“Perrone [the officer] is seeking a warrant in Bartow County Court to have Lee and Teresa [Sipple] locked up for stalking. … According to the warrant affidavit filed by Officer Perrone, he says the Sipples did harass him by sending his employer multiple e-mails in an effort to get him in trouble.”
We need to consider a few things first, here. The street is entirely public, and therefore there should be no expectation of privacy. The speed limit, like all proper laws, correctly applies to everyone, with few exceptions for emergency vehicles attending to emergencies. As public servants, police officers are to an extent, public figures. Everyone knows the cop who lives down the street; if not because they might be able to get you out of your parking ticket, because they’re generally seen as guardians of public safety and model citizens – good people to be friendly with.
Do the Sipples send e-mails to the employers of everyone who violates the speed limit? The article doesn’t say, but I would presume not. For starters, most people aren’t nearly as public as the local cop and furthermore, as trusted public servants, officers are rightly held to a higher standard. You wouldn’t want to see your kids’ kindergarten teacher at the local watering hole, falling-down-drunk. And understandably you don’t want your cops – protectors of society and enforcers of the law – treating the law as their own personal Gimp.
There is nothing harrassing about the Georgia couple’s actions, insofar as they are making objectively true statements about certain actions over which the harrassee has complete and total control. They are not pursuing him or by any appearances focusing their efforts only on him. On the contrary, Mr Perrone, and only Mr Perrone controls whether he drives past the couple’s “speed trap,” and at which speed he does so! The verity of the couple’s statements may be contestable, but there is nothing about this case that approaches any reasonable definition of harrassment. This begins, and ends with the actions of Officer Perrone.
h/t: The Agitator, “The New Professionalism.”
