Opinion – Did it look to you as if our local constabulary lined up every squad car they had over the weekend to harvest tourists as they came into town for Memorial Day celebrations?  Friday afternoon alone we watched as 3  City of Baraboo patrol cars picked off travelers on Highway 33/8th St, seemingly as fast as they could process them.  It had to have been a profitable evening for the city, but I’m not sure it was worth it.  One has to wonder if such a visible and obvious attempt to collect revenue from holiday-makers is really the sort of welcoming committee we need.

Personally I’m all for very visible law enforcement.  Certainly we want our officers keeping the community and our streets safe.  Busy holidays do bring in the bad with the good, however, local police taking advantage of holidays to simply boost revenue does seem a bit mean-spirited. It’s probably not the best approach to take if your town is dependent on tourism dollars.   Frankly driving down “33″ on Friday night did have the feel of running a gauntlet. Maybe we could spend more time and effort encouraging visitors to spend money in our local businesses as opposed to forcing it  from them as soon as they cross the city line.

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