This is kind of an old story (hat-tip to The Agitator), but I just ran across it:

In September, at the University of Central Florida, an undercover cop tried to bust up some underage college drinkers, and when they didn't believe he was a cop, he flashed his badge and fired a shot into the air. An Orlando reserve cop, upon hearing the shot, ran to the scene and shot the undercover cop, killing him, thinking that he was shooting at people.

Now lets not even go into how stupid it is to be discharging a firearm in an area full of drunken college students, and lets not consider that the policy itself is ridiculous, to have armed undercover police that hell-bent on getting college drinkers. Lets just consider what would have happened if an legally armed civilian had done the same thing as the Orlando cop, and ended up shooting the undercover officer? He would no doubt be charged with at least voluntary manslaughter, and spend at least a good 5-10 years behind bars for it. Since it was a police officer that shot the undercover cop, though, no one is being charged with any wrongdoing.

What's even better, is that the college is officially blaming "underage drinking" for the incident, as if that had anything to do with the officer needlessly shooting his gun in the air and the response of the other officer. In fact, had the police not been there, it is almost 100 percent guaranteed that absolutely no one would have been harmed. Unsurprisingly, when misguided zealots like those so upset with underage drinking send armed men into such a situation, tragic things can result.

To sum up, since the state reserves the right to tax minors, charge people over 18 as adults in court, force 18 year-olds to die at war, and every negative responsibility of adulthood, it is ridiculous that people are so up-in-arms about underage drinking when the drinkers are of college age. Most people, in fact, will serve alcohol to minors who are serving in the military, which only shows the hypocritical nature of the whole situation. We can let some minors drink, people reason, but the rest of them must be treated like thieves and murderers and all other criminals for doing something that hurts no one.

When our idea of criminality becomes completely unhinged from its roots, and starts making completely harmless things into serious crimes, this kind of insanity is bound to result. Also, if police spent less time busting drinking parties, they would have a lot more man-hours to dedicate to stopping murderers, wife-beaters, thieves, and other real criminals who actually hurt people.