Discarded needles vs. peacefully selling vegetables
Government officials who violate our constitutional rights should face criminal prosecution, with a lengthy mandatory prison sentence if convicted.
In September 2024, I encountered a shocking sight in downtown Bloomington, Indiana: Needles scattered on the sidewalk. This was directly across the street from the Farmer's Market, where people bring small children every Saturday throughout late spring, summer and early fall. The lack of concern for law-abiding citizens, taxpayers and innocent children was and remains shocking.
But while the Monroe County Democratic Party thinks needles scattered on the sidewalk by (almost certainly homeless) drug addicts is perfectly fine, I cannot help but think back to 2019. There was a major controversy over one vendor who had made some "offensive" forum posts. Her identity was discovered and she was doxxed. Black-clad "Antifa" thugs surrounded her booth at the market, trying to forcibly prevent her from peacefully selling her products and physically intimidating any customers from patronizing the booth.
You see, we cannot have vendors peacefully selling vegetables if they have expressed "offensive" opinions on the Internet. Self-righteous vigilantes will try to destroy her business and violate her free speech rights and the freedom of association rights of her customers. The feckless "mayor" will allow this to go on and be too cowardly to do anything about it, only telling police to intervene after customers have been driven away. This should have been stopped with overwhelming force the second "Antifa" started disrupting the market. Needles scattered on the sidewalk across the street from the market, though, is perfectly fine. That is what Democratic leadership looks like. This is what Monroe County Democrats stand for.
"Oh, but we should offer treatment and help for drug addicts." We have tried that. And for those who can get clean, we should continue to do it. This is why local government has a needle exchange program, so there's no need to throw them on the ground for children to pick up right across the street from the Farmer's Market. But some people do not want help. They want to shoot up and throw their needles on the sidewalk or scatter them on the ground in a public park. City parks staff picked up over nine thousand needles in Seminary Square Park alone from 2020 through 2024. No doubt many more have been collected throughout the city at other homeless encampments.
As to the vendors, it does not matter what views they hold. They were peacefully selling vegetables. They never harmed anyone at the Farmer's Market, yet they were harassed and intimidated by masked thugs. City government repeatedly damned them and openly wished they could exclude them. But the First Amendment makes it illegal for government to discriminate based on political views.
The 2019 controversy has convinced me that government officials discriminating against vendors for their free speech, and allowing thugs to intimidate them and their customers, should be a criminal offense with a lengthy mandatory prison sentence, without the possibility of parole. Sadly, we cannot impose that punishment on corrupt city leaders on an ex post facto basis, even if the Republican supermajority in the Indiana state legislature grows a spine and cracks down on this behavior. But we can ensure that any future attacks on the Constitution will be severely punished.
