March 1, 2001
Little Tyrannies Offer Proof Big Tyranny Always Possible

by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

During the recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the confirmation of former Sen. John Ashcroft to be US attorney general, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), looking like Jabba the Hut in “Star Wars,” fulminated about the suggestion that tyranny was possible in America.

What set Kennedy off was a statement by Ashcroft that the First and Second Amendments to the US Constitution were our bulwark against any tyrannical government which might arise in America.

“Tyrannical? Our government tyrannical?” challenged Kennedy, with award-winning dramatics.

The possibility that our government, source of all that is good and nothing bad in Kennedy’s mind, could be tyrannical was apparently too much for the senior senator from Massachusetts. He demanded that Ashcroft apologize for making such a statement.

Of course, Ashcroft did not retract the statement. Ashcroft’s view, in spite of Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and a host of other elected and non-elected mandarins in Washington, is shared by the majority of Americans—which makes it very “mainstream.” That is because the Bill of Rights is the heritage and shield of the weak, not the rich, powerful and connected, whether presidents, senators or mayors.

Little Tyrants
Some years ago, I wrote a Hindsight column in which I reminded people that the bad guys in famous movies such as “Robin Hood” and “Zorro” were the chief law enforcement officers in their respective areas, either under the command of, or the acquiescence of, the local lord, mayor, or “alcaldé.” The good guys were people who were fighting the local tyrants, or power brokers, on behalf of the average citizens.

The lessons provided by such stories seem to be lost on people like Kennedy. So too are the lessons of history, as in 20th century Germany, Russia and elsewhere. Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot and other tyrants promised to enhance the lives of their respective nations, but ended up bringing them only tyranny, misery and death.

The fact that tyrants don’t proclaim their intentions is well known. They start small. And in our daily lives, we can see these small tyrannies mount, in the decrees of local bureaucrats, and the way small-time politicians exercise and abuse their power—or escape from responsibility for their baser acts.

I was reminded of this by a number recent stories involving mayors.

Friendship Heights
The first is from Friendship Heights, MD, often considered one of the most liberal of the liberal bedroom communities on the border of Washington, DC. Friendship Heights has for years been a champion of the gun ban cause.

Recently, Mayor Alfred Muller, a physician, became the poster-boy for the anti-smoking movement when he led the charge for an ordinance banning smoking in public outdoor spaces. But on Feb. 1 he pleaded not guilty to a charge of fondling a 14-year-old boy on Jan. 28 at the urinals in a basement restroom at the National Cathedral in DC. Muller has been an usher at the cathedral for years.

According to Maryland and DC newspapers, Muller was released on his own recognizance in preparation for a preliminary court hearing on Feb. 21 on condition that he may not be alone with children under the age of 16.

Muller, of course—like any accused, may very well be innocent. But if the same charge had been leveled against a teacher or public employee, they would have been immediately suspended.

The situation in Friendship Heights had parallels in other cities in early February.

Miami, FL, Mayor Joe Carollo—of Elian Gonzalez fame—was accused by his wife, Maria Ledon Carollo, of domestic violence.

Immediately, the mayor’s attorney, Ben Kuehne, told The Miami Herald that she was not hit in the head by a tea canister, as claimed. The lawyer also accused police of making up the story that landed the mayor in jail overnight.

The bump raised on Maria Ledon Carollo’s head the morning of Jan. 31 was “the result of an unfortunate accident,” the attorney said, but he declined to elaborate.

He accused police of concocting a story of a thrown terra cotta tea container to support an unwarranted charge of domestic violence.

“The tea container is not terra cotta,” Kuehne said. “It’s a cardboard box that contains tea. There is no way Mayor Joe Carollo hit his wife with a terra cotta pot. I would like to see the terra cotta pot.

“Joe Carollo did not throw anything at Mari. He never intended to hit her.”

If you can figure out what this strange and contradictory denial means other than another official dodge of responsibility, you’re a better student of law than I am.

Carollo, 45, was charged with misdemeanor battery and spent the night in a Miami-Dade County jail. He was freed the next day on a $1,500 bond and ordered to stay away from his wife.

Mrs. Carollo, 42, had filed for divorce last year and originally wanted her husband arrested, but later asked that charges be dropped, police said. Police charged him anyway, saying it’s not unusual for domestic violence victims to seek leniency for their abuser.

Sometimes the abuses of power and media access take more subtle forms.

Baltimore, MD
Such is the case in which Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley apologized to the city prosecutor in their first meeting since he publicly berated her for dropping charges against a police officer accused of corruption.

“There was no yelling and screaming. We were all very civilized and civil,” said State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy after the meeting, according to Associated Press.

O’Malley, in a profanity-laced tirade in January, told reporters Jessamy didn’t have the “guts” to try Brian L. Sewell, a police officer accused of fabricating drug charges.

And the mayor of Gary, IN, one of those cities suing the firearms industry, recently resorted to typical bureaucratic subterfuge in trying to block a Ku Klux Klan rally in his predominantly black city.

Rather than debate the right of the Klan to hold the rally, the city changed the rules involving a waiting period for public rally permits from seven days to 45 days—saying the extra time was needed to arrange security.

The city permit technicality didn’t work. A federal judge refused to declare the longer waiting period unconstitutional. But the Church of the American Knights, a branch of the Klan, merely changed the date for its rally to March 10 to allow for the 45 days.

In a belated show of candor, Mayor Scott King said he would do anything he could to keep the Klan out, but because of the First Amendment to the US Constitution, he could not reject the Klan’s latest request for a rally on March 10.

Notice that I haven’t said a word here about Bill Clinton’s plea-bargain the day before he left office.