I have little experience in street theater. You know, those spectacles the hard-workers from the Occupy movement like to engage in. Life-sized puppets and costumes and the like. But still, this exchange between some protestors at the the RNC pre-convention in Tampa and the police is unintentionally hilarious:
One deputy told a group of protestors carrying an oversized puppet of Mitt Romney the sticks they were using to hold up the puppet’s arms were against the rules.
Deputy: “I got to have the sticks.”
Protestor: “No, sir. We actually measured them exactly within the code.”
Deputy: “Okay, there’s one of two options. I can take the sticks or people can go to jail. I don’t want to do that.”
A Tampa police captain took over, measured the sticks and determined that they were legal.
On the exchange between the deputy and protestor, Chief Castor said “there was just a little bit of confusion on it. Whether we should or shouldn’t allow those in here and then the Captain made the decision. The right decision.”
Community organizer Kelly Benjamin agreed with Chief Castor.
“We have the utmost respect for the police. They’re just doing their jobs,” said Kelly Benjamin, FL Consumer Action Network. “It was a misunderstanding. I’m glad it was resolved. The puppet was well within the code, so there should be no problems.”
I got to have the sticks! Where else except with goofy protestors and community organizers is a cop ever going to try to take away “puppet sticks?”