Behaviors and Attitudes
Sam Aurelius Milam III
As much as the term good cop seems like an oxymoron, I once knew a man who'd been a good cop or who, at least, had tried to be a good cop. His name was Frank. He'd been in the infantry in Vietnam and, after being discharged from the army, he'd found a job as a cop. Some time after he left that job, I met him at Advanced Micro Devices, in Sunnyvale, California, where we both worked as quality assurance technical auditors. Frank had some interesting stories to tell about his experiences in the police
force.
One Saturday morning, Frank was sent to investigate a complaint about a "youth gang" that was congregating on a street corner in a residential neighborhood. When he arrived at the scene, sure enough, there was a group of young men standing at the corner. Frank had a congenial manner, so he was able to approach the young men without any trouble. After a brief conversation, he understood their problem. Usually, they spent most of their Saturday mornings at the local YMCA. Sadly, that institution had been closed. There hadn't been any advance notice. They'd just shown up as usual that Saturday morning and discovered a locked door with a "closed" sign on
it. They didn't have any place to go.
Police force policy didn't permit Frank to help them in any way. It
required him to order them to disperse. So, he took their names and
sent them away. That evening, after he was off duty, out of uniform,
and on his own time and at his own expense, he went door-to-door in the neighborhood, asking for help. Eventually, he found a woman who agreed to make her
game room available to the young men, as a place to spend their Saturday mornings,
at least until some other arrangement could be found. Frank notified
each of the young men, on his own time. Thus, he solved the problem.
Frank was sometimes assigned to sit in his patrol car, half a block or so
away from a bar, near closing time. His instructions were to watch
for somebody to stagger out of the bar, get into a car, and drive away. His orders were to follow the car for about a block, pull the driver over, arrest him, and impound his car. He asked if he could just give such drivers a ride home. He was ordered not to do so. He was told that he wasn't a taxi service. His job wasn't to help people. It was to arrest them and impound their cars.
Frank said that he couldn't have the kinds of behaviors and attitudes that
were required of him, if he wanted to be a cop, so he found other work. If all cops were like Frank, then things might be better. Maybe they could serve and protect the people, and not just the police state. Who
knows? Maybe good cop wouldn't even be such a contradiction in
terms as it is now.
My Life to Live
Sam Aurelius Milam III
In an editorial reply, on page 3 of the April issue, I predicted
that the Coronavirus would increase the government's power to control people.
That seems to have been an accurate prediction. Sadly, it seems that
most people actually prefer to be controlled by the government but I did
recently notice an exception. A government-regulated network news program
showed a video of a man who declared that the decision whether or not to
wear a mask ought to be a personal decision, and that the government ought
not to be involved in it. He was completely correct and, indeed, he
presented a good example of a general principle.
I've watched for decades now as activists and their opponents fought about
how to control me. The self-appointed saviors of mankind will rant
about some risk, and demand that people should be forced, against their wills, to protect themselves from it. Crash helmets and seat belts come to
mind. Presently, it's masks. The opponents will challenge the
effectiveness of the proposed protection, which is always a losing argument
and is beside the point anyway. The same lame debate, by the same kinds
of idiots, on different risks, has recurred for decades. It's a waste
of time and an insult to the intelligence of anybody who has any.
I don't care if a mask, a helmet, a seat belt, or anything else will protect me. The point is that it should be my decision. The evangelistic reformers should stop forcibly imposing their oppressive dogma on me. Neither the government nor the reformers own me. I own me. It's
my life. I should be able to decide for myself how to live it, and
whether or not to risk it.| August 2020 | Frontiersman,0c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville,
Georgia 30507 http://frontiersman.org.uk/ | Page 1 |
