Hey, @janton.
Been turning up the controversy a notch on the old blog, have we? :)
I don't know much about Galveston's police procedure, and I don't know what's supposed to be better (waiting around for a squad car, however long that might take, maybe?), but I do know bad optics when I see it.
I'm not one who believes criminals should be treated with kids gloves. I don't know that the officers should need to walk just because the criminal would have to, nor do I think the criminal should get the horse ride. So, what else is there?
The pendulum has swung in the direction of identity, be it race, gender, sexual orientation, or based on something else. If the identity makeup is not in your favor, I guess this is what happens, regardless of who is the criminal and who is not.
That said, law enforcement in this day and age should be thinking about how things look, because others are. And they're on the spot with camera phone in hand to upload to social media.
And I wonder. Do these police officers ever arrest people who are not black, hispanic, or some other ethnic minority? Do they ever walk a white person like this a couple of blocks to the station? What would be the ratio? It can't be racism if it's race neutral—where all instances have followed the same protocol. I don't think we'll get that information, and even if we did, I don't think anyone is going to care because, as stated, this is 2019.