All I ask for is that the Gainesville PD and the Alachua Sheriff's Department lighten up on things like bothering a police dog, scooter incidents, and minor possession of marijuana. For crying out loud, there is nothing else to do in Gainesville! Do you ever wonder why very few Florida graduates remain in Gainesville? They would rather live in a bigger city where a 6-foot tall, 250-pound, black man can walk the streets after dark without being harassed! [Yes, I pulled the race card, but it also applies to white folks.]
Look, I kid around--but my attitude is based on some serious stuff. The above are good egs of what I'm referring to,--and this ISN'T "minor", not just because it all adds up (in terms of image, the "feeling" around a campus, and its accumulated impact on the program), but because, when you see this kind of outright "petty harassment", invariably it's just the tip-of-the-iceberg.
I accept that there'll be a lot of good and decent folks who will disagree with me (for whatever reasons, on whatever grounds--from ideological to personal/familial ones), but I want to be clear about this: a badge and gun does NOT confer any special wisdom, nor does it insure that the bearer doesn't bring all the same flaws and foibles to his or her attitudes and activities as any other human being--indeed, it makes those all the more dangerous and destructive. Among all the other observations, experiences and cautionary tales that exacerbate my natural mistrust of anyone who WANTS that sort of power-over-his-fellow-citizens in the first place, I happen to be sick and tired to having OUR University Police Dept. as one more adversary/impediment to our growth and success as a program, while meanwhile most of the other SEC schools are at the very least treated more friendly/fairly--and/or in certain cases (Alabama comes to mind) are, if anything, in every way possible AIDED in the hiding of and smoothing over of players' "pecadillos". Like it or not, WE could use a little more of that...At least lighten UP, guys! I'm not in favor of the kind of ("boys will be boys" in the face of possible anti-gender crimes like we may have seen at FSU, but goin' outta your way to find, stop, and "throw the book at" what are STILL just "kids on campus, goin' a bit loose/crazy/stupid" at times. I was sent home by a UF cop(s) on more than one occasion while I was there, but I KNEW I was outtaline, knew that they were being fair, firm but not hostile, when one of 'em finally said something--and I never went to jail, or even was issued any kind of "citation", like I KNOW I'd probably have had a STRING of (me and all my friends!) if I were attending today...and again, it's WORSE for the players.