Alburtis Councilman Kyle A. Bower has gotten an early start as a politician in trouble with the law. The Democratic city councilman has been arrested for allegedly stealing GOP campaign signs and damaging a farm field. Such violations would usually result in bail but he is on probation for other charges.
Bower is only nine months into his first borough council term but previously pleaded guilty to escape and stalking — leading to a two-year sentence of probation. He allegedly violated that probation when he stole campaign signs for Republican candidates Mitt Romney, Charlie Dent and Ryan Mackenzie on Oct. 3. His car and the signs were then found in a farm field with two bottles of beer. Bower allegedly drove around the field causing nearly $600 damage to an acre before ditching the car when it became disabled. Bower seems to have missed the campaign memo: You are not allowed to engage in such act until you enter higher office.
Bower is now charged with theft and receiving stolen property in the borough as well as agricultural crop destruction, agricultural vandalism, criminal mischief, abandoning a vehicle on public or private property, damage to real property by operation of motor vehicle, travel on cultivated land and restrictions on alcoholic beverages.
In the meantime, he will presumably continue to serve the public in his elected office.
Source: Lehigh Valley
Do you folks often have contests in:
—-race you to the bottom?
—-week’s worst pol?
—-next step: Presidency?
America is so complex. No wonder they need to RFID the kids. I predicted that they would inject it at birth, but in the meanwhile…….
Tony C.:
You do bring up a point about it being abandoned property, it could be argued though the person posting the sign did not abandon it but intended for it to be used to advocate his/her position in an election.
Some states have laws to address that issue by making a statute criminalizing the taking or defacement of these signs. Here is Washington’s:
Political Advertising, removing or defacing
Is taking campaign signs actually “theft?”
If a sign is posted on public property (like the public land on the side of a road, or stapled to a telephone pole) isn’t that sign abandoned property?
Looking at the various charges against him, many are not commonly used, it seems to me whoever brought the charges against him, either the sheriff’s office or the prosecutor, went out of their way to research every conceivable charge possible from the most dusty of law code books, just to rip him one. Nice to see politicians such as him go down like this.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/17/creativity-mental-illness-bipolar-disorder_n_1972391.html
I guess being normal means believing the status quo, achieving the status quo, not questioning the status quo, and spreading the status quo.
Decisions decisions decisions, which status quo to choose.
I wish the government…or religious institutions…or tradition, was designed to help people make this difficult self determining individual choice easier.
As an Aussie journeyer told me at the local watering hole.
” You know, you can think and think and think for yourself for only so long, …. till you give up and let other people think for you”
…… I’ve heard that following others beliefs and melding with other systems, sometimes can be very profitable. …What a coincidence. 🙂
lotta,
“It stops being a game and ‘just politics as usual’ when people, or you’r family members are being sent off to die or come back parts-missing to protect those same things a domestic fifth column is actively and obviously taking away from citizens.”
Da*n straight!
Who vetted this guy? If ousted does he keep his pension?
Gene,
I don’t feel so bad if the best people are bonkers!!
Great response lotta. This guy should be in jail and he can forfeit his city council gig.
LK,
In complete sympathy, might I say . . .
The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?
[Alice checks Hatter’s temperature]
Alice Kingsley: I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.
Gene, AP, I’ll be glad when this election is over, I fear that it is unhinging me entirely.
Frankly, Oh my, you have reminded me of ‘The Professor’, a totally funny and mad character. Maybe I should stop referring to JT as the Professor. 🙂
lottakatz: “The enemies of democracy aren’t ‘over there’ though that’s the excuse, they’re right here and they’re traitors to their oaths and the nation.”
That sums it up nicely this morning. Thanks.
If you want outlaws, I would think you would want them w/ half a brain and sans a drinking problem.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Good news, everyone! The university is bringing me on disciplinary charges. Wait – that’s not good news at all.
Leela: Whatever you did, professor, I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Yes, but they won’t listen! Everybody’s always in favor of saving Hitler’s brain. But when you put it in the body of a great white shark – uuuh, suddenly you’ve gone too far.
Morons to right of them,
Morons to left of them,
Morons in front of them
Hollar’d & thunder’d;
Storm’d at with ignorance and smell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of stupidity,
If I may quote the future, great, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth:
“I don’t want to live on this planet any longer!”
LK,
I do like the way you think.
Throw this guy in jail, put him in the same cell as the voter registration guy. Likewise the person sitting on the decision in Pennsylvania regarding dragging their feet on letting voters know that the ID law is stayed, likewise the jerks in Ohio etc. etc. These people all make pond scum look good in comparison. It just seems to me that the number one job of the federal Justice Department should be to vigorously protect an American citizen’s right to exercise their most fundamental right without suppression, interference or harassment.
I’ll go farther than that, it is obvious that Republican states are actively attempting to suppress the vote, to deny the absolute right of citizens to participate in the most basic aspect of their relationship with the government. Then there are the free agents and rogue operators fueled on self-righteousness and/or booze. They’re all a danger to the Republic. The Federal government should nationalize the process. Make the rules entirely. Any subversion or violation should become a Federal crime and people including Secretaries of State and Governors, should do time. Mandatory sentencing.
It stops being a game and ‘just politics as usual’ when people, or you’r family members are being sent off to die or come back parts-missing to protect those same things a domestic fifth column is actively and obviously taking away from citizens. The enemies of democracy aren’t ‘over there’ though that’s the excuse, they’re right here and they’re traitors to their oaths and the nation. Bah, humbug.
We need more outlaws in the Democratic party. I’m all for it.
JT grabs a slice of the lowest common denominators in dirty politics; here is another one:
(Brad Blog).
Stupid for anyone….. Especially a council person……but it happens all the time….