The law, it has become abundantly clear, does not apply to Ian Smith, Delanco Township resident and Republican candidate for US Congress, who is in the news on charges of drunk driving.
Again.
More to the point, Smith doesn’t believe the law applies to him. Laws are on the books for others, his actions have shown. Smith? He simply slides them aside as if they were a condiments caddy on a restaurant table to make room for his tray of appetizers. Whatever is convenient for him, whatever makes his life easier, the rest of the dinner guests be damned.
At every turn, at every step, Smith has displayed an arrogant disdain for laws designed to protect the public. And, as it has all shaken out, laws designed to protect the public from people like him.
One would have believed that after Smith, then 20, drove drunk, ran a stop sign, and crashed his car and killed 19-year-old Kevin Ade 15 years ago this month, he would have changed, would have seen the light, would have, in a similar intoxicated situation, called a cab or a friend for a lift, to ensure he and other drivers would arrive home safely.
But this is Smith we’re talking about, to whom rules and laws are a pebble in his shoe; a mere annoyance. In the early morning hours of March 27, Cinnaminson Township police pulled Smith over after he was observed swerving in and out of his lane on Route 130. An officer on scene told Smith he didn’t feel the man passed field sobriety testing. Police video footage shows Smith contending he wasn’t drunk and didn’t fail the sobriety tests, only appearing to fail due to windy conditions at night. He also refused to submit to a Breathalyzer. That night, only the wind blew.
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Smith’s disdain for the law continued after he was handcuffed and placed in the rear seat of the police vehicle.
“You know I’m a congressional candidate for this district, right?” he said to the officer, his comments recorded on police bodycam footage. What, Smith was expecting a wish of good luck from the cops by revealing his run for political office as he was cuffed and charged with DUI? No. He was presumably intending to use it as leverage to get away with the DUI charge.
During Gov. Phil Murphy’s coronavirus lockdown order, Smith thumbed his nose at the it, incurring more than $1.2 million in fines — more than $15,000 per day — for keeping his Atilis Gym, in Bellmawr, open. Part of the gym’s motto: We like our music loud, workouts intense, and freedoms preserved.
Freedoms, as in, protected by law. Laws Smith doesn’t agree with, well, they’re for others to march to.
This is someone we want representing the 3rd District in Congress?
Fifteen years ago, Smith killed a teenager while driving drunk. He pleaded guilty to second-degree vehicular homicide. Was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison.
It’s been said prison can change a person, that having their freedom taken away makes them realize the error of their ways. And then there’s Smith, who on May 12 will appear before a judge at his preliminary hearing. For driving drunk.
Again.
Election Day is June 7.
Phil Gianficaro, a columnist for the USA TODAY Network, can be reached at 215-345-3078, pgianficaro@theintell.com, and @philgianficaro1 on Twitter.
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