The old story goes that once upon a time, a Chinese woman with a permit to come to the United States landed in San Francisco, that gem of a place that Mark Twain called one of the four unique cities in America. But during her long voyage at sea, the young lady had had a child.
The immigration officer was in a tight spot. The woman had all her papers in order and could land, but the child did not. The official dutifully wired his betters in Washington, D.C., for direction. Should the mother be allowed to enter the country but her child sent back to China? The response from Washington was of another time, when brevity and good sense still ruled:
"Don't be a damfool."
We suppose the Arkansas Ethics Commission could have tossed aside all common sense and thrown whatever book it has available at Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, plus all the police officers in North Little Rock who accepted tickets to the games he provided last year. Or the commission could have gone against all precedent and pattern, and opened the doors to unethical behaviors of all sorts. Instead, the commission decided not to be a damfool. It applied the proverbial slap on the wrist, which was exactly what was needed in this case.
Jerry Jones, who grew up in North Little Rock, has the means to . . . well, to do just about anything. He owns the Dallas Cowboys, fercryinoutloud. Last year he had the idea to pay for North Little Rock cops and their families to attend Cowboys games--travel and accommodations included. It was a swell gesture at a time when cops all across the country were not only being shouted down at protests but sometimes killed for no other reason than for wearing a badge. Last year wasn't a good year to be a police officer. We all remember. Or should.
There turned out to be a bit of a problem, however, with Mr. Jones' swell gifts. It's called the state of Arkansas' ethics code. It prohibits "any person to confer a gift or compensation" to anybody on the public payroll for doing their public jobs. Before last football season could end, somebody had filed a complaint.
The Ethics Commission did its duty. It investigated. It called Mr. Jones to testify. It ruled. Last week, the commission said that Jerry Jones had indeed committed "an unintentional violation" and issued a warning letter. The cops involved, or at least the lead cop in charge of the North Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, won't face sanctions, either.
And everybody lives.
The commission would have been wrong to laugh this off entirely. As the person behind the complaint noted, Jerry Jones never would have expected anything in return for his gift, but who can say that the next time somebody hands a cop a gift? Then again, to go overboard would have punished a man for just trying to give back to his hometown. And probably would have given those on ESPN another reason to smirk.
After the commission's hearing, Jerry Jones told reporters that when he was growing up, "North Little Rock police were the groundskeepers [at baseball fields], coaches and helpers. So they were very influential to me, not only as mentors, but people who helped to form my interest in athletics." And that interest took him to a college football program you might have heard of (its fans tend to call the Hawgs on excited occasion) and, professionally, to America's Team in Dallas.
Who says government doesn't work? It seems that this whole episode was handled just right.
Now then, it's baseball season. Let's put off any more football talk till August.
Editorial on 05/26/2017