The Boston Herald is playing loose with the facts again. With its piece on the use of Boston police officers to ferry and guard visiting police chiefs, the Herald online ran this photo of a helicopter along with a caption stating that their were four helicopters inside the police convention exhibition hall. The implication is that the police helicopters were on display instead of on patrol.
I clearly recall three, but there may have been a fourth. But only one belonged to a Massachusetts police agency, the state police. The others were either brand new, yet-to-be-delivered, models destined for out of state police agencies, or simple manufacturer's demo models.
There were an awful lot of BPD officers on guard around the hall, but I don't think BPD even has a helo.
Massaged By the Air Marshals - Federal Government Waste In Action
At that police convention in Boston the other week, many federal law enforcement agencies had booths as vendors, but only one gave massages. I can't say what most of the agencies were selling, really. Most of the conference attendees were senior police officials not likely to be recruited. In some cases it was clear that the federal agency was simply doing outreach - letting the local department officials know of the agency and its capabilities, should they need to avail themselves of those capabilities. But in many cases the agencies had recruiting booths. And in at least one case, it was clear that the federal agency was overfunded and wasting cash shamelessly.
The Federal Air Marshals Service, part of the Transportation Security Administration, under the Department of Homeland Security (that's DHS/TSA/FAM for those of you in the rational sector), brought a unique service with them, and provided it to the conference attendees: massages. The FAMS set up a cutaway mock airplane fuselage. At first glance, it looked appropriate for a tactical demonstration, and that's what I originally expected. It took awhile for my brain to adjust to the reality.
The fuselage was equipped with about six luxury recliners of a type you're unlikely to see on your next trip unless you take your own jet. Each mock passenger space was equipped with a flat-screen TV showing a looped video about the FAMS. The seats were leather, vibrating, massage recliners and the FAMS had people (Air Marshals?) directing passersby into the seats for a massage and a 10- or 15-minute video about their defense of America. I was astounded. No one else seemed to be. Photo below; click for larger as always. If you share my outrage, write your congressman. Then again, he probably has one of those chairs in his office....
October 30, 2006 in Commentary | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)