[Harp-L] Re: Police & Musicians



Will & All,

As a Magistrate for the city, I hold probable cause hearings all day long and have many officers testify. I keep an acoustic guitar on a stand next to me, and 3 harmonicas on my desk. During lulls in action, I'll practice my harps or guitar.
Many officers, before a hearing commences, look at the guitar and say, "May I?", then pick it up and stumble through the opening of Stairway to Heaven, or a blues riff, or whatever. My point is, many of my officers play an instrument, and I detect no bias at all against musicians.
An officer, going out on a call, has no idea who's a threat and who is not, and must approach any situation with safety foremost on their mind. Everyone they meet on a call is potentially a bad guy, but once they see you're a "normal" person, who poses no threat to them or the public, they'll loosen up a bit.
Understand the situation from their perspective, and contacts with them will end up "friendlier."


Gary Cohen
Magistrate, City of Mobile


At 08:08 AM 2/5/2007, you wrote:
Date: Sun, 4 Feb 2007 19:15:05 -0800 (PST)
From: Will Vogtman <will_vogtman@xxxxxxxxx>

From my perspective, police officers seem to enjoy harrassing musicians. Intellectually, I certainly DO NOT believe that musicians are particularly targetted. However, in the moments when I am accosted, I have the gut-level reaction that I am being targetted. What am I and my fellow musicians doing to attract such negative attention? What can we do to avoid the situation? I assure you that I play good, quality music at reasonable volume levels. Thanks in advance for your time. I hope we can avoid future confrontation.

Will Vogtman




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