The Jack-Booted Thug(s) of the Week...

... this one's Keystone Kop-worthy on many levels, but we'll give this week's JBT award to the on-duty officers who responded to the following incident based on their unprofessional attitude towards someone who was a mere former member of their little brotherhood.

A Census worker (who himself ironically is a former New Jersey police officer) is arrested in Puna, Hawaii on a misdemeanor trespassing charge for attempting to give a Census form to an off-duty police officer at the cop's home on the Big Island:

"I handed [the responding officers] the Census and expected them to hand them to this guy and say, 'That's it,'" Haas said. 'They walked over and talked to him for a minute or two, then walked back to me ... and then stuffed it into my chest, and said, 'He doesn't have to enter your Census. He doesn't have to enter any Census. He doesn't have to fill out any of your forms or answer any of your questions. And if I were you, I'd get into my car and get the hell outta here, right now.'

'I turned to him and said, 'Or what?' And he said, 'I'll lock you up.'' And I turned back and said, 'So make your case.' They threw the cuffs on me, took me down to Keaau Police Station and I waited there until my daughter bailed me out.'   Haas' bail was $25."

One the one hand, the off-duty officer has private property rights and (theoretically) the ability to order any person off his lawn whenever he wishes.  On the other, the Federal government also has the Constitutionally-mandated duty to conduct a Census (although certainly not anywhere near their current level of intrusive probing).  Who wins?  Well, we're going to eventually find out:

"The U.S. Attorney's office filed papers Thursday in federal court in Honolulu to take the case of 57-year-old Russell Haas out of 3rd District Court. That will pit the feds against local prosecutors.

'I'm looking to have it kept in state court,' county Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Bridges said Friday."

It appears that even more of our precious tax money is now going to be wasted over this jurisdictional turf war.  Outstanding.

The two points we're taking away from this incident -

1.  Does anyone honestly think that the Census worker would have been the one hauled off to the pokey if the other party to this dispute had turned out to be anyone other than a brother officer?

2.  If multiple police officers somehow believe for whatever reason that they have no obligation to complete their Census form, why should anyone else feel compelled to do so?