I will choose my words carefully and tell a brief
story
I live at 12th and lasalle and walk to work along
nicollet to the ids. i am observant of people and
activity on the street.
this morning as i rounded the corner from 12th onto
the mall i noticed a mpls. squad car parked on the
sidewalk on the west side of nicollet in front of
caribou coffee
being the nosey parker i am, i wonder what might be up
so i checked to see what was happening in caribou.
a(n) uniformed officer sat at a front table
accompanied by another male drinking a liquid i would
presume to be coffee or tea.
now the question that springs to my mind is this: is
it necessary for the police to park on the sidewalk
when they are stopping for coffee?
many of you no doubt will chide me for "monday morning
quarterbacking" the police or being overly pedantic.
feel free. this after all is america.
were this an isolated incident of police arrogance i
might agree. i constantly see police parked this way.
no doubt, at times, it may make sense. god forbid a
shoplifter from daytons etc whom the police were
called to arrest should walk half a block to a police
car. god forbid an officer need be more than 120 feet
from his vehichle at any time, that is the approximate
distance from the front door of caribouu to a corner
metter on 11th st.
there is one particular officer i see whose beat
appears to be nicollet who in the numerous times i've
encountered him has not been chatting up a young
woman. you want his name, check me off-line.
my point in mentioning any of this is that these ought
to be indicators of a systemic problem with the police
and their relation to and function within the greater
society.
to whom are the police accountable? perhaps i should
have personally said something to the officer in
question. on another day i might have. contrary to
what dave dix might think i am not a masochist. i do
enjoy being thrashed. i do not enjoy thrashing people.
i do believe in personal responsility, discipline,
humility, all those good things.
discretion in this case seemed the better part of
valor. i live to fight again. it was too nice a day to
ruin his coffee or my troubled peace of mind.
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