The Entrepreneur of Sutro Street

It was early Wednesday morning that deputies near Sutro and East 11th conducted a traffic stop, discovering an activity that has ruined more unlawful careers, aside from higher education.

The subject of this interruption was a 40-year-old gentleman named Edgar Donato, who was conducting a private experiment in the free market, namely, how many bad decisions a man can carry in one vehicle before attracting public attention.

Now, the deputies, being curious by profession and suspicious by necessity, took an interest in Mr. Donato’s inventory. What they discovered was a firearm in the possession of a man not permitted to possess such things, along with a quantity of cocaine, less than 14 grams, which I suppose is meant to suggest moderation.

There was also the small detail of equipment associated with a machine gun or silencer, which indicates either a flair for dramatics or a misunderstanding of how quietly a man ought to live. Mr. Donato was arrested and booked into the Washoe County Detention Center, where the accommodations are modest, the company mixed, and the business opportunities are limited.

Now, we live in a complicated society, burdened by systems and inequities and all manner of explanations that arrive after the fact, but here remains a stubborn simplicity to certain situations. If a man cannot have a firearm, it is generally unwise to keep one close at hand. If he also carries cocaine and the accessories of a small war, it begins to look less like misfortune and more like a hobby pursued with unnecessary enthusiasm.

There is a modern habit to blame circumstances for what used to be called choices. Yet the law, in its plain and unfashionable way, continues to insist that a man is responsible for what he keeps in his pockets and under his seat.

It is an old-fashioned idea, and therefore deeply unpopular in some circles, but it has the virtue of being easy to understand.