Men in Uniform

Maybe it's the uniform, or the authority thing that does it for me, but somehow, I think it goes a little deeper.

Police; polis meaning "city" in Latin, --policeman literally meaning "man of the city."

I don't hate cops. Sure, they make me nervous, because I've had an out of state driver's license for about 18 months, and I smoke pot every couple of weeks to relax, and sleep worth a damn. But I don't hate them. I have a lot of good memories of police in my neighborhood.

I have a lot of good memories of police here at the hotel. Every once in a while, they come by to look for assholes, or they'll just stop and talk to us for a little bit. I have enormous respect for law enforcement, because it's a tough job out here in Meth-Dependence, and they do everything they can.

I remember reading this book that my ex had, called "What Cops Know", --I also listen to a police scanner when I'm bored, rather than the radio. I was surprised at how .... human they were. All of them. And then I was ashamed of myself for expecting them to be anything else. We forget too often that cops are just people, human like us, trying to do their best because they believe in something bigger than themselves. Sure, there are a few assholes in every force, in every city, on the planet. Probably plenty of corrupted pricks out there too.

Even so, plenty are just honest employees like the rest of us, getting dirty, chasing tweakers, and getting a rush out of locking up a rapist, or a burglar, because god damn it, they just enforced the law. Not just technical bullshit laws that make money for the county, but laws that are deeply ingrained in all of us, basic codes of existence: do not steal, do not rape, do not kill, --those laws, and while there is so much and more bureaucracy, every cop (except the few bad apples) are in the business to enforce those laws, those basic codes that make us human. These are the arrests they prefer to make.

Make a genuine effort to not hate police; even when they're pulling you over because you're driving over a speed limit that was clearly posted: you have no right to be angry when you're punished for breaking a law that was clearly posted. If you knew you were breaking the law, and did it anyway, you need to be angry with yourself.

If you're fined or jailed for fighting, smoking crack, carrying pot around, --don't get mad at cops. You knew that shit was against the law. Don't act surprised, don't be an idiot.

If I was arrested for carrying weed around, and speeding, or fined for possession or whatever... I'd be mad at me, for being a moron and getting caught. Not at the cop for catching me.