It doesn’t matter. It’s all a stunt.
The Democrat upset over a Monroe County ordinance meant to protect first responders from harassment and systematic annoyance is an act.
The only people buying it are the people with the TV cameras on their shoulders.
You might have seen it on the news last night. Angry people shouting and waving signs, out in front of the county office building. More angry people shouting inside, in the legislative chambers, at a public spleen venting on the issue.
As a stop gap measure to try to reclaim the support of firefighters and police officers in the recent county executive’s election, Republicans passed a county ordinance meant to keep people from throwing water balloons and f-bombs at cops, and to push back against the game of provoke and record which is encountered all day every day by some officers and agencies.
It’s a good idea, and a good law. It does not restrict free speech – you can cuss the cops all you want – you just can’t throw things at them, get in their way, hector them or otherwise impede their movement or work.
But according to the attention seekers on the evening news, this is all racist and oppressive and further proof of the subjugation of the poor by the institutions of white America.
Or some bull crap like that.
And the reporters ate it up. Quotes from people opposed to the ordinance were dutifully recorded and passed on. The words “unconstitutional” and “racist” even made it into the headline.
So it was a big win for cop haters.
Except that it all means nothing.
The ordinance will never be enforced or defended. And discussion of the issue has carefully avoided the opinions of police chiefs or attorneys employed by first responder agencies. The president of the state police chief’s association is in Monroe County, and turns up in none of the stories on the issue. The Democrat-controlled sheriff’s office employs a high-power lawyer to help guide its operation. He, likewise, seems to have been ignored in all this community discussion.
Must be an oversight.
But back to the premise: The ordinance will never be enforced or defended.
As to enforcement, the largest police agency in the county is the Rochester Police Department, overseen by a Democrat mayor who opposed the legislation. As already referenced, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is also controlled by a Democrat, who picks the hills he wants to die on, and doesn’t seemed inclined to make this one of them. Further, the Brighton town supervisor – another community with a police department – was one of the featured speakers at the anti-cop rally. Absent, but presumably assenting to his party’s stand, was the Irondequoit town supervisor, who also has a police department.
That means that this ordinance will not be enforced by the sheriff’s office, or the police departments of Rochester, Brighton and Irondequoit. That leaves one big department – Greece – and a handful of small ones, primarily in communities where instances of first-responder harassment are few and far between.
So nobody is going to be cited under this law.
But if they were, it would be a dream come true for any number of shouting progressives, as it would give them legal standing to challenge the law.
Which means somebody would file a suit questioning the constitutionality of the law. The big draw for such suits is that if they are settled or decided in the favor of plaintiff, the government entity involved has to pay the lawyer fees for the plaintiff. That is huge dollars – really huge dollars.
But when this suit is filed, it will need to be responded to. That means the government whose law it is – Monroe County – will have to come to court to defend it.
Or not.
And, presuming such a law suit came after January 1, that means incoming Democrat County Executive Adam Bello would be in charge. And though Bello has a brother who is an accomplished command officer in the Rochester Police Department, you’ve got to figure his loyalties will lie with the sign wavers who got him elected, and his legal department will take a pass on defending the law.
Meaning it dies in court.
Meaning this is all about nothing.
This law will not be used by the police, and it will not be defended by the county.
It serves only political purposes. To get Cheryl Dinolfo re-elected – it failed in that regard. And to work up the aggrieved progressive faithful – it succeeded in that regard.
Chery Dinolfo heads toward the door looking like her dog died, and the progressives get to thunder that they are the defenders of the weak against the strong.
And the journos got some help filling up the 6 o’clock newscast.
But beyond that, it means nothing.