It’s Security Theater. Or Theatre, if we’re trying to sound erudite.

The cops are there to give the appearance of doing something, whether or not it’s helpful. This is not unlike making you dump out a fresh bottle of water before you hit the TSA checkpoint at the airport.

If an incident does occur, they can intervene. If nothing happens, then whoever keeps stats on such things can claim that the presence of the cops kept the rowdy behavior to a minimum.

Sometimes it’s best to just shake your head and move on.

Jay

Uncontested medical fact about marijuana: it doesn’t provoke violence. Quite the opposite. There is no risk of cops being beaten up.

And I think the analogy is good, still. If the other potheads see someone else getting a ticket and decide to stick around, all the cop has to do is work his way down the line.

I wouldn’t have a problem with safety services, provided they made some sort of sense. Maybe some ambulances standing by or something? When you get a huge crowd drinking alcohol, it makes sense to keep cops around to break up fights. But a huge crowd with no alcohol but lots of pot? No fights.

I really don’t know what sort of safety they’re trying to ensure, frankly.

d

They’re there to ensure the entire group is protected from one of the safest drugs known to mankind.

Diana,

Maybe pot is safe as drugs go, but people can be stupid even without chemical enhancement. I’m sorry, but I don’t see a problem with having safety services present for a crowd that large.

I’ll grant that the ticketing rules are lopsided, but maybe it’s a compromise between collecting some ticket revenue and paying for a beat-up cop’s medical treatment.

Your example with speeders isn’t an exact analogy - the nineteen that got away aren’t standing around watching the cop write up the 20th.

Dave