it would surely be cheaper and more ethical to just provide any relevant public records addressed by the request and deal with the problem when it actually happens.
Um, no.
That’s reactive thinking, and that generally causes harm in the very short term. What the Mayor did was proactive, with an intention on avoiding harm, and that level of response is entirely warranted.
And a SovCit’s primary tool is harassment, and that shit is damned hard to stop on a reactive basis- the best response is stopping it before it can even start, preferably with a subtextual message of “We will not tolerate this shit, PERIOD.”
(Apologies if it seems harsh, but having been harassed in the past by bullies, one learns to spot the precursors to harassment early.)
