police run in...jay walk off

In a previous entry entitle My Fault vs. Their Fault, I talked about the mess surrounding my driving privileges. My license is suspended for failure to pay a citation, My truck is uninsured, unregistered, and has an expired inspection sticker on a cracked windshield. I still drive the truck to and from work, but very rarely any other time. Dodging the police has become a game to me, but I always have to put safety first. I travel along town lines where traffic enforcers don’t spend much time, I’m always surveying the traffic for safety and forewarning of any officers in the area. If I see the police cruiser first, my chances are good. There is one situation that is nearly impossible to escape though, and that happened to me today.

I was driving to the bank with a quick stop at the store for a drink. After I got my drink (slush puppie) I resumed towards the bank. I was on a major road and just up ahead was a police cruiser sitting at an intersection to the right side of the road, waiting to pull onto the road I was on. My heart jumped and as I drove by him I was pretty sure he was looking right at me. The expired inspection sticker is on the right side of my windshield and it is color coded according to year. Mine is blue, anybody who will need to renew this year is green, and anybody who already renewed this year is red. So as soon as I drive by the officer he pulls onto the road behind me to follow me. I put my right blinker on hoping to get to a side street before he pulled too close, just in case he didn’t see me yet. But it was a while before a right turn became available to me, and I saw the cruiser deliberately pull closer to the curb to align himself with me. He turned on to the street behind me and put his lights on. Feeling a little doomed, but not exactly scared I pulled over, turned off the truck and rolled down my window.

“Dude, you have a blue inspection sticker,” he says. I explained that I realized that and told him that my situation was bad, and there were many factors involved. He said, “well let’s start with a license, do you have one?” I told him I did, so he asked to see it. He held that in his hand while I told him about the insurance company, the parking ticket, the excise tax and what not. He said, “What happens if you hit a car?” So I told him, “If everyone drove around with no insurance the streets would be a lot safer.” He smiled and said, “Well that’s not how we do it in this state.” He asked me where I was going anyway, and I told him I was going to Cleverly St. Of course he wanted to know why and where so I told him it was a job a few houses up from the Pizza Hut. I told him that I was working to take care of all the issues, that I had lost my business and had to start working for a company, and that everything was going to be resolved, it was just a matter of time. He took a deep breath, “What needs to happen for you to clear all this up?” I told him money was the only object. He asked how much and I told him about $1800 which is less than I really need, but it was close enough. He explained that he understood I needed to work and I needed to get to work, but he told me I needed to find a different way to get to work. Then he said, “If I let you go, and you drive up the street and run someone over, who’s gonna lose their job? Then I’ll be crying poor-mouth.” I assured him that I didn’t want that for him.

I looked into his eyes the entire time we talked, looking away only to keep the intensity level down. He looked into mine. I could tell he was pondering something. Finally he held up my license and said, “Well, you have a license…but I don’t even know if it’s good.” He began tapping the license on my car door. His cruiser’s video camera was watching us. He said, “I’m gonna give you a break, I just don’t know how I’m going to do it. God knows how many breaks you may have already gotten.” He thought about it a moment and finally had his answer. He told me to roll my window up and walk away. Then he reiterated it, us looking at each other the whole time, “I can’t watch you drive this car away. Just roll up the window, get out and start walking…give me a chance to get out of sight. I know you are trying to solve your situation, but you need to find another way to get to work. So start walking, and when I get around the corner…you know…do what you gotta do.” I thanked him, I looked him in the eye and thanked him again. He walked back to the car, and sat there long enough for me to start walking away from my vehicle…he gave his video camera a chance to watch me walking for 10 seconds, and slowly pulled up and drove past me. When he turned the corner, I did an about face, went back to my car and drove it away.

The funny thing is not only did I just recently write about eye contact and it’s wonderous power, but he was a young cop, probably a year or two older than me. Yet he acted like the understanding older police officer who had realized what was important in this world and did not feel the need to prove himself. I’ll never forget this day.

 

The link to "my fault vs. their fault.

http://journals.aol.com/jaylectricity/theessenceofjaylectricity/entries/1500