Sunday, January 5, 2014

On Being A Cop

I was an accidental Cop.  I got a degree in Sociology with an emphasis in Corrections and Criminology.  I THOUGHT I was going to go back and get an MSW (Me Social Worker), but I didn't get accepted in graduate school right out of college, so I went to work.  Thinking I might try again later.

Well, you get married, you get a house and a mortgage, and a kid and, well, things change.

And you end up working for Corrections.  Then you end up going to the Police Academy and the next thing you know?  You are wearing bullet proof under ware and kicking in doors in meth labs on, "No Knock" search warrants.

And thinking, "How did I end up here?  I wanted to save the world.  Now?  I'm kicking it's ass!"

So it goes.

I have no regrets.  It gave me a good living, let me meet and marry my wife and now I'm retired and have a pension.  We both do.  I could have made a lot of worse decisions.

But I was just thinking about how people don't really understand what being a, "Cop" means.  You can watch, COPS on Saturday and see the bad stuff, but they also edit out a LOT of bad stuff.

You don't see what happens with the kids when the Cop has to put the parents in jail.  The Cop has to wait for hours for the DEA to come and clean up the meth lab, and DCFS to come and pick up the kids.  And when they pick up the kids?  It tears your heart out.

The parents put their kids in that position, but I put them in the hands of the state.  I did the right thing, but it never feels right when you do it.

I had to put people in jail for shit that they should NOT have gone to jail for.  Smoking pot?  Really?  Well, I took the oath, and it's against the law.  I did my job.  But it was not always the right thing to do.

You see the worst of the worst of people.  The poor, the, "underclass" of America are the folks who come in contact with guys like me.  The Cops.

In the 23 years I was doing probation and parole, I had ONE case of a guy who lived in Willow Creek.

The middle of the road folks were the worst ones to deal with.  The privileged, Mormon, white, Republican families that live in Riverton, Herriman, and those areas thought they were above the law.  They wouldn't even open the door for us sometimes.  Pricks.

But most of the time, we dealt with folks most of you wouldn't know about.  Associate with.  Live around.  And it's true when they talk about, "The thin blue line" between society and anarchy.

We kept the society from having to deal with the folks who would bring anarchy.  If they could.  Cause they wouldn't CHOOSE to live like they do.  And yea, they WILL take your stuff if you leave it unlocked. 

I'm not thin, but I was sure a part of that line.  And I think I did a good job.  But it did leave me a little fucked up.

I was retired six years before I could go into a restaurant before I could sit with my back to the front door.

I still carry a gun sometimes.  I get nervous being downtown or in West Valley City or Magna when my son plays a soccer game out there.  Because for about ten years, I was THE Parole Agent for everything south of 2100 to 4700, and west of 3600 to the mountains.

I'm much more relaxed now.  But when my friend got married in Michigan a number of years ago, a guy pulled his truck in front of us while we were walking across a street in front of my wife's blind cane, and I kicked his truck!  Probably wouldn't do that now. I'm not as tightly strung.

But after all those years of having to be in, "condition red", it took some time to wind down.

So when you encounter a Police Officer, be it for a traffic ticket or some other reason, please keep in mind that we/they live in a different world.  One in which every encounter with a person could be a life or death situation.

After all, the van he/she pulls over for speeding could be mom, dad and the kids late for a soccer game, or a parole fugitive from out of state.  And he won't know until he gets to the window.  So give a guy a break.  The Cop is not trying to be a prick, even if they come off as one.

They are just trying to be careful and cautious.  You get treated with the respect you want, by the respect you give.  Not to the Cop, but to the badge.

Friday, January 3, 2014

That Is So GAY! And Armed

So the Fed's have decided, in the Courts, that it's not Constitutional for Utah (and that means any OTHER state) to deny marriage to Gay people.

Wow.  That's great.  But any of us who went to college, and understand how the country works, knew it was coming.  It was inevitable.  The Constitution was designed to protect the MINORITY from the tyranny of the MAJORITY!

After all, the folks who founded this country left England and fled to Holland to avoid being forced to join ONE religion.  And live the way THEY told them to.  And after that, risk their lives to sail to this continent to have even MORE freedom from religious oppression.

Now, admittedly, there were some bumps in the road.  There were some Colonies that picked a religion.  But once The Constitution was passed?  That went away.

Except in Utah.  100 years later.

And it still exists.

Look, Governor Hebert, and the rest of you morons, you can NOT win if you take this fight further.   It will just cost a lot of money.  You remember the fight against cable TV in the 80's?  No, you don't.  Cause you spent a fortune on that and lost.  But hey, you don't remember Prohibition, cause you didn't pay attention in history class, or you were home schooled.

Or in the Governor's case.  You dropped out of college.  Well out of byu.  But that's not really a college.

You have to let it go.  Marriage is a GOVERNMENT thing.  Government grants those of us married, special rights that they don't grant to others.  Tax breaks, inheritance laws, lots, and lots of other things.  It's a GOVERNMENT thing, not a CHURCH thing.  YOUR church will not ever, ever, not never, have to PERFORM a Gay Marriage!  The Government can't MAKE you do it!  So lighten up.

Under YOUR anti Gay thinking?  My wife and I are NOT married?  But we've been married for almost 29 years now.  We get the tax breaks, etc.  But our marriage was performed by a Judge.

So if you let MY marriage stand in Utah and, oh, I don't know?  Lets say, Ohio's marriage stand in our state, but you don't let THEIR  marriage stand in our state?  Why would you let any other of their laws stand in our state.

We would not be members of the Interstate Compact on Probation and Parole.  Extraditions.  They would no longer have to come and get their fugitives who get caught here (and ours being held in theirs, we would NOT have to go get?).  Do we really want that?

Do we want trucks that won't pass our standards of maintenance being allowed to drive on OUR highways?

This why we have a FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, so we have a COUNTRY!

And this is a big one in Utah.  Would you not want to let other states not honor our concealed weapon permit?  But you expect to honor theirs? 

So get over it, Republican, Mormon, Right Wing, folks.  The Gays can be married.  No one CHOSE to be Gay.

So let's spend the millions of dollars the state would spend wasting their time on trying to beat the odds, which they will lose, on  public education!

And by the way, Gary?  I you don't decide to take the Federal Money to expand Medicare to a lot more people, just to make you a Tea Party darling?  You will be giving MILLIONS of dollars to other states that THIS state paid in taxes just cause you're a jerk.

But you're going to do it anyway, aren't you?

Republicans are pricks.