It's great that we should be alert to people who show signs of being dangerous, but what that should mean is we should be very quick to look into these situations and evaluate whether the person poses a real threat. It does not mean that we should toss them all into jail, press charges for non-crimes, and wait for the court system to get around to sorting them out.

I understand the desire by police departments to avoid potential liability by not taking the chance that someone who makes a joke might actually be serious. But that needs to be balanced against the right to free speech. In this case, I would love to see a civil rights lawsuit against the police. Police departments need to understand that they face liability for overreacting as well as for underreacting.