When I was in high school and college I did my share of dumb things. Incidents involving things like water balloons, under age drinking, etc.

Several times my buddies and/or I got to speak with police officers over these dumb things. The cops would yell at us, cuss us a little, then point out the error of our ways and why the thing we were doing was dumb and why it might lead to worse situations. Or be construed as something worse than it was.

They might threaten us with jail or our parents, but then they would let us go with several stern warnings about what would happen next time.

I guess that it all gone.

Zero tolerance might have seemed like a good idea, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

To me this Clay/Rochester thing is a situation that could have be handled by the authorities calling the coaches (substitute for parents in this case) and let them take care of them.

I'm not coming down on the officers, because they probably have regulations that don't give them any other choice once they are involved.