Keeping Vermont’s Cops Busy

pillow fightSeriously, WTF?

BURLINGTON – A pillow fight organized as a “flash mob” event drew about 50 participants, and police charged one of them with disorderly conduct.

The incident Friday outside Burlington Town Center mall lasted about two minutes, part of a fad in which people – after organizing online – suddenly materialize in a public place and do something strange.

Twenty-one-year-old Darin Cassler, of Burlington, who helped plan the event, blew a whistle to start the pillow fight and blew it again to signal the end.

He’s been charged with disorderly conduct and could get 60 days in jail and a $500

(Source: The Associated Press via The Rutland Herald – Published: April 21, 2009)

Why would this be considered worthwhile for the police to bother with? Either there’s just not enough real crime to justify the size of the VT police force, in which case we should start scaling it back to save some taxpayer dollars, or we need to look closely at the job description for the many cops out there. 50 people engagning in a bit of street theater is hardly a matter that requires the intervention of law enforcement. Nobody got hurt, no property got damaged, nobody was inconvenienced — heck, a few people in the audience may actually have had some fun watching the pillow fight, and the participants most certainly did. Is that what Vermont has come to under Jim Douglas’ boring, ineffective and wasteful regime? Prosecuting pillow fighters? Pathetic.