Richmond's Finest

Over the years, I've had both good and bad impressions of the police in Henrico/Richmond. I'm not one of the people sporting ACAB tattoos or crusading against the police; I understand their purpose. However, the way they go about handling the most mundane of events and manage their time honestly blows my mind at times. Tonight, me and my friends were sitting on the Frankling Street wall across from the dorms, just hanging out and minding our own business and talking. A bike cop came up, got off his bike, and proceeded to yell at us for literally 10 to 15 minutes. This bothered me for a few reasons. First off, a simple "get off the wall" would have sufficed, still stupid because we were just sitting there and not doing anything, but okay. Fair enough. Second, the way he clearly thought himself to be leagues better than all of us bothered me. I don't like when people in positions of power like that have a huge feeling of entitlement and authority, other than the badge and gun, they're the same as us. Not to mention he looked like he was maybe only a couple years older than the youngest of us, and to have someone practically my own age yell at and speak down to me over nothing isn't fun or reasonable. Also, some other things I saw that night really put this in perspective. Me and Stewart and Michael had walked down to Shockoe Bottom and the canal earlier in the evening, and down there we saw: an obvious drug deal in the parking lot of a 711, like the guy straight up walked over to a car and we saw him stuffing bags in his pockets; numerous people publically drunk and yelling; obvious drunk drivers swerving all over the road; people buying (if that's the right word haha) prostitutes for the night and prostitutes hanging out on corners and whatnot. Instead of patrolling the city for real problems such as these, police chose to hassle us for sitting on a wall and talking. Not to mention I saw police yelling at other kids around the dorms for walking through Monroe Park and other insignificant things. I understand a need for order, but aren't their bigger issues at hand on a saturday night in a city? Interesting.