EDITORIAL - Joavan harassed?

Judging by the way Joavan Fernandez talks, the big headache of a son of Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez probably spends his time tucked away somewhere, doing God-knows-what. He probably has never been to a mall.

Anyone who has ever been to a mall knows that you get frisked on your way in. And if you come in a car, you know you have to have your car searched before you can park. All of these are part of security measures understood by everyone. Nobody feels harassed by them.

Malls may be a public place, but they are privately owned. And privately owned places have the right to implement their own security measures and to refuse entry to anyone who does not want to be subjected to such measures.

The point is, in this increasingly dangerous world, everybody should take implementation of security measures as part of our way of life. There is no avoiding them anywhere. We are used to them. And yet Joavan recently cried harassment after getting frisked and his car searched.

Maybe Joavan resented it because the incident happened not in a mall but in the open. Maybe Joavan felt it beneath his dignity, as if he had the dignity of royalty, to be physically frisked and his car searched in public.

Maybe Joavan felt offended because he has deemed himself untouchable. Otherwise, there is no reason for anyone whose own notoriety revolves mainly on a seeming inability to keep temper in check and hands to himself, to feel harassed by a simple and standard check.

Joavan has tagged the police chief in his harassment rap, apparently forgetting the fact that nobody, not even the police chief, can harass the son of the mayor in his own city. If he was checked, it was for his own benefit, that he might not get into trouble again.

Law enforcement authorities can stop and check anyone, even complete strangers, for no other reason than simply looking suspicous. Joavan is no stranger, and when he is near people can smell trouble. It is right for police to frisk him at every opportunity.