The DC Mayor, Adrian Fenty, uses emergency lights - police lights - on his entourage to get through traffic in Washington DC when he is late for meetings.

Since taking office Jan. 2, the District's triathlete mayor has been determined to show up at as many community meetings as possible, and he won't let traffic get in the way. Crisscrossing the city to churches and neighborhood halls, schools and recreation centers, Fenty's entourage uses the sirens and lights to cut his travel time, running red lights and often exceeding speed limits, a practice that other big-city mayors say they try to avoid.

On a recent Monday night, standing outside a meeting of the Crestwood Neighborhood League in Northwest Washington, where he arrived with lights and sirens on, Fenty said he uses the emergency equipment "on a case-by-case basis." The D.C. police officers in his security detail, including the driver of the Navigator in which Fenty rides, use lights and sirens "so I can get from one place to the next in a timely manner," the mayor said.

He ignores road rules; inconveniences traffic and citizens who are going about their daily affairs; this is a blatant abuse of power. The executive, which is what the mayor is in local government, is above the law through a claim that the executive not being able to do their job constitutes an 'emergency'. Ridiculous.

Washington DC has come under scrutiny before for its use of emergency governance in shoving through bills without bothering to go through the stipulated process. Its police force is also administered under near permanent emergency as well, which allows the Police Chief to ignore legislation and budget restraints.

Not good government.

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