Submitted by Brendon Etter on Fri, 04/04/2008 - 10:11am.
Frank,
It's important to note that this is not necessarily fact. Your comment was the first time I had even heard a claim that Roder was at the site.
I think there's a significant difference between representing yourself as a cop - as you say - and being given a badge as a clearance credential. A whole different situation.
Meaning, flashing a badge and pretending you are a police officer is one thing - and do you really know it was a badge? How close were you to Roder when this happened? Did he say "I'm with the Northfield PD"? - and flashing something that gives one access to a site that, it could be argued, Roder should have for information purposes related to his position, are two very different things.
You note that you are assuming that he went to the police and demanded a "badge"; perhaps the police went to him and said "here's a pass that will let you get past the security perimeter so you can talk to those leading the clean-up effort."
The point is neither of us know. Nor do any of us know, as "Victor Hugo" implies that Roder was getting in the way of people doing their job - although that's certainly a possibility in such cases. I hope, if he was there, that he was briefed about the situation and that's that. I don't know. This is a lot of "iffing" on all of our parts about little.
It's not that I think duplicitously representing yourself as a police officer is right - clearly it's not; it's that I think we have next-to-no credible information on which to deduce that Roder was doing so.
Maybe you could ask the Northfield PD about what happened. Also, in repsonse to Mr. Hugo's concerns, it would be good to hear from someone who worked the scene if they thought efforts were hampered by any "suit" from the city. Those would be much better sources of information on this issue than either of us iffing around the scene.
A Whole Lot Of Iffing Going On
Frank,
It's important to note that this is not necessarily fact. Your comment was the first time I had even heard a claim that Roder was at the site.
I think there's a significant difference between representing yourself as a cop - as you say - and being given a badge as a clearance credential. A whole different situation.
Meaning, flashing a badge and pretending you are a police officer is one thing - and do you really know it was a badge? How close were you to Roder when this happened? Did he say "I'm with the Northfield PD"? - and flashing something that gives one access to a site that, it could be argued, Roder should have for information purposes related to his position, are two very different things.
You note that you are assuming that he went to the police and demanded a "badge"; perhaps the police went to him and said "here's a pass that will let you get past the security perimeter so you can talk to those leading the clean-up effort."
The point is neither of us know. Nor do any of us know, as "Victor Hugo" implies that Roder was getting in the way of people doing their job - although that's certainly a possibility in such cases. I hope, if he was there, that he was briefed about the situation and that's that. I don't know. This is a lot of "iffing" on all of our parts about little.
It's not that I think duplicitously representing yourself as a police officer is right - clearly it's not; it's that I think we have next-to-no credible information on which to deduce that Roder was doing so.
Maybe you could ask the Northfield PD about what happened. Also, in repsonse to Mr. Hugo's concerns, it would be good to hear from someone who worked the scene if they thought efforts were hampered by any "suit" from the city. Those would be much better sources of information on this issue than either of us iffing around the scene.
- Brendon Etter
A Play A Day & Lysteria