Cops as vandals

Over in St. Petersburg, about 35 miles from here, a group of homeless, living in tents, thought they had an agreement with the city to live, at least for a while, under an Interstate overpass.

Wrong.

The cops showed up today (Friday) armed with box cutters which they used to slash the tents into ribbons. Said ribbons were then carted away as trash.

The point here is that those tents actually belonged to people. Granted, the people were homeless and poor, but it was still their property. The tents may well have been their only property. And the TV showed the cops gleefully using their box cutters to cut them into shreds.

It is indeed sad that our "Land of the Free" has come to the point that cops with box cutters can destroy private property just because a city's administration doesn't like where they're pitched.

You might want to think about that next time you see a cop car with the motto, "To Protect and to Serve." You might want to think about that next time you see a cop eyeing your property. Check out his box cutter.

Uh, did I say the St. Pete cops did their vandalism with impunity. Maybe not, there is a homeless advocate group that's threatening to sue.

Arjay