If what David says below is true — that tolerating loud, freewheeling behavior on the streets is connected to our maintaining our freedom of speech in more significant matters — why is it that we seem to have the loud, freewheeling street behavior but politically correct prohibitions in many areas of our public life? There are many important things that can’t be discussed freely, while people cling to some cherished constitutional protection to mouth off at cops. This is of course true in the academy, but it is in other areas of the public sphere as well. So it seems we get the worst of both sides.