As I was driving home from work a few days ago, a portable billboard that had been placed along Burcham Drive by one of our local police departments immediately caught my attention. The billboard, which was placed near the high school, read “Slow Down or Pay the Price.”

The fact that the police - people who are supposedly around to serve and protect us - would finance such a threatening billboard is very displeasing. We as American citizens, and more importantly human beings, do not want or need negative reminders or threats thrown in our face as we drive by. A simple “Please Slow Down” would have been fine.

The police, an extension of the government formed to help us, are now using our tax dollars to finance billboards that intimidate us. I understand speeding is dangerous, especially near schools, but the means of informing the citizenry about the issue must not insult or menace us. If we are a government for and by the people, why would we threaten ourselves?

I feel the police departments here and all over the country need to start thinking about why they exist before they bully the very people who employ them. The police are your employees, directly or indirectly; do not let them harass you.

Shane Singh
political science and pre-law junior