Rochester: Dance a little more. You might enjoy it.

Rochester. Time to lighten up.

I know that can be a tall order. It’s the end of February, and even if this winter wasn’t cold or snowy, it was certainly grey and gloomy.

But it’s nearly March, and spring is around the corner (Rusted Root at the Lilac Fest, anyone?). Festival season! Summer concerts! That makes you happy, right?

Recently, a video surfaced on Twitter showing two women dancing on top of a Rochester Police Department patrol car parked in the East End, sometime around when the weekend bar crowd was in full swing — and suddenly, we’re living in the town from Footloose.

Everyone in the 16 second video appears to be enjoying themselves, even the officers. No one was hurt. The RPD states that the women asked permission, and after being told that they shouldn’t have climbed on the car, they apologized.

Sounds benign, right? Maybe even a positive thing. Sharing a little camaraderie and laughter can’t be a bad thing in this world right now.

Unless you’re David Andreatta of the Democrat and Chronicle, who stated that the women “defiled” the car and even went on to say that their dancing was a “greater display of lawlessness” than the previous week’s nine shootings.

Kids these days, am I right? If only they’d shoot off more arms and shake less bootys…

Bob Lonsberry went even further, lumping these (rather impressive) dancers in with the same “criminal element” that perpetrated the Genesee Street mass shooting that killed three and injured four in August 2014.

As a white woman, with literally no ass to speak of, I’m not really qualified to comment on the borderline racist elements of either of these screeds. But there’s definitely something to be said for treating a style of dance that was mainly a part of black culture until Miley Cyrus appropriated it into the cultural consciousness as hyper-sexualized and classless.

But that aside, the main thrust of both these arguments is that the RPD has given up. By not choosing to lay down the law on a few drunken revelers who are causing no harm, they’ve decided to let drugs and guns overtake the streets.

Or perhaps, they’ve decided to pick their battles, and decided that dancing on a car actually isn’t as bad as shooting several people.

And don’t try to tell me they were being disrespectful. It’s a car. Road salt does more to disrespect it than any person ever could. And it’s one of the ancient Impalas, not the new cruisers. Let it have a little fun before it’s retired to an auction somewhere.

Perhaps, instead of condemning these women or the RPD, it would be a better use of time to go out, see a little bit of our city. Say hi to a stranger. Hell, go dancing.

You might just feel a little lighter.