When it comes to TESTING AUTHORITY,
SOME DAYS ARE WORSE THAN OTHERS!

I don't have a criminal record, and I don't plan on getting one anytime soon. But some people are just looking for trouble, and they can't be stopped until they are forcibly stopped. In an average town on an average interstate highway, the Fourth of July is always going to be ultra-stressful for law enforcement people. If they don't seem friendly, amiable or reasonable, well, they might have an excuse on that day, when they're expected to control throngs of people who could veer out of control at any time.

So if you're looking to test authority, don't do it on July 4th. Because if you do, you are not going to get a very positive reaction from law enforcement people. And, as people get louder, ruder and more 'in-yer-face', skirmishes get harsher and more intense all the time. I think the Fourth of July is a day on which everyone needs to be a lot more careful about everything. Tempers as well as temperatures are hot, and especially with all the crack-heads and meth-heads out there, who knows who is tweaking, and who isn't? Hard to tell the difference sometimes.

So especially if you're young, idealistic, wanting to set the world on fire with all of your education and newly-acquired freedom from parents, just kinda be careful, and just be kinda cool. Or, you'll end up like the young people in the photo below. It happened yesterday, July 4th, in a town 30 miles from where I used to live. And it could happen in your town, too...


It's probably a wonder that the www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo photographer didn't get arrested for taking this picture!

As is always the case with such incidents, the kids have their version, and the cops have their version. But I'm just kinda thinking, overall, that the Fourth of July just ain't a very good day to confront the local cops with allegations of police brutality. I would think swimming in a South American lake full of piranhas would be less brutal. And as far as the above foto, the guy's expression scares me a little bit. What a hothead.
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The times they are-a-changin, aren't they? Or maybe they're not. It's this same kind of hostile crowd mentality that created the riots at the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968. Don't people ever learn?