"My Time With A Po-lice Officer"

Originally Posted Oct 27, 2005

Helloooo

it's 10.27 pm and i got home about an hour ago from my wonderful experience with the Clovis Police Department...before you think "oh crazy Asha, up to her drunken antics....again..." which you wouldn't think becuase I think I've only had a drink with around 5% of the people that will read this, it was a completely voluntary experience...semi voluntary...okay I wouldn't have done it in a million years if it wasn't required by my criminology class...seriously, spend 4 hours stuck IN A CAR with a POLICE OFFICER...I would like to say that although my opinion of cops has changed with this experience, before I went everytime I saw a cop car I BECAME A QUAKING MASS OF FAT...sorry for the caps but you know how emoting can be so hard on the internet, and that little "mood kitty" doesn't really show the fluxuations quite well, and while I'm apologizing, sorry about all these damn ellipses...

Anyway, now I think cops are great, they do their job and they are probably not going to pull me over unless I'm actually doing something wrong, or they're just severely bored with life, highly unlikely in Fresno and Clovis, it seems like their lives are pretty damn lively.

So what happened today you ask? Such a nice inquiring little bugger...well after waiting in the Clovis PD's lobby for about an hour and a half (very nice room, wonderful lighting treatment, very cute and chic...very un-san joaquin valley), a nice officer showed up and took me for a ride in his cop car. He basically had a call when he walked in, and off we trundled to see a man about drugs and him offering them to a nine year old...things happened, drunk man was an ass and he got arrested, whoopee I got to see my first arrest, use of pepper spray and coming together of the PD, the FD and EMS...it was glorious.

Then, some disturbance that we didn't need to be there for, because things were apparently resolved, but we were there and I learned about how things can get blown out of proportion by misunderstandings, misinterpretations and stupid people. Then off to a missing child report, who was found en route and then to see a lady that passed away. Eek. I didn't go in the house as to respect the family's wishes, and to make sure that I don't throw up all over the cop, the family and the roof of the house from seeing a dead person for the first time.

So I was in on shift with the cop for about five hours, five of the most non-in-your-face educational hours (seriously) I've ever really had. We chatted about some of the officer's personal life, politics in the police arena and how people concieve the police. And at the end I got some Foster's, peed about a gallon and learned a few lessons.

One. The police AREN'T out to get me, whatever I'm thinking on this, I'm wrong, the world actually doesn't revolve around me.

Two. Police just want to live their lives, stop bad guys and not die.

Three. Shit gets blown out of proportion all the time, I shouldn't believe everything I hear on the news right away, because quite often, I'm not hearing everything that happened through the news.

Four. A rifle has a shit load of pellets in it.

Five. Pepper spray in a horrible disgusting thing that I never want anywhere near me.

Six. I'm never going to get drunk ever again.

Lessons were learned, love was spread, bad guys were caught, and I'm going to bed.

A21. Over and out.