Last night two police officers stopped me as I came home. They turned on the lights as I rounded the corner to my house. I supposed I confused them a little bit when I pulled into my driveway. I also freaked them out a little bit by opening my door and getting out like normal humans do when they get home.
The officer claimed I had run a stop sign. I know exactly when they turned in behind me; I made two left turns (three if you count my driveway) and on both of those streets there was no stop sign for drivers going in the direction I went. Needless to say, my adrenalin was pumping and I didn't immediately realize he lied.
He took my driver's license, registration, and my insurance card. My insurance card is the next clue that he really did lie, that he was using driving as a pretext to stop people. I gave him my new insurance card, the insurance that starts today, not the card that represented the insurance that covered me yesterday. I forgot about the dates in part because of the adrenalin and in part because I've been sick the past few days and I haven't been paying close attention to the date.
But lie to me and turn my thinking toward what in the world could possibly be happening and I'll start paying attention.
While they ran a search for warrants using my information, the officers helpfully pointed out a few other things they could ticket me for (do I really have a tail-light out, or was that a lie too?). They didn't ticket me for anything though.
Whatever they really wanted had to do with running the search for warrants on my name. I have a suspicion they sweep certain neighborhoods like this.
Actually writing me a ticket would have been problematic, given the lack of a stop sign, though I suppose they could have claimed I was somewhere else. The feigned magnanimity of not writing a ticket for anything else was supposed to make me feel thankful to them too, and it could have if it weren't for the clumsiness of the lie. I would have felt really stupid if I had missed a stop sign while driving in front of a patrol car, and I know it's pointless to argue with police, so I'd end up feeling grateful like you feel grateful after a storm comes and does some damage but not too much damage- and really, you should have battened down the hatches anyway.
But the lie takes them out of the realm of impersonal forces.
They are destroying any good will people had left towards them. Perhaps they are doing me an inadvertent favor by creating more libertarians. What a great 'hearts and minds' campaign!
Well, as you might imagine, this heart and mind is very tired now.
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