ProfessorGate

I can't wait to hear the police tapes of the Crowley/Gates affair. Something so important that the president addressed it in his weekly TV show to blame the Republicans for stalling his health plan (when everyone knows the Dems could pass it without a single Republican vote) must be earth-shattering. Or at least United States-shattering. Why else would a president stick his nose into a peace disturbance arrest?

Since I wasn't there, and haven't heard that police tape yet, I will not pass judgment. Yet. But I will tell you two things I know about police.

When HH called the cops on The Shooter who threatened to shoot him, two sheriff's deputies arrived at our Mansion door. That's the way we do it here. We are outside the city limits, so we get whichever county cops are in the vicinity. It used to be like that at school, too, until Newmentia was incorporated.

A deputy knocked on the door, and HH answered it. He invited the deputy in, but the deputy said, "Please step outside and we'll discuss your complaint." See there? That seems to be law enforcement policy, to ask the person to step outside. There were two deputies and one HH, but they still wanted him to step outside. So he did. Without arguing. They took HH's statement, went to talk to The Shooter, then came back to talk to HH. And again, they asked him to step outside. And he did. HH was the one who called the cops, and they still wanted him out of the house to talk to him.

My next story is from school. Many years ago, a girl did something in a classroom, something inconsequential like swearing, though I don't remember the specifics, and the teacher told her to go to the office. It's in the handbook. No swearing. The penalty is in-school suspension. Potty Mouth decided that she would not go. "No. I'm not going to the office." I suppose she thought that would get her out of ISS. Not so fast. We're smarter than that. The teacher pushed the intercom button and asked the secretary to send the principal down to her room. When he arrived and told Potty Mouth to come with him, she refused. "No. I'm sitting right here." The principal explained that she was making her situation worse, turning a minor infraction into insubordination, though he probably used smaller words. Potty Mouth said she didn't care. Principal said he would call her mother. "Go ahead and call my mother. I'm sitting right here." Mom came, and told the girl to get her a$$ out of that chair. "No. I'm sitting right here." After much arguing, Principal and Mom agreed that if Potty didn't get up and go with them, they would call the police to remove her. "Go ahead and call the police. I'm sitting right here."

An officer arrived and told Potty that she would have to come with him. She was now trespassing, and her mom said that she couldn't control Potty. Potty said that she was going to sit right there. Officer said that he would have to forcibly remove her. Again, Potty sat right there. The officer pulled her up by her arm. The desk kind of clung to her until it dropped off in her struggle. Principal and Officer each took an arm, and walked Potty out into the hallway. By walked, I mean dragged a surly, writhing Potty into the hall. Officer told her that she needed to settle down, or he would have to cuff her. Potty spouted quite a bit of inappropriate language from her Mouth. Mom said to take her away, maybe she would learn a lesson. Because she continued to struggle, Officer handcuffed Potty's wrists behind her back. He escorted her through the double doors onto the sidewalk at that end of the building. Principal and Mom and Teacher followed. Potty put up quite a struggle. Officer told her to settle down. Potty struggled more, declaring that she would NOT settle down. Next thing you know, Officer cut Potty's legs right out from under her and took her down on the sidewalk. He knelt on her with his knee between her shoulders, and said, "Now will you settle down?" Potty did. She squeezed out a few tears. She was loaded into the back seat of Officer's car, and presumably driven to juvie. I heard the story second-hand from Teacher. "The best part was when he slammed her face to the sidewalk." Now I think that's probably a bit dramatic, because by all accounts, Potty had no marks on her precious face, so it must have been a controlled takedown by Officer. But the point is, the police only give somebody a couple of chances to comply, and then they do what they are trained to do.

Which is neither here nor there, because I don't know what happened during Professorgate with Professor Gates and Officer Crowley, but it gave me a topic to expound on tonight.