Speak to Them with a Baton, for They Will Understand Nothing Else.

   We need a smaller shadow size for our law enforcement. As it is now, when someone is arrested, it is as if a 40-foot shadow is towering over them, just daring them to "make my day."

   No, you don't' get off easy when the law catches up with you. Sometimes, you don't even survive. Don't expect love and understanding; all the shadow understands is that you broke the law, and now you are going to pay for it.

   Sometimes, its not even that you broke the law, it's just that you did something the ominous Darth Vader in the sky didn't like. You offended him, and for that you must not go unpunished. Will you bring a rebuke from the officer? "Rebuke" is not a strong enough of a word. "Tongue lashing" might not even do. Growling is not enough. No, words are not enough; it will take a little physical violence to straighten you out. 

   Oh, not all officers are this way. Most of them -- perhaps far and far and away most of them -- are kind and gentle, polite and respectable. (Well, maybe, maybe not, but sufficient to say they try to be nice.) 

   But, it only takes one mean officer -- one officer who thinks he is a law unto himself -- to really mess things up. "One bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch, baby"? Well, in this case, it does.

   Yes, it just takes one officer who believes he is not only there to enforce the law, he is the law. You will be compliant and obey his every whim; you will be utterly submissive, or the walls will come crashing down on you long before you ever reach the walls of a prison. 

   These shadows are not what we need. We don't need officers who instill such fright and fear into their arrestee that the arrestee panics and looks for the first chance and any chance to bolt and get away. 

   You will argue that sometimes the arrestee doesn't know any other language. You must speak to them with the hardened end of a baton because they will understand nothing else. 

   But, no, you don't have to lower yourself to a criminal's level to arrest a criminal. There are those of us in the public who believe that instead of casting a shadow over the arrestee, we should cast an arm of love around them. 

   Heavy, isn't it?