Cops Surrounded Alec Baldwin Just For This?

There are fleeting moments when I think back to the young, sweet Alec Baldwin of Beetlejuice days and then look at him now and say to myself, “Poor guy. He just can’t catch a break.” Even though the actor — whose temper tantrums occur as often as baby animal pictures on my news feed — has a lot of trouble with the paparazzi and some major issues with his anger management, he’s not always in the wrong. And recently, after Baldwin was harassed by a paparazzo and then made to seem dangerous when three cop cars arrived to the scene, I actually had a tender moment for the guy and truly felt sorry for him.

While Baldwin, his wife, Hilaria, and their baby were spending some time in the Hamptons on Sunday, Aug. 31, a paparazzo reportedly known for getting into arguments with the actor approached them on their outing at the park. Known for calling Hilaria profane names, according to TMZ, the photographer was immediately unwelcome and Baldwin began yelling at a nearby police officer to arrest the man.

However, rather than resolving the conflict on his own, for some reason it seemed necessary for the officer to call upon even more cops to take care of the problem. Maybe they were all in the area and just bored or something but that many people seems a little excessive, no? I could maybe get behind calling one more person for backup because Baldwin’s aggressive and sometimes violent outbursts aren’t anything new and are a definitely a cause for concern, but he wasn’t really doing anything wrong.

Plus, judging by the video, it looks like the actor was in a school zone and I doubt Hilaria would have let things out of hand in front of a bunch of children. Or so I hope. Thankfully though, Baldwin didn’t punch anyone this time and instead allegedly shook hands with the paparazzo — upon the officer’s request — before everyone dispersed.

Clearly some things never change, but during this rare moment Baldwin was definitely on the right side of things and shouldn’t have been treated so unfairly. I’m sure having so many cops surrounding him made him that much more angered and even more humiliated when it should’ve been the photographer who was made to blame. There’s no doubt that by now Baldwin should know how to control his temper — he’s had years to figure it out — but in the end this was one day when people should've been supporting him.