ineffective protest

according to many news sources (apparently this thing is getting some national attention), a farmer in the northeast kingdom today went down to the sheriff's department and drove his giant tractor over half of the fleet of police cars, destroying them.

if you would like to read the freep's account of it, it's here.

why did he do such a thing? apparently he was angry that he was arrested last week for both marijuana possession and for resisting arrest.

i'd probably be pretty irate over being busted for for pot on account of i'm in favor of legalizing marijuana. i don't use pot, and i don't approve of most of its use but also i think the drug laws in this country and about marijuana in particular are disastrously harmful.

and i'm largely not in favor of the general trend these days of police powers and the erosion of civil rights, so i can understand being hacked over the arrest, maybe.

i wasn't there. i don't know the circumstances.

but even if the arrest was an outrage, the best response is probably not to take a giant tractor and roll over seven police cars, thereby destroying them.

because last i checked, large scale intentional destruction of property was a pretty serious crime and no matter how much of a hatwipe the arresting officer might have been, you do not get a free pass to destroy seven police cars, even if you are really, really mad.

and i don't know what the guy could possibly have been thinking. it takes some time and effort to drive a giant tractor into town and over seven police vehicles. and everybody SEES you do it, so you KNOW they're going to arrest you for that and if you thought you did not enjoy the first arrest, you will almost CERTAINLY not enjoy the next one.

yep. drive over their cars.

that'll show 'em.