City response to march is appeasement

Here is a portion of the Olympia City Council response to my email about the Aug. 14 march: "...we chose to monitor the crowd and act only in the case of serious property damage or threats to physical safety. We chose not to engage in skirmishes related to tagging and other minor property damage given the numbers we encountered... I give our officers broad discretion in deciding when and how to act."

This seems like a strategy of appeasement – surrendering the rule of law in the face of superior numbers.

If the city is simply going to cede the streets to any crowd that outnumbers our police force, what does that say to the small business owner who reasonably expects protection of his property and repeatedly finds none?

When an unpermitted (and therefor unlawful march occurs) why not always arrest, book and release pending a court hearing. A permanent record of arrest and potential fines and jail time may provide a real deterrent to the the dilettantes and anarchists-in-training alike.

The effectiveness of this strategy as a deterrent requires, however, that it become the unchanging response to unlawful assemblage.

We are a nation of laws, folks, and this is our capital city.

This story was originally published September 8, 2016 at 8:43 AM with the headline "City response to march is appeasement."