THE TRAFFIC STOP HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

"Let all things be done decently and in order." (I Corinthians 14:40)

If there's any (English-speaking) Framingham resident who has not heard about or read about the traffic stop and arrest of a Boston radio talk show host which took place early last Friday morning, then such a person must be a hermit! The host was NOT arrested for "making an illegal U-Turn" or for "going through a red light" (and as both have been reported I'm not even sure what the reason for the initial stop was). The arrest happened after the cop "ran" the plate and driver's license and the license came back as "revoked".

The exact circumstances for why the license was revoked are also not 100% clear. As I can best figure it, the license was revoked by the Commonwealth of VIRGINIA (his VA license, that is) - then by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Virginia's beef was non-payment of auto insurance, although the host had NOT lived in VA for almost a year at the time this became an issue. The host also is known locally as living in Hopkinton in a large house on a rural road although the fact that the MetroWest Daily News published the exact address of his Framingham apartment has been part of the controversy.

Most of you know the identity of the radio host. I'm taking the Dragnet posture of omitting the name to protect the innocent, or the guilty, or whatever! I've communicated by e-mail with this host several times over the past few years, and very briefly met him in person at "remote broadcasts" a couple of times. I genuinely feel bad for him. I hate to see any decent, ordinary person handcuffed and jailed for a mess-up in motor vehicle department paperwork the person was not even aware of. I also feel sad that his address was used in the paper, and in learning of his multiple addresses, I feel sad that there's got to be some unfortunate stuff happening in his personal life, which the public really didn't need to be made aware of.

ALL THAT SAID, there's a lot more about this story that's sad.

Most of you know, my late father, Eugene A. "Gene" Baril, was a career employee of the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. He started out giving driving tests to (predominantly) teenagers in the 1950s and retired in the 1980s at "Supervisor of Medical Affairs" at the old Nashua Street headquarters. My father passed away in 2000. Over the past few days I've been wondering what my father would have to say about this case, about the radio host, and about the current Registrar and Registry policies. It CAN get dangerous trying to put words in the mouth of a dead person, but here's some of what I think he'd say:

Dad was always known for practicality and common sense. On the one hand he was known for, "doing things by the book", but he had a side which would say, "Let's sit down and talk this out and find a REASONABLE solution, here!"

One issue the radio host keeps hammering is that the Massachusetts RMV should go back to the practice of sending out letters reminding people when their driver's licenses are about to expire. Dad would 100% endorse that! He would have considered it stupid and unreasonable that the RMV discontinued this practice last year. Dad would have believed most people are too careless to notice when their licenses are running out and that they need to be reminded. Frankly, Dad would not only have disagreed with the present Registrar about this but (sorry, ladies) he would have absolutely opposed having a female Registrar! (Remember, he's from the days of GENERAL Richard E. McLaughlin who was a Registrar who ran the RMV as almost a macho Military operation!) Dad WOULD have believed the host should have been notified about his license being revoked but would have asked the question about whether the host changed his address from Hopkinton to Framingham with the RMV. THAT has never been made clear in any of the reporting. I also suspect Dad would have felt the RMV should have ignored VA's beef with the host, based on the fact he host had lived in MA and had a MA license during the period in question. (I DO think there are now iron-clad "reciprocal" agreements in place between the states about revoking licenses and it's POSSIBLE the MA RMV thought that WAS unreasonable on VA's part but was bound to such an agreement.)

Dad was not a jerk. He'd have thought the handcuffing and jailing of the host was a bit much. I don't know if they still have "Hearing Officers" and "hearings" at the RMV headquarters. In the OLD days, that's how this matter would have been handled. In one morning in a hearing at the RMV headquarters, the whole issue could have and (I believe) would have been straightened out. I will say, like anyone who'd been a career state employee and who reached a fairly high level, the Commonwealth of MA and the RMV meant a LOT to my father. While he WOULD have thought the RMV should handle this matter much differently, it would have greatly bothered him to see the host sensationalize this case on his show and on his blog.

The RMV had GREAT public relations at one time. In fact, in the late '60s and early '70s when Richard E. McLaughlin was the Registrar, my father was his public relations man. McLaughlin was constantly all over radio and television. McLaughlin would probably have gone on the host's show! In fact, in those days, there'd probably have been a meeting with McLaughlin, the host, the host's lawyer, and a few other RMV higher ups to straighten this all out and to (probably) change some RMV policies to make things more user friendly for the public. McLaughlin would probably have at least tried to turn this whole thing around and done some P.R. spots with the radio host and my Dad would have been right in the middle of all of it.

That was then. This is now.

I look at the whole thing: the arrest, the court date(s), the sensational publicity, the inaccurate reporting, the stubbornness and unreasonableness of the MA RMV, AND the apparent incompetence of the Virginia Dept. of Motor Vehicles; and well, it's all just a very sad commentary on the world of 2009 in which we live.

Dad's world of circa 1970 is long gone and I mourn its passing and his passing...