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Open season on campaign theft
Scott Cox's "kidnapping" prank would be funny if not for the fact that campaign signs, by their nature, have value only within a limited time frame.
| Thursday, Oct 2 2008 6:55 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, Oct 2 2008 8:49 PM
Mind if we kidnap your big-screen TV while you're at work today? We'll bring it back right after the football season. Promise. Oh, and can you manage without your spiffy little classic Porsche this weekend? A few days at the coast and we'll have it back in your driveway without a scratch. Really. Assuming all goes well.
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You may be under the impression that these confiscations of your property are theft. Sorry, you'll have to prove we do not actually intend to return them. Because we will, honest.
Absurd? Well, of course it is. But these scenarios follow the bizarre logic established this week by Kern County District Attorney Ed Jagels. The DA has declined to prosecute KERN radio talk show host Scott Cox for "kidnapping" 15 campaign signs that belong to Kern High School District trustee Chad Vegas. Jagels is shocked -- shocked! -- that his staff can't seem to find an applicable provision of the penal code.
Cox, who originally denied his involvement in the signs' disappearances, now admits he and his son swiped the incumbent trustee's signs as a prank. He says he planned to replace them and then take on-air credit for negotiating their release.
That would be funny if not for the fact campaign signs, by their nature, have value only for a limited time. They cost Vegas $35 apiece, or $525, when he bought them a month or so ago. They'll be worth zip, or close to it, on Nov. 5 the day after the election.
That gives them a discernible per-day value. Can we safely say Vegas was irreversibly deprived of $50 of their value? Maybe $75? Try "borrowing" $75 worth of merchandise from Wal-Mart and see where that lands you.
It took Vegas and a friend two days and half a tank of gas to put those signs out in the first place. Now they're putting the same ones out again as time allows. What does that add to Vegas' losses from this little prank?
Vegas, a controversial figure who is seeking a second term on the board of the state's largest high school district, believes he'll win reelection almost no matter what. The whole Cox fiasco probably does him no harm in terms of the campaign. In fact, the publicity probably helps both men. Cox might have even worked his day in court into an entertaining on-air bit -- even if, as seems appropriate, this had been plea-bargained down to a slap on the wrist.
But, by passing this off as unprosecutable, the DA sends a bad message: "Borrow" others' campaign signs at will. Stifle another person's First Amendment rights as long as it's in good fun. Thievery can be hilarious!
Does it help to be a popular radio personality tweaking an often-tweaked political figure? We'd hate to think so. But that's one inescapable conclusion.
The only other possibility: It's open season on campaign signs, big screen TVs and anything else you "plan to return."