Sometimes life is like high school 
Remember how some bad kids would do something? Take a privilege we had a little too far in the quad? And your religion class would get a visit from the dean of students? And they would rhetorically ask you what you think your class’s punishment should be? And they would share a story about the valuable lesson they learned doing something nowhere near the magnitude or scope in high school? Remember a week later some new rule would go into effect because of this incident? And you had to send a notice home to your parents? And sometimes it meant going to buy some new uniform element or something else?
Well life is kind of like that. This kid in this article lives in a (albeit ever-changing and ever-gentrifying) predominantly poor black neighborhood. It was no more than a year ago that I would regularly encounter the types of (probably the same) people the officer described. They play their music loud. They barbecue on the sidewalk. They have loud physical and verbal altercations at 3 in the morning. And it is no surprise to learn the next day that someone’s in jail or injured or dead. And it’s no surprise to anyone that alcohol often plays a factor. So a law is put into place. And everyone is notified. And the people in charge of enforcing those laws enforce them. And just because you just got there and you aren’t doing the something nearly to the amount of excess it would take to land you in jail or hurt or dead does not mean the law doesn’t or shouldn’t apply to you.
I had to wear my skirt to my fingertips just like every other girl in high school. Even though my butt is notoriously flat and I never shaved my legs and no intentions of attracting the opposite sex with my posterior. I had to stay off the Senior Walk for an entire week just like everyone else, even though I didn’t participate in the loud interruptions during the school assembly. It wasn’t fair but it was life and sometimes everyone has to get punished.
This article doesn’t sit well with me. Something about privilege I think is what’s gnawing at my little socialite soul. I am glad there are cops out there that are enforcing the rule. I think the definition of “public” could stand some further exploration but for all intents and purposes I don’t feel bad about these people getting fined or having to appear in court. At all.
<3 LMS
