.C.

by Robert Wenzel
Economic Policy Journal

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When Charlie Sheen tweeted this yesterday, I knew he was in Washington D.C.:

...in car with Police escort in front and rear! driving like someone's about to deliver a baby! Cop car lights #Spinning!

Since I travel a lot, I get to see the eccentricities of different cities, but nothing prepares you for the elitist nature of Washington D.C.

It's common to be stopped from crossing a street, as the President or some other "dignitary" passes by. Sometimes the wait can be pretty long. At other times, you just see police escorts speed by that require other cars to pull to the side. This activity always reminds me of the old films that show scenes from the old Soviet Union, where a Soviet leader with police escorts pulls into the Kremlin.

But D.C. is even more obscene about the entire thing. While the Metro police conduct random searches in the D.C. subway of the general public who are carrying packages, brief cases, etc. The elite get the masses pushed out of their way. And the "elite" are pretty much whomever the powers that be decide are the elite. Famous actors and actresses fall in this category.

That's why when Charlie Sheen described his police escort, I knew he had to be in D.C. And he was. No other city would have given him such an escort, none.

WaPo writes today:

Charlie Sheen, the ex-sitcom star turned serial ranter, got an unusual assist from D.C. police Tuesday night as he hurried to DAR Constitution Hall for his nearly sold-out “Violent Torpedo of Truth: Defeat is Not an Option” stage performance.

The two sport-utility vehicles carrying the late-arriving Sheen and his entourage to the hall, at 1776 D Street NW, were escorted by two marked D.C. police cars with emergency lights flashing and sirens wailing. And a photo posted on the actor’s Twitter account (@charliesheen) shows they were traveling well above the speed limit.

“[In] car with Police escort in front and rear!” Sheen said in a tweet with the photo attached. “[D]riving like someone's about to deliver a baby! Cop car lights #Spinning!”

The photo, taken inside the SUV in which Sheen was riding, shows the vehicle’s speedometer needle at 80 mph. Through the windshield, the blazing strobe lights of the lead police car can be seen...

Responding to an inquiry about the police cars, D.C. police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump described what happened as routine. “This escort was handled as a reimbursable detail,” she said in an e-mail Wednesday afternoon. “This means that the government was reimbursed for the services provided.”

Read the rest of the article

April 22, 2011

©2011 Economic Policy Journal

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