Troopers deserve praise, not blame for protecting public

As the dust settled and the music died down following this year's Talkeetna Bluegrass Festival, there remained a buzz in the air. It wasn't from an amplifier, and it wasn't the sound of cheering fans. It was the grumbling of some festival-goers who felt targeted by the Alaska State Troopers.

Some of the festival's attendees cited the increased presence of law enforcement officers in the area surrounding the festival. The complaint, we suppose, is that the troopers were profiling the festival crowd, and that state police were using the festival as an opportunity to cherry-pick for citations and arrests. All we can say is, "duh."

Several citations were handed out during the festival, and a relatively small number of arrests were made. While those who were ticketed or arrested probably can't be profiled across the board, they do share one thing in common. They all were apparently guilty of breaking the law.

If you attend an event where a long celebration will take place, and if it can be reasonably assumed that alcohol will be consumed, and other chemical activities may also take place, you shouldn't be surprised to see a squad car, or two. Those people who had to travel through the Talkeetna area during the festival should have been grateful for the effort the troopers made. If their efforts resulted in even one fewer drunken driver on the Parks Highway, it was well-worth any discomfort or inconvenience.

Those people who attended the festival, and who obeyed the law, had nothing to worry about. If you were sober, and followed the traffic laws when you left the festival, the sight of a trooper car should have caused little more than a glance at the speedometer. If you broke into a cold sweat at the site of the troopers around the festival area, it's a safe bet you were doing something wrong.

One of the concerns was that the festival carried a reputation for unsavory characters and activities in the past, and organizers now say the festival has cleaned up its act. It's not fair, they say, to assume criminal activity will increase during the festival. It's important to remember, however, that nobody was cited or arrested for attending the festival. Troopers did not enter the festival grounds except on the one occasion they were asked to do so to remove an unruly fan. Whenever a large festival takes place, the likelihood of trouble increases -- not because the festival encourages it, but because some of the attendees may possess less self-restraint than others. It's that reason that brings increased law enforcement. The troopers, through their efforts, made the weekend safer for everyone, and for that they should be thanked.