A new acquisition of the Delaware County police - hooves instead of brains

I wrote on this blog about the spectacular case decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit where the court upheld the so-called state interest to hire dumb brutes for the police force - specifically, that the government had a legitimate interest to secure that the hired police officers stay on the job and not go anywhere else - and to secure that interest, the government has a right not to admit applications for the police force from applicants with an IQ higher than a certain level.

So, in the 2nd Circuit jurisdiction (which covers New York State), police has a right to be dumb.

Bearing that in mind, let's look at the recent announcement of the new acquisition of the Delaware County police - the "mounted" patrol.

1/ the training and certification contract for the police force was not bid out for public bidding - as required by law, and that was the obligation of county attorney and judicial candidate Porter Kirkwood to oversee.  

Instead, the "training" was done by Delaware County undersheriff Craig DuMont and his wife, on their private farm, without offering that training contract to the public for bidding.  

I am going to FOIL the county as to the cost of that training, as well as any documents as to how the training contract was awarded.

The self-dealing no-public-bidding contract was happily announced right after the NYS Comptroller's audit found $129 million worth of public contracts awarded, under Porter Kirkwood's guidance as a County Attorney, without public bidding.  Since nobody was (yet) charged with corruption, Delaware County clans presume that corruption may proceed.

The happy picture of the group of "mounted" police included present and former sheriffs and their relatives.

2/ I am also going to check with a FOIL request the claim that the "equine officers" come with no cost to Delaware County.  My question - who is handling the liability (any horse owner knows how high insurance is for having horses around people, and horses are going to be used for "crowd control", in the midst of people.  Who is going to handle the vet and feeding bills, the boarding bills for the horses etc.

3/ Given that Delaware County police officers are taser-happy, baton-happy and use police vehicles as assault tools upon residents of Delaware County, I expected some "resident constitutional rights" training, yet, instead, Delaware County preferred horseback training for their officers.

4/ I am also going to FOIL the County as to pay increases to the "mounted" police officers for their skills - and as to appointment of police officers to such positions, where most of the "mounted patrol" people are related to sheriffs or undersheriffs.

As a Delaware County taxpayer, I have a right to know what exactly I am paying for - as do you, my readers from Delaware County.

So, now the Delaware County police has tasers, pistols, batons/sticks, wheels (vehicles), dogs - and hooves.  Brains do not have to be added to that equation.

The dwindling Delaware County taxpayer population can expect lawsuits, defended at their expense, for excessive use of horse force now, in addition to excessive use of dog force, vehicle force, baton and taser force.

Because dumb brutes on the police force come at a price not only to their victims, but also to taxpayers.