Monday, March 26, 2007

Michigan represented by felons?

Some states don't even let violent felons vote after they get out of prison. But voters in Highland Park, Michigan elect them to the state legislature according to the Detroit Free Press.

They have a State Representative by the name of Bert Johnson, who just made the news after a Free Press reporter caught him driving back and forth to the Capitol on a suspended driver's license in a car with expired license plates.
At 33, Johnson's license has been suspended for most of the 18 years he's been old enough to drive, according to Secretary of State records.

At 16, he received his first ticket less than a month after he got his license. Since then, he's been cited for moving violations -- mostly speeding -- at least 17 more times and had his license suspended more than two dozen times.

Secretary of State spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said the records indicate Johnson has never been off driving probation and appears to have possessed a valid operator license for only about three months since he got his license in 1989.

As to the expired license plates:
Johnson said he was not aware the license plate on the vehicle he had been driving to the Capitol, a 2001 Jaguar, was invalid. Secretary of State records show its registration expired Feb. 21 when a renewal check was returned for insufficient funds.

Johnson said he is the primary owner of the Jaguar, although it is registered in the name of a woman at the same Highland Park address as him. Johnson said the registration will be paid.


We all know what he's doing here, right? He can't get car insurance with his driving record, so he buys himself a Jaguar but he puts it in someone else's name so that it can get insured based on her driving record, not his.

The ironic part: Johnson is a member of the House Insurance Committee, which, among other things, oversees the regulation of auto insurance. Yep, he gets to make the very auto insurance laws that he's avoiding by registering his car in someone else's name.

Folks, what we have here is a punk, plain and simple. He doesn't respect the law and he's not going to abide by it unless he knows that everyone's watching him. He may be a legislator now, but that just makes him a punk in a suit.

But what's even worse is his criminal record. It turns out that he's also a violent felon. In 1994, he was convicted of burglary and armed robbery. That's right, this punk broke into people's houses and took people's property after threatening them with a gun. And this was all known to the voters before election day, and they just shrugged and voted for him because he was running as the Democrat in an area that is majority Democrat. But the voters still bear some responsibility here, as does the Democratic Party of Michigan for letting this guy run and for not finding another non-felon who wasn't a punk to run against him. To their credit, the Republicans tried to prevent him from taking his seat based on his criminal past and a provision in the State Constitution that bars office holders who have committed a breach of the public trust (Armed robbery sure counts) but the Democrats in the legislature refused to act and instead supported Johnson, and when the Dems took control of the State Legislature they quashed all efforts to remove him. Hey, what's a few violent felonies and a lifetime record of contempt for the laws of society if you're willing to sit in the state capitol and vote like a good Democrat, right?

This is beyond appalling, and every Democrat in that state should be ashamed, starting with Governor Granholm and the House leadership that is currently turning a blind eye to his current bad behavior and extending all the way down to every crackhead and welfare recipient in Highland Park who cast a vote for Johnson on election day.

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