c) even a thug deserves to be treated like a proper citizen until a crime is committed BY HIM or HER. Just because someone isn't you or a mimic of you doesn't make them less than you. I am as suspicious and judgmental as most people, but I am not exercising authority of the state to harass and detain, only to observe and postulate. Our police need to stick to solving crimes and averting crime by means other than being a nuisance.
Nobody should be harassed because of race. But to a very large degree, we all get to choose how to dress, whether to sport tats and piercings, how we comport ourselves, and especially how we respond to others.
One doesn't avert many crimes by passively doing nothing.
Anything police do to avert crime (as contrasted with waiting to write a report and try to solve a crime after it occurs) is going to be viewed as harassing to some.
As a middle-aged, white, male, I expect I would garner a fair bit more attention if I were to sit in my parked car next to a random grade school than would an elderly black woman, all else being equal. I might have a dozen legit reasons to be sitting in my car on that public road. And depending on how I responded to whomever it was who stopped by to check (teacher, parent, cop), I might allay most all fears rather quickly. I hope that someone would check rather than waiting for something to happen. Being asked to account for my perfectly legal but statistically concerning conduct is a far smaller infringement of my rights than would be any child abduction be on the rights of the victim.
A few years ago random cars took to parking in front of my home. When I'd go out and ask the drivers if they were ok, they were always just "waiting to meet a friend." Since I live two blocks from a major commercial area with lots of amenities, my quiet residential street seemed a strange place for so many random people to be waiting to meet a friend. I figured the friend had something to sell that was less than legal.
I made a point of going out to check on the welfare of every driver who stopped in front of my house. In the process I very visibly noted their license plate number. Once or twice in the middle of the day, it was a salesman who was enjoying the shade from my tree to eat his lunch in his car or safely make a phone call. But every other time it was someone waiting for a friend.
I took to politely, but firmly telling these folks it was a bad place to wait for their friend because of some recent activity that had the neighbors and police on high alert; and I'd hate for innocent folks to get hassled.
One night I happened upon who I figured might be "the friend" when instead of the usual polite line about "meeting a friend" I got attitude about "a public street and his right to be there." I flat out told him that whatever he was buying or selling we didn't want. That really set him off which gave me a fine reason to report the unknown and confrontational driver parked in my neighborhood after dark.
The local PD had him lit up less than 2 minutes later. I have no idea of the details of what took place. But it took over half an hour before he and the PD were both gone. And we never again had anyone parking along our street after dark, "waiting for a friend."
I never saw an actual sale. And I don't want to have doors kicked in over a little private pot use. But I will make very sure that nobody gets to enjoy anonymity on my street. If I (or most of my neighbors) see someone I (they) don't know, I'm (we are) going to get to know them. If they consider that "hassling" or otherwise makes them uncomfortable enough to avoid my street, so be it.
The scum can deal drugs, and case houses, and vandalize, and commit other crimes in neighborhoods where folks don't want to see anyone "hassled".
And for the record, my street is more racially diverse than the average in Utah. Skin color has nothing to do any of the above personal experiences.
Charles
