A Tahoe screamed around the corner, sirens wailing in the morning heat, a bust in progress but no big deal, happens. Then more sirens, this thing's escalating and I stood up in the front office, aka "porch" to see the action.
Lo and behold, Old D drives by the house, going slow in his beat up Toyota, followed by three more Tahoes full of sound and fury. "Pull over, fella," I thought to myself, "Stop blocking the road and let the cops take out the meth dealer 'round the corner."
D duly turns the corner, pulls into his driveway and bang, the posse screeches to a halt and it's Glocks out, get away from the vehicle! D does this quietly and gets taken to jail, for he was the perpetrator. But what had he done?
Gotten into a crazy verbal with someone at a fast food joint? Accused a random stranger of being in danger of hellfire at the Brookshires? Delivered an end times Alex Jones rant at Tractor Supply before running out on the store with an unpaid bag of cat food? All likely scenarios, but no, it seems his crime was failing to register his vehicle and then failing to stop when the LEO son et lumière began. D was scared and freaked out, apparently.
He's been charged with evading arrest, $5000 bail, and I like the guy. Crazy? Yes. Dangerous? No. In need of help? Most definitely, and I offered to do what I could. In the meanwhile, real, dangerous, evil criminals walk free down the marbled corridors of power, to say nothing of this town's drug dealers.
Look. A Crook
That said, couldn't the above deal have been handled differently? Especially in a place where people know each other? Well, there it is, and I file this tale of crime and punishment under Country Life in Texas.
Justice,
LSP
A classic example of the difference between "Peace Officers" and Cops.
ReplyDeleteWow. Glad D wasn't injured or worse. As you say, wasn't there someone more worthy of such a display?
ReplyDeleteYou all be safe and God bless.
Yeah, you'd think it could have been handled a little different. Last time I got pulled over for expired registration, I pulled the registration paper out of the glove box and was embarrassed to find the new sticker was still stapled to it. It had only been in there six months or so. Ooopsie! The county deputy just shook his head and said, gimme that, walked to the back of the car and applied the sticker his own self and said, you're good to go now, drive careful and got back in his sport ute and left. Considering I was blasting along in the Corvette at 70 or so in a 55, it could have been worse. Apparently, he felt sorry for the senile old guy....
ReplyDeleteI get less sympathetic for cops by the minute.
ReplyDeleteYou gotta wonder how many 'good cops' will stay in such a bad environment.
I don't judge in this, WSF, but jail and all of that seem like big overkill in this case. I guess the system's too rigid to stop the crazy, see he's no harm and... hmmmmmm. Release him to family, some kind of supervised care? The monasteries did that in olden days but we've moved beyond. Beyond in a bad way, imo.
ReplyDeleteMy feeling's that 50 years ago or so, it'd have been dealt with "in house." Not anymore, and that's too bad.
There sure are, Linda, for some reason they're allowed to roam the streets and peddle their warez. Outrageous.
ReplyDeleteHa, Wild, a 'vette! Nice.
ReplyDeleteProblem here was the old guy's not quite there and freaked out. Hey, all those lights and sirens are scary.
Last time it happened to me I pulled over, apologized, most polite, produced a concealed permit and went home with a "be careful and drive safe." Thanks, officer.
Kid, my youngest sister say her first rainbow squad car in Dallas this week.
ReplyDeleteWTAF.