We have become a society of overly offended, fragile people

This past week a broken water line left the city with little to no water for part of a night. It was around 1:30 in the morning when I got a phone call from the jail that two of the POD's inside the jail were starting to riot because we "shut the water off." The jail staff tried explaining that most of the city was without water and no one "shut off the water" but they were being too loud to even listen.

It was not until we assembled a team of deputies, jail staff, and Nevada Police who were ready to go in the POD's to deal with the rioting that the inmates suddenly decided it was not that important and ran to their bunks and got quiet. We have also had similar responses in the jail when the inmates did not like the channel the TV was set on, or because there was not enough jelly on their PB&J sandwich.

I had begun to think that it was just people in jail that became needy and felt that everything that offended them or was not on par with their expectations required a loud and unexplainable reaction from them but the more stuff I keep seeing in the news, I am beginning to think this is just a new generational thing that is not limited to people in jail.

Everyday there is some new story about a person or group of people who got offended over something that someone said and starts protesting or demanding people lose their jobs. I read a couple of days ago that an Emory College was offering "emergency counseling" because of some "Trump 2016" chalk writings on the campus. This has nothing to do with politics or people running for office. What kind of student needs counseling because they saw a name written in chalk on a sidewalk?

Is our country really turning into a society that gets so offended they have to be treated for it? Maybe I should start offering paid counseling to my deputies every time someone calls them a pig, or flips them off, or screams at them for doing their job! I am guessing that would not be allowed, however, because that would offend someone too.

The federal government continues to "encourage" law enforcement to take a softer approach and not be so intimidating. Part of the new Missouri standards for law enforcement training includes interpersonal (sensitivity) training for cops. The federal government has started to think it should be the authority on how local policing should be done.

I do not mind telling them that we are not intimidating to the bad guys by accident. If people are going to sell drugs to our kids, steal people's property and burglarize our homes and businesses, I want them to feel intimidated knowing that we are hunting them down.

And if they try and run, fight, or hide, I want them to know that we will chase after them, fight back, and that we will always win. You do not get a gold star for "trying" to stop taking other people's stuff, you only get to go to jail.

I do not know how this new generation will ever make it without getting offended to death, but the only advice I will give them is grow up and get over it.