As I predicted the local police provided me with a criminal summons for "violating outside sidewalk cafe law" of which I am to appear July 14th in front of Judge Ames. I invited the local newspaper to cover the story because I believe it is in the public interest. Not so much the cafe law itself, but more importantly the philosophy of local law enforcement.
Since I have been old enough to pay any attention to our local police the approach seems to be changing from "Protect and Serve" to "Patrol and Police". This migration from a kinder, protecting force toward an aggressive, motivated police force is not going without notice. Let me exemplify:
While we did our best to strictly enforce our cafe law this weekend and despite that effort the local police circled the block as if we were a high crime area. They even confronted citizens who were drinking non-alcoholic beverages as if they were committing an offense. A close associate of mine was confronted by officers twice within minutes because he had a glass of water in his hand, walking down the street near Better Days. The second police car that stopped forced him to dump his water because he 'didn't know what was in it'. Wow if that doesn't worry the people then what will. I worries me alot....
We have a real problem getting folks to settle in Wellsville. Weekends like Alumni Reunion and Balloon Rally give us a chance to show our visitors that we are one of the last great small towns. If we allow our authority to create an atmosphere where people are treated as suspects and cited at every turn we will have a problem getting visitors. That compromises our livelihood and our quality of life.