I have been a critic of police conduct in our city. I am convinced that leadership here is poor, and excuse-making. This is a mediocre, ill-trained force in a city that deserves far better. Any yet, even I find myself surprised by what I sometimes read. Consider a comment posted on the UW-Whitewater Royal Purple‘s website, in response to an editorial about underage drinking near campus.
Here is an excerpt from the comment on the Royal Purple website as of 10/25:
In response to your editorial entitled “This just in: Police still give tickets to underage drinkers,” I would like to correct some misguided information. No one at the party that night is disputing the fact that they received a drinking ticket. Everyone there knows what they were doing is illegal. The problem we have with this situation is the manner in which the Whitewater City Police Department acted. We feel that sending in undercover officer into a college party in a college town is simply unethical. Also, to barge into the door screaming “Whitewater P.D.” as if this was some kind of drug sting is totally unnecessary. Worst of all, when the dust had settled and the tickets had been written, the police were seen high-fiving each other as if they had just won a game.
Really? Can this be true, that Whitewater Police ‘high-fived’ each other after completing the raid on the residence? What mature man high-fives a colleague after citing underage drinkers? I’m not much for the high-five in any event, but it’s a callow person who’d act that way. As for bursting through the door, shouting ‘Whitewater P.D.,’ that’s too funny. You’d think that they were arresting Bin Laden, or liberating Grenada.
(Quick reminder: you cannot scare students from underage drinking by looking ridiculous.)
Did it happen this way? Write me at adams@freewhitewater.com and let me know.
Over on Comedy Central, there’s a show called Reno 911!, about over-the-top, buffoonish police antics. It’s just a television program there; it is police practice here?