Lack of Respect Leads to Beach Confrontation

By now many if not most of you have seen the video of the incident that took place on the beach in Wildwood last weekend as police tried to arrest a 20-year old woman for underage drinking after she refused to give them her name.

After that video went viral the police department released body camera footage of the confrontation in an effort to ensure transparency and I think most of us would agree that both sides are to blame for what should have been a minor incident getting blown out of proportion.

Did the two police officers, who were summer hires, go too far in their physical handling of Emily Weinman of Philadelphia?  There is no doubt that the officer who punched her in the head was way out of line but let’s not portray her as a helpless innocent victim.  Had she complied with the police earlier and given them her last name it’s likely that nothing much would have come out of this but she took it to the next level with her contempt for the officers and her actions are clearly what led to the confrontation getting physical.

I don’t know but my guess is this was the first time the two young seasonal officers ever had to deal with something like this and they clearly did not handle it by the book.  However we should not ignore what is a growing problem in this country and that is a lack of respect for authority and I’m not just talking about police officers.

People seem to have no fear of repercussions whether it’s talking back to a teacher in the classroom or a cop during a traffic stop.

Of course this is a two-way street and those in authoritative positions have a responsibility, maybe even a greater one not to abuse that power.

Unfortunately we have seen that happen far too often and that’s led to plenty of distrust in society today.  What happened in Wildwood last weekend was just another example.