Oh yeah, this will improve public respect for law enforcement and the rule of law.

The Murrieta Police Department is posting hilarious arrest and lineup photos with suspects’ faces replaced by Lego heads. This is its response to a new California privacy law that forbids the posting of mug shots and other photos of individuals arrested for non-violent offenses. The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last September, went into effect on January 1 of this year. It also requires police departments to remove other mugshots from social media after 14 days….or replace them with Lego heads, I guess. So those risible images above are not gags or the product of a Babylon Bee wag. The police actually posted them.

This is unethical messaging, and if the police can’t figure that out, then they need to find another line of work. Those pictures make a mockery of law-breaking and criminal activity. Breaking the law isn’t supposed to be funny, trivial or a source of mirth, certainly not from law enforcement’s perspective.

The department explained that is just complying with the law, so “nothing to see here.” “The Murrieta Police Department prides itself in its transparency with the community, but also honors everyone’s rights & protections as afforded by law; even suspects,” it said in a post. “In order to share what is happening in Murrieta, we chose to cover the faces of suspects to protect their identity while still aligning with the new law.” Here’s a recent line-up photo:

Right. This is the kind of stunt Abbie Hoffman would come up with to make fun of laws generally and to advocate anarchy. The photos make police look unserious and untrustworthy, while representing crime as something to giggle over. It is cultural incompetence, but this department was facetious about arrests even before Newsom’s latest brainstorm. For the last few years, the Marietta police used emojis, Barbie doll heads…

…. and “Shrek” character faces to obscure the identity of arrestees.

California is mutating into a an alien, addled, irresponsible culture at record speed. Making crime and arrests funny is the exact opposite of what a responsible law enforcement community should be seeking to do. No wonder stores all over the state are besieged with bold thieves who loot in broad daylight without fear or shame. After all, in California crimes that don’t kill or maim anyone aren’t really “crime crimes,” as Whoopie Goldberg might say on “The View.” The Marieta police don’t comprehend their mission. Why defund the police if they are so ethically ignorant that they treat lawbreaking as a joke?

I need to clarify here that I sympathize with privacy law. In fact, I would extend the protection to violent crimes as well. Mug shots and arrest photos shouldn’t be publicized and circulated to the public by police unless it serves the purpose of public safety, as when an alleged criminal is on the loose. With the wride distribution that social media and the web now provides, a mug shot, line-up photo or arrest shot has the effect of punishing someone before they have been found guilty. It inflicts shame, infamy and public enmity before due process and a fair trial has taken place. That’s one reason I admired Donald Trump for his defiant mug shot. The Angry Left’s criticism of his theatrical scowl was that he was mocking his arrest and treating it as a joke, which is his right. Law enforcement, however should never treat anyone’s arrest as a joke…like this:

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Source: New York Post