Has Chief Hurtt blown a fuse?

hurtt.jpgAnne Linehan and Charles Kuffner are two of Houston’s best bloggers on local political matters, and they have been covering an emerging story that amazingly appears to be flying below the radar screen of most Houstonians — i.e., Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt‘s plan announced last week proposing to place surveillance cameras in apartment complexes, downtown streets, shopping malls and even private homes to fight crime during a shortage of police officers.

Building permits should require malls and large apartment complexes to install surveillance cameras, Hurtt said. And if a homeowner requires repeated police response, it is reasonable to require camera surveillance of the property, he said.

And the Chief’s justification for surveillance cameras in private homes?:

“I know a lot of people are concerned about Big Brother, but my response to that is, if you are not doing anything wrong, why should you worry about it?”

H’mm. That is not the kind of reasoning that one would find in, say, The Federalist Papers, now is it?
Based on the above response, it appears that Chief Hurtt must have been asleep during the Constitutional Law course while earning his criminal justice degree. Except that, it turns out that the Chief doesn’t have a criminal justice degree. Rather, he has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Arizona State University and a master’s in something called “organizational management” from the University of Phoenix.
As you might expect, as this story filters through the media and blogosphere, people are scratching their heads and wondering exactly what is going on down here. The Spoof ran a story under the headline “President Bush taps Harold Hurtt to replace Michael Chertoff”:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After hearing Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt’s remarks in one of the Police Chief’s recent press conferences, President George W. Bush gave praise to Chief Hurtt.
“He wants cameras in people’s homes. That is my kind of man,” said President Bush. “This man is going to be my new Homeland Security czar.”
When Chief Hurtt was asked by one reporter why people who aren’t doing anything wrong should be surveilled, he responded: “Only al Qaeda sympathizers and terrorists would protest such a policy. Are you with bin Laden?”
“It was that response to the reporter’s question that really got the President’s attention,” explained White House aide Emma Faker.

Seriously, I recognize that Mayor White is a competent fellow and has a reasonably good understanding of what makes Houston tick. But how is it that Chief Hurtt’s outrageous public comments aren’t grounds for termination of his employment in a position where he is supposed to be responsible for securing the rights of citizens?

Railing against the capitalist roaders

NY times logo3.gifMost of the time, The New York Times does a reasonably good job of covering business matters, but there are still days when the paper resembles the People’s Daily of New York.
Yesterday was one of those days. First, Times business columnist Gretchen Morgenstern — who apparently believes that the model for corporate governance is Ben & Jerry’s — continued her campaign against excessive executive compensation with this Times Select ($) column in which she excoriates the compensation package paid to Analog Devices CEO, Jerald G. Fishman. While disassembling Morgenstern’s article, Larry Ribstein asks a decidedly more compelling question than the one Morgenstern addresses, namely “[t]o what extent do stories like this shape misguided public policy like the SECĂ­s recent compensation disclosure rule? What is the social cost of the useless reshuffling firms must do to minimize damage from sensationalist stories like this?

Continue reading