Fasten your seatbelt, sheriff!

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
July 23, 2010

Cal Skinner had a couple of interesting pictures on his blog on July 21. Cal wrote about the McHenry Fiesta Days parade and had photos of County Sheriff Keith Nygren standing in a car being driven in a parade. See his article entitled, "Seeing both...", at http://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/

And Mrs. Nygren was seated on a pillow on the trunk of the convertible, using a pillow on the lowered convertible top of the vehicle. Now that's safe, isn't it?

Hello? Remember Click-It-and-Ticket? Hundreds of motorists get tickets in McHenry County and its municipalities every month, but the sheriff can stand in a moving vehicle. Nice, eh?

Now, in all fairness, perhaps there is an exemption in the Illinois Vehicle Code for vehicles driven on public roads in parades. Is there?

Frankly, I don't see any campaign value in riding in a car during a parade, but it seems to be popular. But shouldn't state laws be observed?

Can you imagine the furor id a McHenry cop had stopped the driver of that black convertible and issued tickets to him, to the sheriff and to Mrs. Nygren?

And don't miss the big seven-pointed badge/emblem on the side of the car. This is the same emblem that is used on numerous Sheriff's Department vehicles.

It's the same emblem that is used in the sheriff's campaign literature. And the same one that is described in the petition filed last week in court that claims it is wrongfully used by the Sheriff. It's the same emblem I complained about four years ago, when it was on what I first thought was an official envelope from the sheriff's office. The envelope contained political information.