02/04/10
From Hot Air
Prayers for Jim Treacher
posted at 10:00 am on February 4, 2010 by Ed Morrissey
(02/06/10 update is below this entry)
Jim’s a great friend to Hot Air and conservatives everywhere, and in his new gig
at the Daily Caller, has a good stage for his biting humor and political
insight. We may have to wait a while for Jim to regale us as he was the victim
of a hit-and-run accident last night. Jim’s knee is broken and remains
hospitalized, as Jim himself reports from his bed:
Sometime between 7 and 7:30, not long after I got home from work, I walked to
the CVS on 22nd and M to get some bread, milk, and a SmartTrip card. I was right
across the street from the CVS, and I waited for the crosswalk light to tell me
to go before I crossed. I had plenty of time left, according to the countdown
clock. I was more than halfway there when a black SUV made an illegal left
turn and hit me head-on. I absolutely had the right of way. I yelled
something like, “Are you really doing this?” as it hit me before I could move. I
landed on my face on the street and smashed my glasses and scraped my hand and
immediately I knew something was wrong with my left knee. I lay there screaming
and cursing for I don’t know how long, and a crowd of people gathered and told
me to hold still.
According to some witnesses, including apparently the DC police, the SUV may
have belonged to the Secret Service:
One last thing: I’m told by multiple people that the SUV that hit me was Secret
Service. If this is true, I want to know why that happened. I was crossing
legally, and they just left me there. At the very least, I want an apology. What
happened to me was wrong.
Any hit and run is illegal, and serious injury moves it up to a felony in
most jurisdictions. The police will have to investigate to see who owned the
vehicle, and Jim may get his apology — and the driver a big legal bill and
possibly some jail time. Hopefully, we’ll get a better picture of who hit Jim
and why in the very near future.
In the meantime, our prayers for a speedy recovery go out to Jim.
Update: I misread Jim’s post the first time through; he’s no longer in the
hospital. However, the police added insult to injury by issuing Jim a citation
for jaywalking, which Tucker Carlson tells me is “completely false and made up.”
Tucker also talked to the driver today, who refused to discuss his employer.
Keep an eye on the Daily Caller — this
story has gotten stranger and may get stranger still.
* * * * *
I have not been following Mr. Treacher's work, so I can't offer any sage analysis on whether he was getting too close to the truth on some sensitive topic. If the vehicle was being driven by a Secret Service agent, one would expect a higher standard of behavior such as quick reflexes to avoid the "accident" in the first place, and the ethical character to stop and render aid to the victim and admit to having struck him.
But I keep remembering a television show back in the 60s called "The Untouchables" in which 'G-Man' Elliot Ness did battle with the Chicago mobs. Every week or so there would be a scene where one mob took out members of another mob by means of a big black car full of hoods with machine guns. I guess it's back in style.
Watch your back Mr. Treacher. I'll be praying for you.
02/06/10 update
From Daily Caller
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the people standing over me as
I lay in the street with a broken knee asked if there was anybody he could
contact for me, and I gave him the number of the Daily Caller. I just figured he
was a nice guy. I didn’t know he was the one who hit me.
I’m pretty sure none of us knew until Thursday morning, when our wonderful
office manager Laura got the man’s number from the call logs, and Tucker called
him back to get his eyewitness account for
our first news story about it. That’s when the man, whose name is Mike
McGuinn and who turns out to be an agent with the U.S. Diplomatic Security
Service, revealed he was the one who hit me.
The police never told me who hit me. Guess they were too busy keeping the
streets safe from my “jaywalking.” Well, I won’t be doing much walking of any
kind for a while, officers. I sure would like to know who this eyewitness was,
the one who allegedly saw me jaywalking at 26th and M at the same time I was
being struck down in the street at 22nd and M. Oh, and I was jogging,
supposedly. When I collided with the SUV. Because that’s what joggers do, right?
They collide with vehicles, and not the other way around.
So now I’m in the hospital, and in a few hours they’re going to try to fix my
knee. It is my considered opinion that my knee never should have been damaged in
the first place.
To recap: I was hit by an SUV while crossing a DC street legally, the driver who
hit me is a federal agent who failed to identify himself in any way, I’m about
to undergo reconstructive surgery to repair the knee injury he admits he caused,
and somehow I was issued a jaywalking citation whose particulars in no way match
what was seen by multiple eyewitnesses.
Wednesday night I just wanted to get a few things at CVS, watch Lost on Hulu,
and go to bed after a long day of work. Now it’s turned into a whole big thing.
Fine by me.
* * * * *
A lot of commenters are wishing Mr. Treacher well and advising him to sue the government and or the driver. The story is starting to sound like a suspense novel, with the government obfuscating the details of the "accident". I'm assuming that these black government SUVs have bullet resistant windshields. I have GOT to get some AP ammo for my carry gun, and look both ways before crossing the street. I already have enough broken body parts.
EnemyoftheState
