Thursday, May 12, 2005

The Mayor and The Cop Killer

Hugh asks the question: "Can you survive as a mayor of a major city when your restaurant not only employs illegals, but employs an illegal who assassinates a uniformed police officer?"

I believe the answer will be yes. There's been no press on the connection because the focus has been on finding the killer, which is where it should be. But even after the inevitable capture, the Denver dailies are unlikely to pursue the mayor's office.

The argument will be that since the mayor has nothing to do with the day-to-day operations, how could he be expected to know that an illegal alien was working at one of his restaurants (setting aside the fact that many restaurants employ illegals)?

Which leads to the question: How accountable should an owner be for the conduct of the employees?

UPDATE: Clay Calhoun has more on this story. There's also a particularly good comment about how Donald Rumsfeld has been beaten up for Abu Graib, while occupying the same position of authority as Hickenlooper.