That Went Downhill Fast

 

You won’t be surprised that I set out to read the following article with great interest:

New bills passed to move Roslyn Rise redevelopment forward… Katie V. Jones, Baltimore Sun

The Roslyn Rise project will move forward. I’m happy about that. I’m not so happy about a 3-2 vote. I’d have liked to see far more emphatic support on the council, but, a win is a win for the folks at Roslyn Rise.

Here’s the bit where my good mood went off track. Same article, second half:

…curtail Howard County employee harassment  (Same as above)

The council on Monday also passed a bill with two amendments that is designed to protect county employees from physical harassment by individuals. The bill prohibits a person from using certain words or statements against county employees who manage county property by temporarily banning the individual from the property.

Wait, what?

We have so many people harassing Howard County employees that the Council was moved to codify consequences to unacceptable behavior? (You can read excerpts in the article from testimony given by an employee at Alpha Ridge and also by a Park Ranger.) I’m fairly certain that it would take more than one or two negative encounters to bring this to the attention of the Council. Which means that verbal abuse (and threats of physical violence?) have become persistent problems for these County employees.

I’m curious as to whether this outrageous behavior is more likely to occur in outdoor environments such as Alpha Ridge and/or County parks. In an office setting, with numerous witnesses, and perhaps a security guard on site, I suspect that the urge to inflict uncensored anger upon County employees is more often kept in check. I’m also curious if there is a particular point in time when incidents like this began to escalate? Is there any correlation with the increase in hate crimes during the last presidential administration? Or does the sharp uptick perhaps correspond with incidents of harassment and violence when residents were asked to wear masks to control the spread of COVID?

I understand that the Council wanted to avoid adding incarceration to the consequences for this behavior, but I think that temporary banning is not enough. How about publicly identifying transgressors? Perhaps publish their names and photographs. If you knew that your family, friends, and employer were going to know that you threatened someone at Alpha Ridge and called them a “trash Nazi”, maybe you’d just keep your angry feelings under wraps.

It’s a possibility. 

Sigh. This is Howard County, friends, where people think they can behave abominably and get away with it. My heart goes out to the County employees who have been subjected to this kind of abuse.