I would like to thank all the people who congratulated me for
last week’s column on the police state masquerading as the
non-rally.
I would like to thank all the people who congratulated me for last week’s column on the police state masquerading as the non-rally.
However, I’ve been thinking it over, and I’ve concluded I made a mistake.
I called the law over-enforcement “ridiculous.”
I should have used the word “unconstitutional.”
Not to mention “capricious,” “arbitrary” and “rude.”
I’ve heard too many anecdotes about locals in cars or on motorcycles being pulled over and harassed not to bring up the subject of the non-rally again.
All too often, the stops proved baseless, or else tickets were written for minor infractions that are not enforced the rest of the year. That last aspect makes their enforcement during the weekend discriminatory.
I heard of two separate incidents in which off-duty, out-of-uniform officers from other jurisdictions were pulled over. When they were identified as officers, they were brusquely told to “move on.” The reasons for the stops were never revealed.
In another incident, a person currently serving probation was pulled over. When this driver acknowledged being on probation, he was pulled from the vehicle and roughly restrained and frisked. Again, no reason was given.
It’s illegal to ride a bike on downtown sidewalks, but the police were doing it.
The mounted officers were also riding their horses on the sidewalk, which must have been as confusing for the well-mannered horses as it was dangerous to pedestrians.
Other stories have appeared in print about people being harassed for photographing the police, and of a business owner who was required to take down signs posted in her own shop windows welcoming bikers to the non-rally.
One justification for the heightened police presence was the wish to keep criminal biker clubs from claiming Hollister in their turf wars. If it had been just a matter of dozens of extra officers, it might have been okay. But what I’ve been hearing about was harassment, and of locals at least as often as bikers. It’s as if somebody decided the way to keep illegal immigrants out was to round up all foreigners and make them leave town.
Doesn’t it frost you that all this took place during the weekend before Independence Day?
After all, we say we are celebrating liberty, but our liberty itself stems from living under the rule of law, rather than the rule or whims of an individual or powerful group. Uh oh.
The enforcement of the laws is delegated to individuals who take an oath to serve the public, not to serve the agenda of a clique of public officials.
The behavior of law enforcement during the non-rally weekend did not make me feel safer or more secure. It doesn’t help that the DA’s office is currently occupied by the evil alien twin of the man we thought we elected.
Our real problems, such as local gangs, drugs and drunken drivers, require a spirit of trust between law enforcement and the citizens they serve. And that spirit of trust was the real casualty of the First of July Follies.
