Just call me Suzie Homemaker. After nearly a year I decide to buy a bed. I get this excellent deal on a futon, anything is possible if you speak Spanish in this town. Brand new, delivered, for $50.00. This finds me at home in the middle of the day, instead of at the library. Drinking diet Pepsi, reading, baking bread and trying to figure out how the remote control works without the manual after 5 years.
I saw something on the television that I am so totally against, that I speak up. It was one of those cop shows where they video tape the take down. The cops tailed the alleged stolen vehicle and try to pull him over, of course the driver is too dumb to figure out there is backup and he runs for it. So far okay, but the police must have known there was a chance he would run. Why? Because from the side of the video, you clearly and distinctly see this hero cop “the Sergeant” run over and place his hand on the passenger door of the stolen vehicle after it begins to accelerate away. In case any bleeding hearts read this account, the operative word in that last sentence is AFTER.
It was plain the vehicle was going to run before the Sergeant began his charade, because it pulled out into the oncoming lane. Immediately the cop with the camera fixes the audiences thoughts with the old “He just tried to run down the Sergeant.” Out goes the bulletin, attempted cop-killer on the run, dangerous. True, the driver should have pulled over and stopped. But not true that he attempted to run over anyone. That is the lie I am against, it was visibly and falsely pretended by the police for their own purposes. Then the cops build it for all it is worth, drum-beating the message over the waves that he tried to run down the Sergeant. He did not, it was clearly staged and you could see it.
Of course, the fact get lost in the adrenaline of the chase, and by the time they have the driver face down on the concrete, everyone listening has heard the lie change into evidence, like the police don’t know this. I have no doubt the cops will swear under oath he tried to run them down, and will suppress any evidence that contradicts that lie. Sad but true. The cop did not begin his little act until after it was obvious the vehicle was pulling away, and alas, I’ve heard of cases of cops doing this when the driver was not under arrest and had a right to leave. And the cops involved in the video I saw were worse than Grade B actors. Freud once wrote or said that if a child had the physical strength, it would smash everything in its path that aroused its displeasure. We have given the police-child such strength.
Am I being unsympathetic to the police cause? No, I do not think so. They themselves have corrupted the system enough that mere suspicion can be as bad and expensive as a conviction, to the point where it is dumb not to try to get away. They have a million-dollar budget to prove you guilty, but not one penny to prove you innocent. That is enough of an advantage to do away with any play-acting on their part. Bravery? Frank said bravery was taking the oath. After that it is all duty. The macho nonsense, these policeman and fireman calendar crap, is already stifling, we need not encourage it while they are supposed to be working.
The police have plainly never heard of the scientific method, where you collect all evidence first and then you draw a conclusion, in that order. Before this method was accepted, they burned innocent people at the stake, if you recall. If a policeman secretly interviewed ten witnesses, nine of whom swore you were innocent, and one who swore you were guilty, I can bet you cash which witnesses name is on file at the police station and which nine would (carefully) not even be mentioned if you go to trial. This is bravery?
It has been unseasonably cold, or maybe I mean cool. This is the first weekend of heavy rain in the new year, and it has been at it for hours. Not the usually Florida blast and back off. I made coffee, muffins and popcorn, relaxing through it all. Gee, you would hardly have found me doing that in the pre-heart attack days, know what I mean? Plus another half-hour of TV, this time a NOVA special. Isn’t that a twist, other people get heart attacks from watching too much TV, I get one by not watching enough? Anyway, I see the nature documentaries haven’t changed since I was a lad. They still read like a Grollier’s Encyclopedia. You know, where there seems to be no upper limit to the number of times they expect to tell you a giraffe has a long neck, and you are still supposed to go, “Wow”! Get some inquiring scientific minds in there, you lazy twerps, and come up with something worth watching, already.
