I don't know who is advising state Del. Jon S. Cardin (left) but he's certainly not doing much of anything to help his marriage proposal stunt with a police helicopter and boat go away.
Yes, he apologized for misuing Baltimore police resources to ask his girlfriend's hand in marriage during a fake police "raid" aboard his boat and repayed the city $300, but he has steadfastly refused to give a full accounting -- who owned the boat, who asked the cops for help and who was aboard.
Now, his stunt may cost a police sergeant his job. Baltimore police have filed internal misconduct charges against an officer, saying he "improperly exercised his discretion."
And how does the Baltimore County delegate respond now that he put somone's career in jeopardy? He told Sun reporter Justin Fenton on Monday: He said he "didn't know enough to be able to comment." Then he added, "I have done what I can to apologize and try and let people know that I felt bad for the distraction and problems that it may have cause. I don't really have any comment except to say I'm sorry for the distraction that I caused."
It's more than a distraction; it's somone's career.
A poster wrote that this story is only alive because we in the media keep it alive. We only keep it alive because there are unanswered questions. When it broke, police said they were doing an investigation. It's only natural we follow up and this week is when the results of that probe were announced. But we still don't have all the answers: the department has refused to provide an itemized bill for how much the stunt cost and both Cardin and the cops won't say who set up the stunt in the first place, who owned the boat and who was on it.
These are all important questions that could easily be put to rest, and deserve to be answered so we know exactly how a state representative from Baltimore County could misappropriate city police resources in the Inner Harbor at the same time cops were trying to fight a summer break-out of crime there.