LTE: Zombies are Dancers
Posted by Andy on July 27th, 2006
HARASSING OR POLICING?
Respect all people
Someone needs to hold Minneapolis police accountable for publicly harassing the dancers in downtown Minneapolis (Star Tribune, July 25).
Will there ever be a time when the police are policed themselves? Where is their apology? Why do they continually spend time harassing people simply because they are different?
MICHAEL HESSE, MINNEAPOLIS
Carrying bombs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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July 27th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Wow, they’re “different” from you and me…as in what, wearing costumes with wiring protruding from them? What cop, if he or she is any good, wouldn’t take another look at that set-up to, oh, I don’t know, make sure there aren’t actual explosives in there? The irresponsibility of some of these people on the Left is truly breath-taking.
July 27th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
“The irresponsibility of some of these people on the Left is truly breath-taking.”
Suggesting that cops need to clean up their act is not irresponsible. The criticism may have been misapplied, if there were wires sticking out of their backpacks and there was good reason to believe it was a bomb, then that was decent police work. Doesn’t excuse racial profiling, or in general how cops treat everyone who is under 30, non-white, and/or not well to do.
At any rate, stop blaming the left for that, for all you know, Michael Hesse could be a lifelong republican and KKK member.
July 28th, 2006 at 8:12 am
“if there were wires sticking out of their backpacks and there was good reason to believe it was a bomb, then that was decent police work.”
That’s precisely my point — the police acted with due diligence by checking into the nature of what it was that these people had in their backpacks. I don’t know about you, but if I saw someone running around in public with wiring protruding from their clothes, I’d sure as heck would hope the police would take the threat seriously by looking into it. In an era in which terrorists attempt and blow up buildings and people by hiding bombs underneath their clothes, it’s completely irresponsible to hide behind the excuse of “these people are different” as a reason not to act with due diligence for the public good.
Perhaps Mr. Hesse is a Republican, but I bet he is not because Republicans aren’t always trying to cast aspersions on the police and the very important job they do.
July 28th, 2006 at 11:03 am
In an era where people are willing to trade in basic freedoms and the constitution for safety due to paranoia and racism, its irresponsible to throw around the threat of terrorist. “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Benjamin Franklin may or may not have said that, but its true either way.
I would rather have a police force I could respect, and be in slightly more danger (slightly, since the threat of a terrorist attack is in most situations, extremely slight) than have a police force that considers being brown sufficient evidence of guilt. You say that was not the situation, that’s fine, Mr. Hesse can still be forgiven for erring on the side of caution.
And I’m going to ignore the circular logic bit. I will say that I’ve met republicans who have a good sense of justice, which is all that is required to say racial profiling is wrong. Granted, I’ve only met about 4 of them, but there are probably more out there.