From [HERE] A federal judge overseeing Baltimore Police’s reform efforts called officers last Sunday and reported that a pair of squeegee workers gave him the middle finger, spat on his car and wrote “racist” in suds on the windows.

No property was damaged, no one was injured, and neither squeegee worker was charged in the incident, according to a police report. But U.S. District Court Judge James K. Bredar’s run-in with squeegee workers, and the ensuing police response, has renewed focus on squeegeeing and raised questions about the necessity of having law enforcement respond to certain situations.

“The fact of the matter is not every challenge should be met with policing and prosecution,” said Dave Jaros, who heads the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform.

Bredar and his wife were stopped last Sunday afternoon at the intersection of North Avenue and Mount Royal Terrace when two squeegee workers approached their SUV and offered to clean the windshields, according to a police report. Bredar and his wife refused them, and the pair became hostile, with one of them giving the middle finger to Bredar’s wife, the report said.

Bredar, who was a passenger in the SUV, took a photo of that man, age 20, who then proceeded to spit on the car, the judge later told police. Bredar, who is White, reported that the other worker used his squeegee to spell out the word “racist” on the SUV windows.

After the couple drove off, Bredar called Baltimore Police, asking the department to send officers to the intersection. Once there, the worker who apparently gave the middle finger spoke with officers, who gave him a warning and told him to stop squeegeeing at that intersection. [MORE]