Wow Jim, you must be one of the people with the Sheriff's office on speed dial.
I brought up the cop's age because he was obviously a rookie and had no idea what he was doing - a seasoned officer would have handled the situation very differently, and rightly so. A seasoned officer would have, oh, I don't know, maybe known what the law was, first of all. And he also would have gotten out of his car and asked politely to speak with someone, not threatened anyone, not raised his voice when no one gave him reason to.
And he did, in fact, threaten arrest immediately. We have over three dozen witnesses who heard it.
The time is extremely relevant. The noise ordinance has a time for a reason. People are allowed to enjoy themselves, you know. It was a reasonable hour, and it's not as if we were blasting AC/DC to get a Central American dictator out of his mansion.
It is not, in fact, a mistake to post the photo. He was standing on the street, which was public property, therefore he has no expectation of privacy. I myself am a photographer. I know the law (which is more than we can say for the police officer in question).
I am not just some visitor throwing money around. If you read my post, you would see that I said my family has lived in the area for over a decade, owns property, votes, pays taxes, and helps run two businesses in the area, one of which is extraordinarily important to the economy of Grayton Beach.
We were not having a rave, for crying out loud. It was a wedding. And it was not a random Sunday night - it was a holiday weekend, which we purposely picked because we knew people would have Monday off. The number of people is very relevant - it was not a large, boisterous party and we were not breaking any occupancy laws, either.
If you chose to stretch your critical thinking skills, you would understand that I brought up my father's age and profession for two reasons: one, to demonstrate that he was not a threat - is a 67-year-old man really a physical threat to a 20-year-old in peak physical shape? I mentioned his profession as a demonstration that as someone who worked in public safety for 20 years, he is respectful of others who do so. Sadly, in this case that respect was not given back to any of us.
He visited the station the next day to discuss the situation with the officer on duty because the officer is in dire need of people skills. There was absolutely no reason for him to behave the way he did, to talk to us the way he did, to threaten us the way he did, and that's without even getting into the fact that we were not breaking any laws or ordinances. If you went to the grocery store and the cashier was a jerk to you, I am quite sure you would complain to his manager.
Please remember that your local economy depends on those "spoiled visitors" who spend their hard-earned money renting your beach houses, paying for bonfire permits, buying their drinks at Red Bar, eating their sushi at Basmati's, renting their beach chairs and umbrellas from that awesome guy at the end of Defuniak Street, and drinking their morning coffee at Miss Lucille's. Sorry if you don't like it, but that's life in a resort town. That is not to say that you are at the beck and call of the tourists, but if they stop coming, your entire economy dries up. Not everyone in the area is independently wealthy, Jim. Perhaps it would do you good to remember your neighbors who own businesses who depend on those "spoiled tourists" to put food in their kid's mouths.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know what happened. Take it as you will.
I brought up the cop's age because he was obviously a rookie and had no idea what he was doing - a seasoned officer would have handled the situation very differently, and rightly so. A seasoned officer would have, oh, I don't know, maybe known what the law was, first of all. And he also would have gotten out of his car and asked politely to speak with someone, not threatened anyone, not raised his voice when no one gave him reason to.
And he did, in fact, threaten arrest immediately. We have over three dozen witnesses who heard it.
The time is extremely relevant. The noise ordinance has a time for a reason. People are allowed to enjoy themselves, you know. It was a reasonable hour, and it's not as if we were blasting AC/DC to get a Central American dictator out of his mansion.
It is not, in fact, a mistake to post the photo. He was standing on the street, which was public property, therefore he has no expectation of privacy. I myself am a photographer. I know the law (which is more than we can say for the police officer in question).
I am not just some visitor throwing money around. If you read my post, you would see that I said my family has lived in the area for over a decade, owns property, votes, pays taxes, and helps run two businesses in the area, one of which is extraordinarily important to the economy of Grayton Beach.
We were not having a rave, for crying out loud. It was a wedding. And it was not a random Sunday night - it was a holiday weekend, which we purposely picked because we knew people would have Monday off. The number of people is very relevant - it was not a large, boisterous party and we were not breaking any occupancy laws, either.
If you chose to stretch your critical thinking skills, you would understand that I brought up my father's age and profession for two reasons: one, to demonstrate that he was not a threat - is a 67-year-old man really a physical threat to a 20-year-old in peak physical shape? I mentioned his profession as a demonstration that as someone who worked in public safety for 20 years, he is respectful of others who do so. Sadly, in this case that respect was not given back to any of us.
He visited the station the next day to discuss the situation with the officer on duty because the officer is in dire need of people skills. There was absolutely no reason for him to behave the way he did, to talk to us the way he did, to threaten us the way he did, and that's without even getting into the fact that we were not breaking any laws or ordinances. If you went to the grocery store and the cashier was a jerk to you, I am quite sure you would complain to his manager.
Please remember that your local economy depends on those "spoiled visitors" who spend their hard-earned money renting your beach houses, paying for bonfire permits, buying their drinks at Red Bar, eating their sushi at Basmati's, renting their beach chairs and umbrellas from that awesome guy at the end of Defuniak Street, and drinking their morning coffee at Miss Lucille's. Sorry if you don't like it, but that's life in a resort town. That is not to say that you are at the beck and call of the tourists, but if they stop coming, your entire economy dries up. Not everyone in the area is independently wealthy, Jim. Perhaps it would do you good to remember your neighbors who own businesses who depend on those "spoiled tourists" to put food in their kid's mouths.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you all know what happened. Take it as you will.
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