General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The Starbucks thing... [View all]hunter
(38,721 posts)Police are not obligated to pick sides in a dispute like this. They don't have to tell anyone what to do, they don't have to offer any resolution to a dispute that's not violent, they don't have to arrest anyone, they don't have to give anyone cause to question their authority.
As a teacher if two kids were fighting at school I didn't pick sides, my first concern was that they stopped fighting. I only suffered one fight in my classroom and I've always felt bad that I didn't see it coming. The air was hot and heavy with adolescent hormones and I'm really bad at recognizing body language, with scars to show for it. A big girl in my class stepped in between the two boys, scolding and shaming them back into their seats. I didn't feel bad she'd usurped my authority. RESPECT.
I live in a place where high housing costs (especially in "nicer" neighborhoods) and heavy, sometimes very grim, workloads make it difficult for our city to attract and keep police professionals. Our police department has been understaffed and overworked for all the decades I've lived here.
40% of the kids in our schools don't speak English at home, so language is a problem too, even for officers who are fully English/Spanish bilingual.
We have a disproportionately high homeless population too, people here from all over the U.S.A. for no other reason than the mild winters and scarcity of sociopaths who'd deport imprison torture or kill people of misfortune.
It sure as hell ain't heaven but it's home.