OH ...... Well, crap.

So, I had a very different weekend. (That's really a poor way to start any post, but I'm alright with that at the moment.)

I watched my niece on Friday and Saturday. I went to class again, even though I debated not going. But, the real excitement was on Saturday night.

Here's the rundown...

8:45 PM - I showed up at a Police Precinct for a "ride along". I met with one of my CJ professors who just happens to be a cop as well.

9:15 - I am introduced to the officer that I'll be riding around with for the rest of the evening. Seems like a nice guy.

9:20 - My professor shows me the different weapons patrol officers can check-out for their shifts, other than their sidearms. One is an assualt shotgun. It's got a really short barrel and holds 5 rounds at a time. It's light and tough. Very nice. Another is a shotgun with a separate purpose. This one has a bright orange stock. It fires "bean bag" rounds that are meant to drop someone to the ground without the fuss of blood and death. Handy.

9:40 - I'm in the patrol car. We're dispatched to a lot of rather uneventful places over the evening. But things will get better.....
.....if by "better" all you mean is "more entertaining."

2:45 - We're sent to a promenent hotel downtown that has a rather classy bar in the lobby. It's a domestic dispute. She says that her boyfriend (and father of her son) hit her a couple of time. He says she fell.

3:00 - He had warrants out for his arrest. There is also a zero tolerance policy on abuse. She had scrapes and bruises, he was going to spend the night in the pokey.

3:30 - We're back at the precinct. The officer I was with would be tied up in paperwork for the rest of the evening. So, I decide to chat with my professor. He and I are relaxing in the back of one of the rooms in the precinct. In in a 5 holding cells for people who have been arrested, about 13 computers for officers to log in their arrests, and that's about it.

3:37 - A pair of officers bring in a kid in a white shirt (we'll call him Andy). He's been arrested for public intoxication. He wreaks of alcohol, but he also seems a bit high (not drunk, but high). He spends the next hour and half being obnoxious and pissing off the officers in the room. My professor and I just stand in the back and enjoy the show.

5:00 - Andy has now successfully pissed off everyone in the room but me. But that's only because he never tried to mock me at all. I wasn't wearing a badge and thus was not an appropriate target of his contempt.

5:03 - The officers suggest that Andy needs to be taken to the restroom. Andy doesn't quite understand what they mean, probably because he's high as a kite, and asks to be taken to the restroom.

5:04 - Andy is allowed to use the single toilet in the bathroom. He's uncuffed, but the door's open. He yells and whines about his right to privacy and obviously has no idea what is going to happen.

5:05 - Andy finishes his business. He's recuffed by the officer who arrested him. Two other officers step into the room. And the bathroom door closes.

5:08 - Andy, now hand-cuffed, exits the bathroom. He's crying. His forehead is already starting to swell. The three police officers are behind him. They say "He slipped and hit his head on the toilet." Everyone laughs when I ask, "How many times?!?"

5:09 - It dawns on me that I would not normally agree with what happens when someone "slips in the bathroom." Yet, I feel nothing for poor Andy. He's just had the crap kicked out of him, and I don't feel sorry for him at all. I do, however, realize and regret the fact that Andy will probably come down from the high later and not have learned his lesson.

5:15 - Andy is more lively. He's also a bit confused. He claims that the three officers hit him. I guess he was just so high that he didn't understand that he slipped. Poor, poor Andy.

5:30 - I decide that I have seen enough. I turn to my professor and inform him of my decision to go home and get some rest. And, well, that was that.

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