[Ansteorra] zero tolerance, stupidity, and the SCA

[robert segrest]

I think that the kind of thinking demonstrated by this
high school yearbook incident could impact us more
than we like to think it will.  We are a large group
of frequently strange looking people, some of whom are
unusually socialized, who carry a lot of weapons,
facimiles of weapons, and things that might be weapons
if we chose to use them that way, in public places. 
Most of us violate local weapons ordinances frequently
and thoughtlessly, if the strict letter of those
ordinances is applied to us.  Most major cities, and
many minor ones, have blade lenght laws that make
carrying a sword, dagger, dirk, halberd etc. illegal. 
We say they are props, but if your prop will cut
someones head of, it's a weapon.  We use rattan
'weapons' for mock combat as sporting equipment.  If I
decided to do so, I could certainly beat the snot, and
probably the life out of an unarmored opponent with my
'swords' and could certainly do so with my 'glaive'. 
Baseball bats are sporting equipment, but every local
cop shop has a few in the storeroom that have been
confiscated as weapons.  How many of us carry these
'not really weapons' in our cars while passing through
school zones on our way to fighter practice and
events.  Those school zones are 'zero tolerance
enforcement' zones for weapon possession, and they are
in force whether school is in session or not.  In many
locations a weapon in a car is considered concealed,
no matter how large or obvious it may be (although my
understanding is that Texas is far looser than most of
the rest of the nation on this point).  So if I get
pulled over while passing through a school zone with
for a burnt out tail light, while carrying my large
cache of 'weapons' 'concealed' in my car, an
overzealous interpretation of the law could lead me to
spending a night or more in jail.  In fact, said
overzealous cop would find himself with much better
ground to stand on than our friend the Rhode Island
principal.

I know I am not the only person on this list who has
had to explain to law enforcement what all the toys in
the back seat were for.  We rely on our fellow
citizens, and their law enforcement representatives,
to critically evaluate us and recognize that we are
not dangerous to them.  If we are not vigilant against
the tendency to deprive officials of their ability to
use discretion, then we risk subjecting ourselves to
even more senseless regulation than we already have. 
How many stupid rules do we already have to conform to
because we cannot count on the enforcers of those
rules to recognize the spirit rather than the letter
of them.

In the grand scheme of things, who really cares if
this kid gets his picture in the yearbook.  If this is
the greatest injustice he encounters in his life, then
he has nothing to complain about.  If I could have
gotten my picture in the yearbook holding a sword, I
would have done it too, but back then, you got the
picture they took of you on picture day, zits and all.
 But the decline of intelligent decision making in
school principals, and other important administrators,
is dangerous to us as a group, and in my opinion, to
the nation as a whole.  If this guy doesn't have the
decision making ability, the understanding of the
rules, and the diplomacy to solve this problem to
everyones reasonable satisfaction without it becoming
a federal case, he doesn't need to be managing a
school.  

I'll get of this soapbox now,

Laszlo

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