Elderly man framed, accused of running illegal taxi

This type of corruption is what happens when we let right-wing ideologues run anything more important than a navel lint eating contest.

This story comes to us from Miami-Dade County in Florida, an area where Republican machines are pretty creative at finding ways to pad their coffers and hoard power. The trouble started when a 78-year-old man was entering a supermarket and was approached by a woman asking for a ride home. The man promised to give her a ride when he was done buying his groceries.

When the elderly man made good on his promise and dropped the woman off, he was promptly surrounded by police. Cops accused him of running an unlicensed taxi. They cited him and impounded his van. The man had to spend $400 retrieving the van from the impound lot, in addition to $2,000 in fines.

It turns out the whole thing was part of a sting that turned into a frame-up. The woman was actually an undercover county employee. But the county denies that it's entrapment because the woman didn't actually expect the man to give her a ride. Is that stupid or what?

There had never been any complaints against the man, and it was obvious he wasn't running a taxi, for he didn't charge any money and clearly stated he wasn't running a taxi when the woman asked if he was.

I want to know who in county government is taking money from who. Is the impound lot privately owned, and are there some kickbacks involved? Or is it strictly a government scam?

There's obviously more corruption involved than just the entrapment, because why else would the county go through so much trouble to set up an old man?

(Source: http://www.local10.com/news/16210168/detail.html)