Well, my comment was certainly taken out of context. It's not a matter of 'laziness'. I'm just trying to illustrate that everyone wants the police to simply go in and start arresting people. Our job, unfortunately, is NOT that simple. Are there legal grounds to make an arrest? In most of these cases, probably yes. But if the police go in there to arrest, and the protestors decide to get stupid, and someone ends up getting seriously injured, or even killed, guess who the bad guys are? The police go in, violence erupts, one dumb protestor grabs for an officers gun and ends up getting shot. Guess who's all over the news as an innocent victim in a peaceful protest? Am I 'lazy' for not wanting that to happen? So many people are looking at the small picture here. It's so easy to criticize when it's not your career on the line. I personally find these protests outrageous, and I'm as pissed off as the next guy.
These protesters WANT us to go in there and grab them and arrest them. They WANT to have a day in court. They WANT any reason to try and be the 'victim' to another government organization. Why are we in such a hurry to give them exactly what they want?
Like I said, personally, I'm really as frustrated and annoyed as anyone, but policing is simply not as easy as running in, rootin' tootin' shootin'. Some days I wish it was.
Just because it happened to you, doesn't make it interesting.