Patches pressured police, perhaps?

Were police explicitly told not to administer a sobriety test to Patrick "Patches" Kennedy during his recent early morning car crash? The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that officers on the scene were forbidden by their superiors to admnister a field sobriety test, and the union is crying foul. An internal investigation is under way by the police department to determine whether or not political pressure led police to send Patches home without being subjected to a field sobriety test which could have led to his eventual arrest for driving while intoxicated.

So, who's making excuses for Patches? The usual gang of limousine liberals at the Huffington Post, for starters, including this post praising Patches for his "courage". The Providence Journal's M. Charles Bakst also offered Patches a hearty "atta boy" for his "wisdom in seeking treatment" for his vices. Neither the Huffington Post nor Bakst address the most daming issue at hand, the ease with which Patrick Kennedy levied political power into a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Take a memo, people: using addiction as an excuse requires no courage. Making an announcement about your addictions and publically checking yourself into rehab before you get in trouble, when there's still a whiff or more of political and personal risk about it, requires more of what normal people actually call "courage".

Inquiring minds may view the accident report here, and read the statement from Fraternal Order of Police President Chuck Canterbury decrying "political policing" here.