If we are to prevent Secret Service agents from qualifying for “antic of the month,” they need to be screened and tested for alcoholism
Story from “This is True” by Randy Cassingham, with his “tagline:”
“STRIKE TWO: After a sex scandal in Colombia, the U.S. Secret Service, which is charged with providing protection to the president and presidential candidates, issued an order prohibiting ‘excessive drinking’ by agents. Weeks after that order, President Barack Obama made a Florida campaign stop at the University of Miami. Shortly after the president left, a police officer found a man lying down at a busy intersection at 7:00 a.m. He told the man, who had a ‘strong odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath,’ to get up, but he refused. The cop helped the man up — and the man allegedly punched him. The officer called for backup, and once he got the man handcuffed, identified him as Aaron Francis Engler, an officer of the Secret Service and part of the president’s security detail. Engler, who apparently wasn’t armed, was charged with disorderly intoxication, and resisting arrest. (RC/Miami Herald) …Does anyone else wonder what happened to his gun?”
Great quip Randy, but it’s also a great question.
In the Top Story (“The Afghani Massacre and the Secret Service Scandal: the Common Thread is Alcoholism”) of issue # 69 of TAR I wrote, “Nearly all law enforcers who act badly do so not because they are fundamentally rotten, but rather because they have the disease of alcohol or other-drug addiction. Since they hold particularly powerful positions in the public trust, more than others they need to be sober.” I’ve long argued that because addicts are capable of anything, law enforcement agencies of all stripes should screen out alcoholics via regular and random screening, with failure requiring treatment and proven sobriety using ankle bracelets. Consider this story: God only knows where the agent’s gun was or worse, what sort of secrets might have been divulged. Some might retort, “Oh, he’s a Secret Service agent; he would never do that because he knows better” doesn’t cut it. He already passed out, may have lost his gun and may have suffered a blackout, during which time he could have done anything. American soldier Robert Bales knew better than to massacre 17 Afghanis, but he was in a blackout—and those can happen to any alcoholic at any time while drinking and during such times addicts are capable of anything.
And as for the idiotic Presidential order prohibiting “excessive” drinking: it’s unnecessary to tell non-addicts to drink in moderation, while it’s futile to tell alcoholics to do so.
(Story and tagline from “This is True,” copyright 2012 by Randy Cassingham, used with permission. If you haven’t already subscribed to his newsletter—the free one at least, or the paid one I get, with more than twice the stories—I highly recommend it: www.ThisIsTrue.com.)