Globe Editorials
Short Fuse
February 25, 2009
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Police details: Taxpayers use utilities, too
There's no free lunch, and there are no free police details - no matter how area police departments spin it. Trying to justify the use of uniformed officers rather than civilian flaggers at work sites, Boston Police Department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll recently told the Globe that "the system offers a way to significantly increase officer visibility around the city via private funding." Somerville Police Chief Anthony Holloway agrees: "What it does is add more police to the street that are not a burden to taxpayers." Actually, private companies merely pass the cost of those details on to customers in the form of higher gas, electricity, and telephone bills. It's simply taxation in disguise. Voters should recognize that, even if the police departments don't.Basketball: An etiquette coach he's not
His team is the Huskies, but in his postgame presser on Saturday, University of Connecticut men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun was more like a porcupine. Asked by a freelance journalist and political activist about his $1.6 million salary, Calhoun cut the man off, saying he wouldn't give a dime of it back. As the back-and-forth continued, the coach asked whether his questioner was "really that stupid," told him to shut up, and proceeded to deliver a bristly lecture about the millions the basketball program returns to UConn. It was an arrogant, off-putting performance, one that demonstrates that, for all his knowledge about basketball, Coach Calhoun still has a lot to learn about manners.
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