A Republican lawmaker from New York is facing serious criticism after attacking people on social media for drinking and driving, and then going and getting drunk and causing an accident.
New York Assemblyman Brian Kolb was arrested and charged with misdemeanor driving while intoxicated after a crash on New Year’s Eve.
Deputies responded to a crash at 10:27 p.m. Tuesday in Ontario County, New York, and identified Kolb as the driver of the 2018 GMC Arcadia involved in the incident. No one was injured, and no other vehicles were involved.
Kolb was in the vehicle in a ditch in front of his home when the deputy arrived, Ontario County Sheriff Kevin Henderson said. Kolb cooperated with deputies, Henderson added.
The vehicle Kolb was driving is registered to New York state, Henderson said.
Kolb failed a field sobriety test and was arrested, Henderson said. While at the Ontario County Jail, Kolb was given a Breathalyzer test, which indicated his blood-alcohol content was over 0.08%, Henderson said.
Kolb, who was charged with DWI and unsafe turn, was processed at the Ontario County Jail and is scheduled to appear later in court.
The sheriff declined to reveal from where Kolb was headed or how far he had traveled.
“Mr. Kolb made the choice to operate a motor vehicle on the highway in an intoxicated manner, and now he’s being held accountable,” Henderson said.
New York Assemblyman Brian Kolb failed a field sobriety test on New Year’s Eve and was arrested, police said.
In a statement Wednesday morning, Kolb acknowledged his arrest:“This was a terrible lapse in judgment, one I have urged others not to make, and I take full responsibility for it. I want to offer sincere apologies to my family, friends, colleagues, and the people of the 131st Assembly District. I fully recognize the severity of the situation and I am profoundly sorry. There is no excuse and no justification for what occurred Tuesday evening. I made the wrong decision, and it is one I deeply regret.”
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A Kolb spokesman did not respond Wednesday to whether taxpayers would be on the hook for any repairs to Kolb’s state-issued SUV.
Kolb has taken a strong stance against DWI in the past, including in 2009, when he and fellow Assembly Republicans backed Leandra’s Law.
“Leandra’s Law will help keep intoxicated motorists off our roadways and, most importantly, send a crystal clear message to someone who might even think about trying to drive drunk with a child passenger,” Kolb said at the time. (source)
No man is perfect, and all people make mistakes. However, one of the very difficult and troubling things that one finds in the US is the fact that politicians consistently will pass laws or make blanket statements that affect large numbers of people, when they go out and commit the same crimes, and when caught, attribute them to a “lapse in judgement” and then often times try to weasel away from them.
It is a known fact that many times, the poor “commit crimes” because of the fact that they are unable to do what “normal” people are able to do, and the “crimes” they are accused of are really non-crimes. For example, being unable to pay for a tax sticker on one’s car immediately because one does not make enough money, or having to place one-too many children into a car without a seat belt because one has to go somewhere and one does not have the ability to, at the moment, purchase a suitable care. Perhaps it is being late on some other bill, or showing up to work late and then being “fired” for a “violation” of policy when it was that the bus came late and the person was inevitably delayed. Perhaps a person has a drink and then drives, or just has a drink and then is arrested for “public drinking” when he just wanted to have a single drink because he hates his miserable life.
Said politicians then will enjoy standing up in a public crowd and condemning such people, saying that they are “bad” and they are “the problem” just as how they will blame “illegals” and “foreigners” for problems, for the poor in the US, which there are many, are often times treated just as bad as migrants, except division is pushed between the migrants and the native poor for the benefit of said persons who want power and without any care for the needs of these people. Little things are made into big deals so that poor people are kept in poverty and unable to better themselves, and they suffer because of it.
Then one has a politician that gets caught, such as this person, and he claims it was an “lapse in judgement”. He did not even apologize for his decisions, and as it was noted, it is not being stated if he is going to have to pay for the damaged that he cause or if it will be the taxpayer.
It is without a doubt that if a poor person did this, or an average person, he would be sued and find himself stripped of his assets as “justice”. Meanwhile, those with power and money in the US run wild without any care for anybody in what they do, and it is done in the name of “legality”.
In 2018, I did an article about a New Hampshire lawmaker and Republican who was caught making adult films while in office. I noted that in the context of Republican politics, which claims to be family-friendly, and of which so many Republicans are caught in compromising positions. At least with the Democrats, their degeneracy is well-known and unmistakable, while the Republicans attempt to hide the same evils which they also commit.
Drinking and driving is not good, but for most of American history, it was not considered the horrible, life-ending crime that it is today, and it need not be treated this way. This is being done for the benefit of the prison-industrial complex, and politicians directly benefit from it by way of kickbacks. In the mean time, the people of the country are further abused and enslaved, while the same politician who ordered such laws continues to drink and drive, and does not issue an apology for his actions when caught.
There is a lot of hypocrisy on the left, but it is also on the right, as human good and doing what is moral or not is not a political issue, but one of truth, something that neither party can claim a monopoly on.