police blues

police can have unintended consequences. For instance
you obey one, you obey them all - and suddenly
a gang bursts through your door yelling contradictory
orders, firing discriminately. Thank god no one was hurt
but you! Not all cops, true but.
Yeah. It happens. Or else, you're at a demonstration
all perfectly legal, high on ideals like everybody
present, and the next thing you know
you've stripped yourself full-ass nude
to the bare skin and crying, with all these cops
in the shot looking macho - even the girl ones. They pick up
the toxic aura of power implicit in the structure. Not all girl
cops, true but it's there for the soaking in. Some do.
Or you end up
shot, set on fire
and torn in half by one
huge, head-swinging bite from a police dog
the size of tyrannosaurus rex, who
picks you up bodily and flings
your sundered halves in separate
directions! He didn't hate you! He is
- or she - just a bitch, arguably - and so, she.
Animals love charging people who are on fire, they love
fire. Animals. Now the last example arguably
never happened. Not specifically, but from the fact
it didn't happen specifically
we may decide to conclude
it happens generally.
In that case, watch out. Police,
though, also smile
happily in Norman Rockwell tableaux, drinking
milk, eating pie, friendly as hell, guns
drawn, firing joke shots
at the happy customers also
sitting at the same happy counter
in a diner straight out of circa whenever.

Was this

a real scene, often witnessed, back then? Or simply
a romanticized con job pulled off with equal parts
schmaltz, charm, and a chocolate malted? Probably

half is true. We can only believe half of what
Rockwell painted, and none of what I paint.

Even in words, folks, even in words
the responsibility is always on you.

Well, except in cases where without due process
or just cause, some cop waltzes up to you
(literally, waltzes - watch out for this)
and plants a big deep tongue kisseroo
without so much as a by-your-leave!
That's sexual assault, or at least
one of the bases has been stolen
without basis. What they did

is not your responsibility. But
what do you do? This is not
a police state! They are not
hired to run rampant! Yet we must admit,
charily or otherwise, that police
do seem to be a permanent part

of this state we're in. I say
treat cops
the same way you'd treat anyone
with a gun, and huge massed forces
of buddies hanging on the call
to come running. There are good cops
and bad cops - and if you ever get
in the interrogation room with one
of each? My understanding is you're in
for a dramatic treat! A real double act,
with tart and tough-boiled dialogue,
compassion and respect extended
and pulled back by one or the other - unless

the good cop is a virtuous and dedicated
public officer, and the bad cop is "bad"
not in the sense of the badass who tramples
on the spirit of your rights while toeing
the line on the letter and getting spittle
in your face yelling, but maybe just "bad"
in the sense of a pretty hapless, incompetent
cop.

It would be pretty cool to see that dynamic
play out, too. Good cop/lame cop.

Better advice might be keep out
of situations like those, and if you can't help it
maybe keep saying things like "I demand my right
to shut up until my solicitor tells me what
the answers are!"