As drug busts go, the one that just went down in Camden was pretty much by the book. Residents of Norwood Avenue complain to police about suspicious goings-on at apartment 9G. Police investigate for two months, determine that tenant David Clark, a newcomer from Philadelphia and no stranger to violent crime, is dealing drugs.

So on the afternoon of June 12, town, county and Maine Drug Enforcement officers fetch up their search warrant, slip on the bulletproof vests, strap on the sidearms and kick Clark’s door in. Inside, they find Clark, another adult and $2,000 worth of marijuana, divvied into 200 neat little retail-sale packets. Within the cloud of smoke, they also find four juveniles. The juveniles are handcuffed, frisked and sent home with their parents. Clark goes to jail.

By the book, but with one difference. The four juveniles, 16- and 17-year-olds, are not the wrong-side-of-the-trackers typically scooped up in drug raids. They are good kids from good families.

But instead of grounding their kids for the next decade or so, the parents are outraged. Outraged that tender eyes had to look upon Kevlar and pistols, that tender ears were assaulted with the rough language of the drug bust, that tender wrists felt the cold steel of handcuffs. Naturally, these good kids weren’t there to buy or smoke pot. They were watching TV, playing cards, picking up a friend, delivering for Meals on Wheels. Looking for the dog that ate their homework.

The outraged say the police should have: Rapped on the door and politely asked Mr. Drug Dealer and his little pals to knock it off; raided later, when their kids were home, safe and stoned; evacuated the entire neighborhood, including a nearby shopping center, thereby giving Mr. Clark ample time to flush his stash down the toilet. One outraged parent says if he’d been at Ruby Ridge this would remind him of it; he speculates that, since Mr. Clark is black, the raid must have been racially motivated. An outraged bystander is fuming because he barged onto the scene, demanded that an officer securing the premises tell him what was going on and was ordered, in a very curt way, to beat it.

To their credit, a goodly number of Camdenites take a different view. They note that the raid sent two important messages: Drug dealers who move to town will be noticed, investigated and arrested; kids, good or otherwise, who hang with drug dealers should expect to learn a valuable life lesson. And many eyewitnesses say the police they saw were efficient and deliberate, not abusive and threatening.

But the outraged want to make this an issue, they want town officials to hash this out at some kind of community meeting.

Hashing out can be good, meetings generally do no harm and town officials could keep this one short and sweet. They could make several quick points: Drug dealers do not have the best interests of children at heart; the same dealers who trade in pot very often trade in truly deadly drugs, such as crack and heroin; drug raids are carried out with lightning effect so suspects don’t have time to flee or to arm themselves; the best way to avoid the discomfort of a drug raid is to stay away from drug dealers. Then they could welcome these good parents and their good kids to the real world, adjourn the meeting and go home.