Dunkin' Donuts raises money for Special Olympics by putting police officers on their shop roofs all day.  I'd never heard of this before today.  In Milwaukee, for instance, according to PR Newswire, "...police officers are scheduled to cover 43 Dunkin' Donuts rooftops throughout Wisconsin to heighten awareness and raise money for the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics Wisconsin...rain or shine!"
     The article's unnamed author continues punning: "In return for the police officers 'doing time' at their restaurants, Dunkin' Donuts will donate $5,000 to the organization."
     It sounds wholesome!  Buy doughnuts and coffee, let your spending go towards a good cause--but that cop on the roof...
     On local news I saw a Dunkin' Donuts with a beefy, crew cut-head cop standing at the edge of the roof, arms folded, looking down through his shades at the news camera.  Is this what we want to see when we go into an eatery?  Do all members of society want to see cops staring at them from rooftops?  I don't.  Do African-Americans?  I suspect not, at least most of them.  I'm not Black, but I sympathize with their general view that the police departments of this country are adversarial towards them, and sometimes act from their own fears, with occasional fatal results.
     I don't like to be around cops.  There are times when their mere presence makes me nervous, and it's not because I've done anything illegal.  I'm a good driver, I follow traffic laws to the best of my ability and awareness, but when a cop drives behind me for a long way I start to feel anxious, and I can't wait for him or her to peel off and get the fuck away from me.
     Cops have sometimes helped me out, dealing with neighbors disturbing the peace late at night, for example.  A good, steady, rational cop can be very handy to have around in a crisis, or even when you're lost in some unknown town and you're trying to find the highway.  What I don't like are increased police presences where they're unnecessary, like on top of snack food shops.  Building roofs are sometimes where police snipers position themselves.  These associations pop into my head, but they're based on the real world.
     Am I overreacting?  Shouldn't I find it cute that Cop on a Rooftop (as it's called) ties into the
cliché of the doughnut-eating cop?  Shouldn't I feel warm inside that money from this goes to Special Olympics?
     I don't complain about the charitable aspect of the event, just the method.  When I see a cop on a rooftop I think of surveillance.  I think of the gun at his hip.  I think of the horrid national tendency of police brutality and oppression against African-Americans.  I think how unsettling it is to see a cop standing on a roof, arms folded, projecting macho unfriendliness.
     According to the PR Newswire article, "[Dunkin' Donuts'] has more than 11,300 restaurants in 36 countries worldwide."
     That's a lot of cops.

                                                                                Vic Neptune