Policemen attacked in Gainesville- 5 Arrested

I was in Leonardo’s the other day when my friend mentioned that I had missed a hippie convention while I was out of town for the weekend.

I’m glad I was gone. I hate it when people flock to town like it’s their own personal Woodstock. Which, for these people, it was. Which brings us to the story that broke yesterday. Here’s the set-up:

The big party this weekend was called Fest. For those of you who haven’t heard of it before, it’s kinda like a convention for garage bands and their groupies. A good excuse to listen to some music, knock back liberal amounts of alcohol, go crazy. That sort of thing.

The police, of course, are patrolling the streets.

As they’re doing this, they come upon a crowd dancing and partying in the street. There’s about 100, 200, maybe even 500. Stories differ.

The police didn’t try to shut down the party, or stop the show that was going on, but they did try and move people out of the street. Perfectly reasonable.

Some people were either too drunk or having too much of a good time to pay attention. Some guy dressed all in silver spandex refused to move after being politely informed to get out of the road. So Gainesville Police Officer Jones got out of the cruiser to arrest him.

Another man interfered with the arrest, and as he attacked the officer, he was quickly Tasered and slapped in handcuffs as well.

Witnesses from the scene dispute that the man attacked Jones, saying “We’re not going to tolerate police brutality in this town.”

But no one disputes that most of the “witnesses” present were not, in fact, slobbering drunk at that point. And no one disputes what happened next.

Mayhem broke loose as the drunken mob attacked the officers with “hands, fists, feet, cans, and bottles.”

This is disgusting.

The police in this town have a hard go of it. I’ve read the stories over my years here, and every time the police do anything, people complain. These are the men and women who, every day, protect the streets of this city, sometimes with their lives. Their lives!

And how do we treat them? Like ingrates.

The reaction of the police was swift. If they protect anyone the best, it is when they are coming to the aid of one of their own. That’s the kind of fierce devotion you would want of someone, were you in a tight spot.

More than 20 officers responded. Five people were arrested.

Currently, there 14 comments on the Alligator article that went up yesterday. One of them accuses police of using “cowardly methods” to arrest people, and that attacking a police officer from behind sounds like a good idea. What kind of an upside-down world are we living in, where people think it is fair to say these things?

A response to his comment went like this:

“Cowardly methods? How do you propose police do things? They have no idea if anyone is armed at any point and time. And hundreds give their lives every year for their community. If they took a risk every time and were not tactful more would die.

I am glad for all the officers do, it’s not an easy job I don’t think. I would have to put myself in their shoes.

Bottom line, people will always complain about police because it gives them something to talk about. People generally don’t like being told what to do and nobody likes to be arrested. So whether they are wrong or not, these subjects will be biased.”

Despite whatever the story is, these fools and ingrates only see what they want to see: excessive police force. What a stupid and pointless way to interpret the world around you. If you refuse to trust the people who are entrusted to protect you, where does that leave you?

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