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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (481873)	4/11/2012 11:10:03 AM
From: Bill	2 Recommendations Respond to of 794502

(An EBT card is a debit card given to welfare recipients by the state...) Time to bail on EBTs By Howie Carr \| Wednesday, April 11, 2012 \| bostonherald.com \| Columnists State Auditor Suzanne Bump says the only evidence she’s seen so far of EBT card abuse are “anecdotes.” So Suzanne, here’s another “anecdote” that went down in Roxbury last Friday night. The drug control unit out of Area B-2 made a heroin bust on Fayston Street near Blue Hill Avenue. They arrested a party named Kimball Clark, and after he was lugged, Clark got to make his one phone call. According to the police report, here’s what happened: “Once booking was completed and Suspect Clark made his telephone call as allowed, he was heard by Officer Flaherty stating to whomever he had called ‘GET MY EBT CARD AND GO TO THE ATM AND GET THE MONEY TO BAIL ME OUT, GET ME OUTA HERE TONIGHT.’ ” Those are the cops’ capital letters, by the way. Let’s look on the bright side, though. What this means is that not every welfare recipient is using his EBT card to buy jewelry or tattoos or go on ship cruises. Some of them are using their EBT cards for ... bail money. Auditor Bump is going to do a report on the Department of Transitional Assistance, and she wants to get beyond these pesky anecdotes “that end up polarizing the participants in the discussion.” And I hear the moonbats saying, you’re just demonizing the most vulnerable members of our society, the people who fell through the safety net, the victims of George Bush and Halliburton. This poor oppressed citizen has no money, right? Wrong. Back to the report: “Officer (Kevin) Clark recovered (5) five separate folds of United States Currency from Suspect Clark’s person, one fold containing $12.00 and the second contained $65.00, these were located in Suspect Clark’s left front pants pocket. The remaining three folds were recovered from Suspect Clark’s wallet, one contained $100.00, the second contained $81.00 and the third contained $500.00, the total money seized was $758.00.” When was the last time you had $758 cash walking around money? And I’ll bet you don’t even have an EBT card. Another anecdote, from the police report: “Officer then observed Suspect Clark look at his cellular phone.” The man has a cellphone, too! Granted, so does almost everybody nowadays, but if he claims to be so broke that he needs an EBT card to make ends meet, how can he possibly afford even a cheapo phone? Clark was charged with distribution Class A drugs, distribution Class A drugs within 1,000 feet of a school zone and distribution Class A second offense. According to the BPD, this EBT cardholder is a convicted drug dealer. How many more anecdotes do you want Auditor Bump? Article URL: bostonherald.com