Romney impersonated police officer

[Martinus]

Classmates: Mitt Romney Impersonated Police Officer In High School And College

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has long contended that he's a good-humored practical jokester who is only misunderstood as stiff and over-programmed.

As a high school student, Romney's mischievous disposition was frequently on display. Classmates told the Washington Post in a piece published last month that this sometimes led him into unpleasant territory, such as the time he and a group of friends pinned down a screaming boy -- who was presumed to be gay -- and gave him a "hack job" haircut with a pair of scissors.

In another questionable display of his inner prankster, it now appears that Romney was also reportedly fascinated with police uniforms, which he sometimes put on to carry out elaborate practical jokes.

According to a report from National Memo, Romney was open about this practice, telling fellow students at Stanford University, where he studied for two years, that he "sometimes disguised himself as a police officer."

According to classmate Robin Madden, Romney once brought a group of classmates up to his dorm room where he showed them his Michigan State Trooper's uniform.

From the National Memo report:

Said Madden in a recent interview, "He told us that he had gotten the uniform from his father," George Romney, then the Governor of Michigan, whose security detail was staffed by uniformed troopers. "He told us that he was using it to pull over drivers on the road. He also had a red flashing light that he would attach to the top of his white Rambler."

In Madden's recollection, confirmed by his wife Susan, who also attended Stanford during those years, "we thought it was all pretty weird. We all thought, 'Wow, that's pretty creepy.' And after that, we didn't have much interaction with him," although both Madden and Romney were prep school boys living in the same dorm, called Rinconada.

Madden's account of a young Romney who excitedly spoke of his habit of impersonating a police officer, which is illegal in many states, has been corroborated in the past by other acquaintances from the GOP presidential candidate's youth.

A magistrate at Cranbrook, Romney's boarding school, recounted a famous prank in which Romney dressed up in full uniform and a badge, and placed a police light on top of his vehicle in order to pull over a car full of friends on a double date.

The story has also been told in the book The Real Romney as well as by fellow students of the future Massachusetts governor.

Graham McDonald, a friend of Romney's at the time who'd helped him plan the joke, explained the high jinks in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer:

As planned, Romney pulled their car over, demanded the vehicle registration, and asked for the keys to the trunk - where he "found" the bottle of bourbon McDonald had taken from his dad and planted as part of the ruse.
"He told me and my friend to get out with him, and that he was taking us in," McDonald remembered. The idea was to spook the girls.

One of the young women involved told the Washington Post that she was "terrified" at the time, but that they'd all shared in the laugh after they realized what was really happening.

While the treatment of such behavior has no doubt become more severe in the period between Romney's antics and the present, National Memo points out that impersonating a police officer is a crime -- and a fairly serious one at that -- in the states of California, where Stanford is located, and Michigan, where Cranbrook is located. While some may be concerned about the legal implications of the decades-old acts, the episodes appear more indicative of a Romney who, from a young age, displayed a comfort with power and privilege that his peers have suggested he used to act out in his quest for social acceptance.

LOL this guy is getting weirder and weirder. And not in a good crazy way but in a creepy way.

[Habbaku]

 

[Eddie Teach]

Mitt Romney has a sense of entitlement he doesn't want to share with the public.

[Barrister]

FFS when deciding who should be president who the fuck cares about shit that happened 40 years ago?

[Martinus]

FFS when deciding who should be president who the fuck cares about shit that happened 40 years ago?

Well, it doesn't per se but the stories that keep surfacing about him, like this one, or the bullying or the stuff about him transporting his dog in an open cage on the roof of his car, give an insight into his character that is quite consistent - and not at all pretty. And sociopaths do not "get better".

Anyway, considering your usual stance, Mr. Square, I'm surprised you would take to a crime so lightly.

[DGuller]

What's the statute of limitations on impersonating of police officer?   

[Berkut]

Sociopath?

[Habbaku]

Sociopath?

You know. Like Martinus.

[Eddie Teach]

Sociopath?

The dog thing and the dye job thing can both be read that way. This one, not so much.

[Martinus]

Sociopath?

The dog thing and the dye job thing can both be read that way. This one, not so much.

This one involves (i) doing something wrong (which is also a crime), (ii) abusing privilege and (iii) causing distress to random people for kicks. I'd say this can be read as sociopathic too.

[11B4V]

Perhaps he's impersonating a Republican. 

[Eddie Teach]

I'm sure there's plenty of actual police officers who also enjoy handing out tickets.

[Tamas]

  Srsly guys? The dude impersonated an officer of the law, and you go all "well, hey, it ain't a big deal. he was young"

WTF

[Berkut]

Srsly guys? The dude impersonated an officer of the law, and you go all "well, hey, it ain't a big deal. he was young"

WTF

Yeah, exactly.

Obama smoked dope and did some blow. Who cares.

[katmai]

Who besides Beeb is saying that?
Who knows where Habbu is on subject as he actually hasn't commented on the report just Marti's comments.