So the police are out looking to harass the innocent citizenry. Two words here that do not belong in the same sentence, “Harass” and “Innocent.” With the United States average is 2 police officers per 1000 citizens, there are simply not enough police to harass everybody. Put 1000 people in a typical high school stadium and tell me how two officers in blue are going to harass all of them.
Of those 1000 people in the stadium, there will be some who want to take the property belonging to another. There will be some who take offense at being bumped and strike out physically. There will be those who want to go off under the bleachers and cook up some heroin and main line it just because it makes them feel good. And of course there will be enough beer for those who want to abuse what is legal to purchase in the gas station.
In that crowd will be youth who are bored and will see what kind of damage they can do without getting caught. Some of the more sophisticated youth will seek out a place to practice that newly found activity called lovemaking even though there are hundreds of people around to watch.
I could come up with plenty of examples of human activity I have seen over the years, as well as what you can add to the list. All these are examples of the second word given emphasis and that is innocent. None of these activities are considered innocent in a genteel society. They have each been given a title and a section of the Ohio Revised Code making them illegal. The only people in the crowd of 1000 people with the power to arrest the participants of these activities are the two humans dressed in blue and wearing a badge.
In fact the two police officers swore an oath to enforce all of the laws of the State of Ohio and their employing jurisdiction. So now comes the harassment. Which of the violators do the two officers deal with first? The drug injecting person only wanting to feel good? How about the youth who are damaging public property which cost taxpayers more money to fix. Perhaps the fight going on after someone was bumped? Surely somebody will get hurt in the melee with the possibility of it turning into a fully fledged brawl and riot.
Whoever the officers decide they should handle first, that person will feel harassed since there are more serious violators in the crowd. The police are only harassing them because of the color of their skin, because of their young age or simply because the police officer is a jerk.
Whomever the police choose to deal with, the remaining crowd will continue to do their thing without fear of police harassment since the police will be tied up for several hours dealing with their victim by removing them from the scene, taking them to jail (if it is not full and refusing new inmates) and doing to the paperwork for lawyers to later make harassment accusations.
No I am not cynical and feel this is how police work is done every day or I would not still be in the business after 40 years. But the point here is that the police have the training, authority and power of discretion to deal with what the society employing them desires and needs to be enforced. Every one of the violators described is participating in an activity that is deemed illegal and as such, they are not innocent. To scream, yell, resist arrest or lash out at the police is not a form of civil disobedience. It is a person with no respect for themselves, let alone the authority of the police. Harassing the innocent! I think not.
