“We live in a civil society that’s buttressed by decency and respect. OK? We don’t resist arrest when we’ve done something wrong. We don’t tackle police officers.”

— From the latest episode of Lena Dunham’s HBO series “Girls,” where the character Ray lectures two young people he’s ha d to bail out because they’d been arrested after one tore up a summons cops gave her for urinating on a New York City street. What does it say when a TV character in a Dunham series speaks more common sense than we’ve heard from real-life city officials?