With due respect, Sally, I feel that the Tesseners are doing the right thing!

To continue your metaphor "two brats fighting in a sandbox" I'd be more inclined to say that Tesseners are standing up to a neighborhood bullying gangster.

The real sad waste of resources was this trooper dragging Mrs. Tessener around on a goat-rope, diverting his time from his real duty of traffic enforcement. A citation for defective equipment would have been more than sufficient.