The local paper reported yesterday that Timothy Lee Perry of Penn Yan was arrested after he pointed a gun at sheriff's deputies - not once, but twice - while driving drunk and leading police on a chase.

Apparently Perry pulled up behind a patrol car, pointed the gun at officers and then sped away. He once again pointed the gun at officers, then threw it out the window and led officers on a chase, which ended when officers used a tire-deflation device to disable the car and arrest Perry.

Police charged Perry with felony driving while intoxicated, menacing, resisting arrest, failure to comply, consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle, failure to stop at a stop sign, failure to keep right, speeding, and littering.

I'm trying to imagine the conversation at the station, with the drunk menace in handcuffs, officers tallying up the laundry list of charges against the guy.

"OK, Frank, clearly he's drunk, violent, uncooperative and dangerous. But I'm not sure that's enough to make sure the guy goes away for a long time."

They sit in silence for a minute. "Well, Sarge, you know ... he did toss the gun out the window."

Eureka! The missing piece of the puzzle, the charge that will allow the case to stand up in court. Littering!

In all seriousness, I'm a big fan of the police. Contrary to what you might think, given the liberal media coverage of local anti-police activists everytime some poor kid gets shot by the police while trying to kill said police officer, the men in blue go out onto the streets every day, putting their lives on the line to keep us safe from idiots like Perry, who get behind the wheel drunk, behave recklessly, and point guns at the police (for heaven's sake!).

If a charge of littering is what it takes to keep creeps like this off the streets, I'm all for it. Besides, it keeps the roadways nice and clean.