“A police officer attempts to stop a car for speeding and the guy gradually increases his speed until he's topping 100 mph. He eventually realizes he can’t escape the officer trailing him and finally pulls over. The cop approaches the car and says, "It's been a long day and my tour is almost over, so if you can give me a good excuse for your behavior, I'll let you go with a warning." The guy thinks for a few seconds and then says, "My wife ran away with a cop about a week ago. I thought you might be that officer trying to give her back! The officer looks at the man in the car and says, “drive on sir, have a good day!””
For as long as I can remember I feared police officers. When I was younger I was afraid of the police because of their authoritative nature. They never seemed approachable (probably had something to do with the uniform and the authoritative vibe they give off), and why would I want to approach them? Maybe police officers were so frightening because whenever I traveled to Europe with my family I would see soldiers and police officers standing or walking around the different European airports holding their hand/machine guns. In my eyes, if I did anything wrong in their presence well, they had the ability to shoot me. And I, well, I only had the ability to cry. Who would want to hurt a cute little crying girl (or boy)? Not to mention when I was in high school, I will admit, I loathed the police. Not only were they arresting my friends for “petty” misdemeanors but they wanted to spoil all of my fun, so it seems. (Obviously now that I am older and have matured quite a bit I see things a little bit differently). However, at the time, cops were the enemy.
I remember going on a field trip to the Kenilworth Police Station in elementary school and remember being afraid to ask questions because everything about the station was frightening- the question racing through my mind at the time was: who are these (friendly, gun-carrying) robots?
For about a month now I have consciously been trying to figure out how I truly feel about the police, a task that I haven’t found to be easy, (it probably has to do with residue past impressions of police officers).
For about a week I have been trying to figure out why I find the police force (on the North shore of Chicago) so fascinating. The stereotypes’ deriving from movies and television shows aside being a police officer, in my opinion, is very respectable and interesting (something I may possibly want to pursue).
[Side note: On a not so serious note, in the last few months I have been fortunate enough to have had a lot of non-criminal activity (not that I am a criminal, I am one of the sweetest people anyone would have the pleasure of meeting. Haha. Wink wink. O:o) ) related encounters with police officers that have spawned entertaining stories and (thanks to the first season of Grey’s Anatomy) nicknames such as: McYummy, McOhHe’sSoNice, McDamYou’reMarried, McHellooooo 1+2, and McPleaseAskMeForMyNumber. I will now attempt to recapture one of the said stories…]
It was some time in November and I was out on my late night / early morning walk (around 4am) skipping around on Greenbay Road from Kenilworth to Winnetka. As I approached the 7-eleven I saw that there was some condensation on the back windshields of three land rovers at the car dealership and decided to write “love love love” on them. As I turned around to walk away, a rather good-looking Winnetka Police Officer pulled up in his patrol car, rolled down the window, and asked me to stop.
Me: Is there a problem officer?
P.O: We saw you doing something at the car dealership…
Me: Oh! Yeah, I just wrote “love” all over the back windshields of the three cars there with my finger in the condensation…
The officer gave me a skeptical look.
Me: I can go back with you if you don’t believe me!
P.O: That would be good…
As I walked the 10 -15 steps back to the dealership I chuckled to myself. The officer pulled over his patrol car and got out. He proceeded to ask me if I had ID on me. As I pulled out my driver’s license (which I luckily had on me) and handed it over to the officer when another Winnetka Police Officer pulled up in his patrol car and got out to question me as well.
P.O 1: Anything we need to know about before I run this (holding up my ID) through our system?
Me: No…although, you might find a moving traffic violation from 3 years ago…I think that’s it… but I’m harmless!
P.O 2: What are you doing out at this time of night?
Me: Oh, I’m just on my nightly walk. I always walk at this hour…
P.O 1: Well, you better be careful it can be dangerous with the trains coming in at this hour.
Me: Dangerous? Here? It’s the North Shore! I grew up in Kenilworth- I’ll be fine! Plus, I always walk with one headphone in my ear and the other one out just in case…
P.O 2: So why would you write “Love” all over the cars?
Me: Oh, I just wanted to spread a little love…
P.O. 2: You might want to consider spreading your love in a different way!
At that moment I bit my tongue. All I really wanted to say at that moment was, “is that an invitation Officer?”, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. All that came out was…
Me: Well, I know it’s the North Shore… I mean… I guess… is it really that big of a deal? Writing “love” in condensation? I mean…I’m harmless! You can ask the Kenilworth Officers, they know me!
P.O. 1: Here comes one now!
It was the weirdest thing! I had just spoken to the officer that pulled up in the Kenilworth patrol car not that long ago and when he got out of the car he gave me the “you again?” look.
K.P.O: (To me): Didn’t I just see you like 45 minutes ago?
Me: ….
I gave an innocent look.
P.O1: So you know this one? She’s not any trouble?
K.P.O: Oh, she’s trouble alright!
Me: What?!? Nooo! Come on!
The officers stood there laughing with me* (fine, they were most likely laughing at me, but what did I care?)
Me: So… um, is this the point in time where you arrest me?
P.O.2: Yeah, you’ll be in the Winnetka blotter tomorrow.
I put my hands behind my back and said,
Me: Sweet! Ok! I’m ready!
Then we all had a laugh and the three officers told me I could go. I laughed once more, smiled, and walked home.
Need I say that I slept very well that night?
TTFN - Ta Ta For Now!
