Once again I told Tracey as she was leaving for work yesterday morning that I wasn’t cooking anything for supper and we should eat leftovers because the fridge is full of food. Once again she brought food home. This time it was Panda Express.
Once again I ate without complaint.
MjL 23 Sep 2017, 5:01 a.m.
#TinBadgeTyrants Lately I’ve been commenting about how fast cops grab for their guns. I received a sneering comment to the effect, “How would you know? You’ve never had them point a gun at you!”
Actually —— I have.
I was about 18 or 19 years old. A buddy of mine was going to pick me up and we were going to shoot pool at a local pool hall. I had a two piece pool cue in a fake leather case. The case had a zipper top (the zipper was broken) and was less than 3 feet long.
I was standing on the corner leaning against a street light when this cop car came slewing past me and over to the curb. The cop on the passenger side jumped out, stumbled over the curb and fell back against the car door with his gun aimed at me with both hands shouting, “Drop the gun! Drop the gun!”
I had no idea what he was talking about but, in a reflexive action, I threw down the pool cue case and raised my hands. By this time the driver had his gun leveled at me over the top of the cop car.
They were shouting stuff at me but I had no idea to this day what it was. I kept thinking, “These guys are crazy! What is wrong with these people!” I was shouting back at them that it was only a pool cue.
The cops finally calmed down a bit and one of them said that it was clearly a shotgun case and I was being arrested.
I replied that he should stop and look at it again. It wasn’t anywhere near big enough to stuff a shotgun into.
By this time both cops were standing over the pool cue case and they looked down. The expressions on their face changed to embarrassment in that single instant.
One of them told me to carefully show them what was in the case. They both still had their guns pointed at me. I gingerly leaned over and picked up the case by the bottom with finger and thumb and gently dumped out the contents. (Since the zipper was broken I didn’t even have to touch the other end.) The two pieces of my cue fell out and a blue cube of chalk.
I asked them to please stop pointing their guns at me. I explained that I was waiting for a friend to pick me up.
They immediately accused me of illegally hitchhiking.
My friend pulled up behind me in his red Mustang and stared at the scene with worry.
The cops looked at each other and then I was told to get in my friend’s car and get out of there. As I was putting my stuff back into the case one of them lamely said they had reports of somebody with a shotgun wandering around.
It was all I could do not to laugh. Nervous jitters I guess, but how lame is that story?
To this day I keep thinking about how batshit excited those guys were and completely zeroed in on the stupid pool cue case. I seriously couldn’t believe they thought it was a shotgun case and once they actually looked at it I’m sure they felt pretty foolish too. But I also know I could have gotten killed had I reached into the case to show them it wasn’t a gun. Fortunately that thought never entered my mind. But it might have and I would likely be dead now.
Over time I have also decided I was fortunate to be white.
MjL 23 Sep 2017, 7:22 a.m.
MjL 23 Sep 2017, 7:54 a.m.
I am not particularly religious and have never claimed to be, but I do wonder about the effect of prayer.
For instance, if everyone around the world said a simple heartfelt prayer about the Donald? I’m not suggesting what the prayer should be, but something about lightning might be most appropriate.
About
