to protect and to serve?
sadly, I possess an inky past with the law. it deserves no additional attention, here; I merely wish to confess up front that my experiences blur my objectivity and stifle grace.
a busy intersection in Garland, TX, just outside of a massive Wal-mart, inspires rushed drivers to loose their minds. certainly I have been inspired to such great heights. I now seek to observe the lines and patiently wait in line to turn left. drivers often coast in the lane immediately beside the turn lane and then cut over into a much-too-small space so they can turn left. this saves time, but hacks everybody off.
yesterday I approached this intersection and noticed a cop hovering in the lane beside me. fully confident that this law-abiding, law-upholding, law-enforcing patrol would not pull such a stunt, I accelerated to the light to turn left. just as I reached the light, however, the cop nudged into my lane! what in the world? I assumed it was my ungenerous imagination. in the next second, however, he confirmed my fear…the cop nudged into the lane, flashed his lights to force me to stop, and then cut across a solid white line, a lane of traffic, and my trust, to turn left.
attempting to assume the best about him, I told myself he had urgent cop stuff to do. but if so, why not have the lights on before that? I watched him drive unhurriedly down the access lane to…where? I don’t know. hopefully, an emergency.
September 4th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Oh, no he di’int! Seriously?
I need some *good* cop stories, before I totally lose hope in the “justice” system.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Bleek, I have to say it took me awhile to decide to respond to your post. First, I would like to apologize on behalf of my fellow officer. I, like you, have no idea where he was going. Maybe he had just left a call at Walmart and was enroute to another call or maybe he was being totally selfish and rushing to get a bite to eat before the next call came out or maybe he was rushing home to his wife, kids or dogs and was excited that yet again he would go home at the end of his shift. It really doesn’t matter what he was doing because he did in fact violate your trust. I will give a little insight into the procedure for answering calls. Unless we are enroute to a shooting, cutting, rape in progress or officer assistance call we are not allowed to use lights and sirens. If this officer was on his way to a call where someone was breaking into a house or car, or someone was getting beat to death or close to it he still would not be allowed to respond with lights and sirens. He may have used his discretion to go through the light but knew anything further would land him in trouble. Bottom line whether we are citizens or officers we all, either knowingly or unknowingly, make decisions that adversely affect the people we love, serve or just come into contact with. I don’t know how many times in my personal car I have let people in, stopped to let someone cross across the road (where it’s not marked), slammed on my breaks because they pulled out in front of me, etc. I know those people will never remember me but the person I inadvertently cut off in traffic one day will always remember me. Same thing happens when I’m on duty. I’ve been on the department 15 years and have no idea how many people I’ve been able to help because of my job as a police officer. I do know that the majority of those people will never remember me or even that I helped them but the people I upset either by my actions or in-actions on the job will remember me forever. When I was rookie I was taught to always treat people, no matter how horrific their crime, with respect because if you treat them unfairly they may take it out on the next officer. I do my best to do that but like everyone else I have my bad days and have made mistakes. I apologize to you on behalf of all officers because I know out there I have violated someone’s trust without knowing or thinking about it. I think trust is the worst thing to violate and am saddened by the whole situation. I also know, just like people in the ministry, it’s the police officers that make mistakes and violate people’s trust that get the headlines and the attention. When thinking of whether or not you can trust officers try to remember the ones that you never hear about because that is the majority of officers just like it is the majority of pastors we never hear about. Grace and peace, Kim
September 5th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Kim - you are a wise and kind sister. your words were desperately need in this public forum. God bless you for speaking - your comments far exceed mine in value and truth. thank you.