Police, Power & Switchfoot

I’m a big fan of Switchfoot. I love where they’ve come from, what they’re doing through their music and what Jon Foreman is doing too!

One of the things that Jon has been doing the last few years is getting back to the good old roots of what music is all about. He’s doing all the things that ‘new school’ rockstars don’t and it’s what makes him great. Most bands do a few P.R. events, do a meet and greet, play their show and get on their bus to head to the next city. Honestly, I don’t blame them. The road is a tough gig.

Jon Foreman has been cutting through the status quo by being a real person to his die-hard fans. After a Switchfoot show he’ll usually Twitter out a location for a short little ‘aftershow’ near the venue. He comes out with his acoustic and plays a 25-30 minute set of songs they didn’t play at their show that night, talks with fans and does his mellow thing.

They were in Tampa on August 15th, 2010 and he was peacefully doing his ‘after-show’ thing until Tampa Police, Officer Fisher, came and asserted his authority in one of the lamest demonstrations I’ve ever seen. He, eventually, forcefully removes Jon from the after-show. Watch Officer Fisher BARK orders in the most annoying yard duty kind of way. LAME!!! Where does the 1st Amendment play into this situation?

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Don’t you think there’s a line for authority to assert what is theirs to enforce? What was the offense? What was it hurting for him to allow the guy to do ONE MORE SONG?

Honestly, it’s guys like Officer Fisher that give Police a bad name. He was just bored on a Sunday Night with nothing else to do but assert his authority in a super lame way. I think Tampa PD needs to publicly reprimand  Officer Fisher for his poor representation of the Department.

I’ve got some good friends who are cops and I know that how you handle a situation like that is up to the Officer’s discretion. As long as the situation was peaceful, even if it was in a place they maybe weren’t allowed to be (behind the venue?! on second thought…maybe not), they’d of let him do one more song and then shut it down.

What do you think? Where are my ‘authority’, ‘the law is the law’ people? Can you argue with this guy isn’t being a little over excited about his Sunday graveyard shift? Office Fisher needs a new gig!