Joseph Hinton Gets A Phone Call
by Joseph Hinson
March 8, 2002

Today, the big, old Chester News & Reporter ran a Letter to the Editor from yours truly. It was inspired, if you will, by an article from an earlier edition announcing the arrest of people running an illegal gambling house. I wrote about this in my previous rant, The Morality Police. Here is the leter that I wrote. Now I haven't seen it in print, so they may have edited it in some fashion:

I see that the police raided a convenience store and seized a few of those evil and corrupt video poker machines. I'm glad. They are obviously getting their priorities straight. The government keeps encroaching on the rights of the citizen to decide what is best for themselves while real criminals keep getting away with real crimes.

One more cynical than I might suggest that the state of South Carolina does not want you to gamble... unless, of course, it's "the Education Lottery." What's next? The Education Beer? You won't be able to buy a six-pack at Food Lion unless it's state-approved. Or maybe the Education Cigarettes?

We all hear the horror stories of those souls who lose a weeks pay in video poker. The truth is that you could substitute video poker to anything from collecting baseball cards to playing the Education Lottery to renting Disney DVDs off line. We simply cannot parent our fellow man to behave the way we think they should. Once we start doing this, we allow them to do the same to us. In fact, we allow a more gripping problem to come into play. We give the police more power and more money to fight things they simply should not fight.

Chester County Sheriff Robby Benson was quoted in your paper recently saying, "The Drug Enforcement Unit is handling more than just drugs. We’re cracking down on any and everything, because people are tired of the things that are going on." With all due respect, sir, some things are none of your business, nor is it the business of those who may find it morally repugnant. If you and the government will let us live our lives as we see fit, you can catch arsonists, speeders, murderers and rapists.

Joseph Hinson

Well, I got a phone call from a woman who, well, let's just say that she did not share my opinion on the subject. Through the wonder of modern technology, here is the text of what she said. A few things. First, she did not idenify herself. Second, I was not at home when the call came in and my wife was online at the time. Our voice mail picked it up. I'll put it here just as she said it.

"Yes, I'm calling for the Joseph Hinton that wrote the editorial in the paper. Mr. Hinton, I believe that the sheriff, Hinson, is charged with enforcing the laws. He doesn't make the laws. The laws that are in place have no bearing on his view point or anything. He's just charged with carrying out and enforcing the laws.

"So the fact that you don't agree with the laws is whole 'nother issue. So I think before you write your stupid Great Falls opinion, you need to know what you're talking about."

In fact, miss, I do know what I'm talking about. My problem with Sheriff Benson's comments were just as I said in the editorial and the last rant. He said the drug unit of the police were cracking down "on any and everything, because people are tired of the things that are going on." I find that comment offensive. I find it appalling and, in fact, shameful. I would actually like to sit down with the sheriif as the freelance writer that I am and ask him to elaborate on that statement. As it stands now, it is almost open-ended. And, as I asked in the last rant, who is everyone? And how does anyone get to be an everyone to decide what is right and wrong for everyone else?

At a glance, she does have a point. The good sheriff does not make the laws. The Education Lottery and other great bills was passed by the South Carolina General Assembly. Other consensual crime legislation has been passed by the United States Congress. Some of these laws have come from the desk of the president. The War on Drugs, in fact, got underway under the Reagan Administration. Who will soon forget the classic "Diff'rent Strokes" in which the First Lady lectures Little Arnold and Willis (played by Todd Bridges, who obviously didn't get the memo) about the dangers of drugs. "Just say no," she emphatically pleased to a nation that was not nearly as dumb as she seemed to think. This episode of "Diff'rent Strokes" was named "The Reporter." It aired on March 19, 1983 and was directed by Gerren Keith. From the Diff'rent Strokes -- Episode Guide: "Determined to prove he didn't fabricate a story about drug abuse in his grade school just to win a journalism contest, Arnold takes his article to the New York City newspaper sponsoring the competition, and when they run his story on the front page, Arnold receives some unexpected more support from First Lady Nancy Reagan." Isn't it amazing the crap you can find on-line. Like Hinson's Rants?

But back to the rant. I was not questioning Benson's role as small town sheriff in the War on Drugs. Well, maybe I was. But I was shedding some light on the inane comments which I found generally repugnant. I was questioning his role as peace officer in Chester where the crime rate is high, the tension on the streets between the African-American community and Chester's boys in blue is higher and bank robbers and church arsonists seemingly go uncaught. Meanwhile, Benson's team of hound dogs and mad dogs go in and close down a small video poker operation where no one hurt the person or the property of another. As I write this, a church congregation is looking for a place to worship because an arsonist, who is still out there and likely will never be caught, burned their church to the ground last week.

"The laws are in place have no bearing on his view point or anything." This is an interesting comment. I'm not sure she means what she said. If she does, then what she's saying is that he would be arresting people for these "crimes" even if they were no longer crimes. Of course, Mr. Benson is welcome to have his opinion no matter what the laws are. I am too, even if it is a "stupid Great Falls opinion." Which, frankly, is a form of class warfare. Evidently people in Chester are better than people in Great Falls. Where is Great Falls? Well, it's in Chester County. Which means if I need a police officer, I'd call one of Sheriff Benson's finest.

As you can tell, her main gripe with my "stupid Great Falls opinion" was that I called Robby Benson on what he said. That would lead me to wonder if she knows the sheriff in some regard. Is she his wife? His mother or his sister? Is she someone who works with Benson? Or just a concerned citizen who wanted to voice her opinion? Which is odd. I put my name on what I believe. She used that name to find my phone number. Yet she didn't put a name to her own opinion. An interesting notion to say the least.

Meanwhile, "The Drug Enforcement Unit is handling more than just drugs. We’re cracking down on any and everything, because people are tired of the things that are going on."

You can contact "Bobbie" at the address below. This is information readily available on-line.

Chester County
Sheriff Bobbie Benson
P.O. Box 727
Chester, SC 29706-0727
(803) 581-5133

About the Photograph: I searched Google for a photograph -- any photograph -- Chester County Sheriff Robby Benson. I came up with nada. I don't even know what the man looks like. Failing that, I did another search on 70s teen idol Robby Benson. This is the first shot I came across. My late sister, Beth, was a big fan of Benson as he was a University of South Carolina alumnus.

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