News Miner 5

Notes on EV mandates, protections for sex workers, evangelical homeschoolers, the war on drugs, a proposed flavored tobacco ban, and Covid fraud.

We Don’t Need Mandates for EV Chargers

Complete Colorado recently published my article, “If electric cars are so great we shouldn’t need mandates,” about House Bill 22-1218. I write:

You might have good reasons to provide your employees or residents with car charging stations, and you might not. The choice should be yours. But just letting people work out what’s best for them, interacting consensually in a free market, seems never to be good enough for Democrats. You must be forced. . . .

Look, we can have affordable housing, or we can have an endless stream of construction mandates from Democrats. We cannot have both.

I say let people make their own decisions. My parking space, my choice.

Read the entire article.

Sex Workers Get a Break

In my (other) recent column for Complete Colorado, I discuss bill 22-1288, which gives sex workers substantial immunity for reporting violent crimes.

Sex workers are not likely to call in a report of criminal violence, against themselves or others, if the government will punish them for their troubles. When violent men (and, let’s face it, usually we’re talking about violent men in this context) know that sex workers face punishment for reporting a violent crime, they’re more likely to assault or otherwise harm sex workers or others in their presence.

Then I raise the broader issue:

Living in a free society means we must tolerate behavior by others that we don’t like and even that is positively harmful, so long as it violates no one’s rights. Consensual sex among adults for money is in that category. Legal prostitution would dramatically reduce criminal violence against sex workers, free up law enforcement resources to go after rights violators (including people who traffic children), and move most prostitution into a safer, regulated environment.

Read the entire article.

Evangelical Homeschoolers

Christian Home Educators of Colorado (CHEC) recently held an event at the capitol. That’s fine, of course, but their invite list is disturbing. The organization invited both the Christian nationalist group Wallbuilders and the John Birch Society.

Erik Maulbetsch wrote about the event for the left-leaning Colorado Times Recorder. Here’s what CHEC board president Bill Roach said:

We’re thankful for stalwart leaders. It takes principled men and women who are not afraid of the enemy to stand. . . . I pray that you would give them fear of God and not fear of men. Father, we know that this building is not our safe house. We know that Jesus is our safe house. We’ve seen signatures and stamps of approval on wickedness that has come through here. . . . May they remember that you sit on the right hand of the father and you will not stop until all enemies are under your footstool. Lord, it’s tough days when evil is strong in this building, but pray with these behind me.

I assume here that Roach is mainly referring to legislation affirming that abortion is legal. Regardless, this quote makes clear that Roach and his allies look at politics not as involving mere policy disputes but as a grand cosmic war of good against “evil” and “wickedness.”

Of course, groups like Wallbuilders and the John Birch Society don’t even represent all Christian homeschoolers, much less all homeschoolers. I’m glad the Times Recorder included this quote from me:

I am pleased to be a part of a vibrant community of secular homeschooling families in Colorado. I hope people remember that the likes of Wallbuilders and the John Birch Society do not represent or speak for all homeschoolers in our diverse state.

The War on Drugs is a War on the Bill of Rights

As I argued in my recent article on fentanyl, the war on drugs is in many respects a war on the Bill of Rights. As discussed, prosecutors sometimes want to convict people of the crime of distribution without having to prove it, they often undermine the right to a jury trial by threatening overpunishment if the defendant loses at trial, and this involves the threat of cruel and unusual punishments.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel has an absolutely wild story about a drug bust gone wrong, one that involves the apparent violation of the Fourth Amendment. Consider these details:

An affidavit from a Colorado State Patrol officer stated that [a man] had been transporting nearly 1,600 pounds of marijuana from California to Milwaukee. . . .

A crime lab analysis of the contents of the van [the man] was driving found that the van actually contained just 25.3 pounds of marijuana flower and 2.16 pounds of THC concentrate. . . .

The officer’s sworn statements [said] that [the man] told him he was traveling to Milwaukee, working with another individual and gave consent to search his van at all. [The man] is not a native English speaker and needed an interpreter in the courtroom. So how did the officer get consent to search the van? . . .

So, why was this particular van stopped? It had an air freshener that allegedly obscured the driver’s view.

So let us review. An officer with the Colorado State Patrol stopped someone on a bullshit pretext, probably lied about getting consent to search the vehicle, and then apparently lied about the amount of drugs confiscated.

Incidentally, I continue to think that Colorado needs an independent office (presumably within the AG’s office) specifically to investigate and prosecute alleged rights violations by police officers in Colorado. Some cops will violate the law with impunity unless someone holds them accountable.

Flavored Tobacco Ban

Lindsey Stroud argues that a ban on flavored tobacco doesn’t address the problem of kids using it. The point I want to emphasize is that adults have a right to sell and consume it, and government ought not violating the rights of adults in order to keep the product from children.

Thankfully, the governor opposes the ban, reports the Colorado Sun:

Jared Polis says he doesn’t support a bipartisan bill that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco and nicotine products, including menthol cigarettes, because he prefers a local regulatory approach. . . .

There’s another reason the Democratic governor may oppose House Bill 1064, which is aimed at reducing teen nicotine use: It would siphon as much as $25.2 million — of an expected $167.7 million — in annual tax revenue from the state’s fledgling preschool program, a signature Polis initiative.

I don’t favor “local” rights violations any more than I favor them statewide. Nor do I favor discriminatory taxes, including “sin” taxes, whatever the purpose. Still, hopefully the ban will be defeated, even if for bad reasons. Often that’s the best we get in politics.

Covid Fraud

This is quite a headline from the Denver Post: “Fraud was so rampant in COVID relief programs that Colorado still doesn’t know how much was stolen.” The article says “more than $73 million in unemployment claims that were likely fraudulent,” and perhaps $1.5 billion (!) was stolen through the Paycheck Protection Program.