Robert Mercer's Secret Adventure as a New Mexico Cop

[TygrBright]

Source: Bloomberg

Why was the fabulously wealthy Trump donor wearing a badge and a gun in a tiny desert town? To obtain something that’s impossible to buy.

Robert Mercer probably would have flown into Roswell. From there—1,800 miles from home—he would’ve traveled south through the high desert plains of southeast New Mexico, flat as a tortilla, past abandoned homesteads and irrigation machines moving in slow circles.

His phone reception would’ve gotten spotty when he turned left off Highway 285. He would’ve seen the bare limbs of a pecan orchard and a graveyard decked in plastic flowers. At the town hall in Lake Arthur, population 433, he would’ve met Police Chief William Norwood, a barrel-chested man with two spare rifle magazines on his belt. There, Mercer, the fabulously wealthy computer scientist who helped bankroll the election of President Donald Trump, would’ve reported for duty as a volunteer policeman.

If Mercer’s trips to Lake Arthur resembled my recent visit, he might’ve climbed into the passenger seat of Norwood’s police truck, whose black-and-white paint job is fading in the wind-whipped sand. He and Norwood might’ve rolled past the house where someone reported spotting a stolen car—a false alarm, it turns out. While monitoring radio chatter, the plutocrat and the chief might have jawed about the latest news in a town so small it has no stores: the recent pursuit of a motorist across half the county; the record of the high school’s six-man football team; reports of stolen pecans. Pulling up a chair at an Italian restaurant in nearby Hagerman, the chief might’ve urged Mercer to try the lasagna.

For most of the past six years, as Mercer became one of the country’s political kingmakers, he was also periodically policing Lake Arthur, according to the department. If he followed Norwood’s protocols—and Norwood insists no volunteers get special treatment—he would’ve patrolled at least six days a year. He would’ve paid for travel and room and board, and supplied his own body armor and weapon.

What they REALLY want, apparently... all these billionaire weapons connoisseurs- is to be in some kind of Hollywood fantasy along the lines of James Bond, Sylvester Stallone and Marvel Comics combined. And they can afford to create it for themselves, because when you've got billions, "Dude, Viagra's cheap" is irrelevant.

amazedly,
Bright

[comradebillyboy]

1. Bob Mercer is a graduate of Sandia HS and UNM in Albuquerque.

I have friends who knew him in those days. One of them is still close to him.

[Lucky Luciano]

2. Small world. I went to high school with his daughters.

The oldest, Jenji, was in all my classes. The wickedest of his spawn, Bekah, was in my AP computer science class and was a year younger (juniors and seniors took that class, so the one year difference was common in that class).

They were quiet obedient middle class kids. Top of the class types. Genuinely high IQ - very low EQ (emotional IQ).

[2naSalit]

3. K&R