(no subject)
Jun. 4th, 2007 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ljgeoffI will preface this post with the observation that I have never had a positive interaction with a cop. I was watching a nature show about lions hunting on the veldt, and the narrator was saying how the wildebeests kept an eye out for the lions, keeping their young toward the middle of the herd -- not ape-shit terrified when they saw a lion, but very wary and defensive. I actually see cops more like sharks. I guess lions are too cudley.
I was once arrested, tried, convicted, fined and put on probation for something that I didn't do. This happened about a decade ago. In my experience, cops and the justice system aren't interested much in justice, they just want to catch someone. If they catch an actual wrongdoer, that's a bonus.
A couple of weeks ago, Kyle's friend Mark stayed over at our place for a weekend. The kid had a brand new Razorphone, and on Sunday, the phone came up missing. We looked all over the fucking place. No phone.
From what I was told, there were outgoing calls placed on the phone on Monday and Tuesday. Of course I talked to the boys, and of course they had no clue. There were a ton of kids over, gaming and just hanging out and eating my food all weekend like there always is -- the boys had an idea of who might have taken the phone, but that was as far as it went.
So, on Friday, Mark's parents reported the phone missing, and on Saturday, while I was at work, a Negaunee Cop came and talked to my kids. This is the same cop who chased after Kyle last winter when he went buggy at school. I really don't like this cop; he doesn't like me either. After talking to my kids, this cop called me on my cell and told me that he was sitting in his car outside of my house and that he just talked to my kids about this phone. He said that my place was the last place the phone was seen, so we must know where it is, and he wants it turned in or else. He said that Carl was very evasive about who had been over that weekend.
So I told Officer Friendly that I'd talk to Carl and see what I could find out. He said something snarky and hung up.
About four hours later, I got off and called Mike. We talked about the phone thing - he had been home that weekend - and we talked about some other stuff. I had some nebulous do something shit going on in my head, and this is funny, but I didn't realize at the time why I was feeling so out of control.
We talked some more and I pinned down where the feeling was coming from. I came home, talked to the boys and then stayed up reading 'till 2:30 am. I'm not tired this morning, more like... spacey and like I've had too much caffeine. The boys are off to school. They gave me a name - a girl who makes me sad because she is sweet and hard and hurt. I told Sam to tell this girl to find someone who would turn the phone into lost and found.
If she doesn't turn it in, I feel like I have to give her name up to the cops. Her or my kids - no choice. This sucks. It's not the cops fault. They're doing their job, and they're what the system demands. It's not my fault. It's not even my kids' fault. And I don't even know if this girl is the one who took the phone - as a prank, impulsively, stupidly - last year she was taken away from her mom and put in some juvie home down in Illinois (why the fuck she was taken to Illinois, 400 miles away, I dunno) and she flunked out of eighth grade and is back now and repeating eighth grade. I don't want to give this girl up. Maybe I can talk to her. Shit.
I was once arrested, tried, convicted, fined and put on probation for something that I didn't do. This happened about a decade ago. In my experience, cops and the justice system aren't interested much in justice, they just want to catch someone. If they catch an actual wrongdoer, that's a bonus.
A couple of weeks ago, Kyle's friend Mark stayed over at our place for a weekend. The kid had a brand new Razorphone, and on Sunday, the phone came up missing. We looked all over the fucking place. No phone.
From what I was told, there were outgoing calls placed on the phone on Monday and Tuesday. Of course I talked to the boys, and of course they had no clue. There were a ton of kids over, gaming and just hanging out and eating my food all weekend like there always is -- the boys had an idea of who might have taken the phone, but that was as far as it went.
So, on Friday, Mark's parents reported the phone missing, and on Saturday, while I was at work, a Negaunee Cop came and talked to my kids. This is the same cop who chased after Kyle last winter when he went buggy at school. I really don't like this cop; he doesn't like me either. After talking to my kids, this cop called me on my cell and told me that he was sitting in his car outside of my house and that he just talked to my kids about this phone. He said that my place was the last place the phone was seen, so we must know where it is, and he wants it turned in or else. He said that Carl was very evasive about who had been over that weekend.
So I told Officer Friendly that I'd talk to Carl and see what I could find out. He said something snarky and hung up.
About four hours later, I got off and called Mike. We talked about the phone thing - he had been home that weekend - and we talked about some other stuff. I had some nebulous do something shit going on in my head, and this is funny, but I didn't realize at the time why I was feeling so out of control.
We talked some more and I pinned down where the feeling was coming from. I came home, talked to the boys and then stayed up reading 'till 2:30 am. I'm not tired this morning, more like... spacey and like I've had too much caffeine. The boys are off to school. They gave me a name - a girl who makes me sad because she is sweet and hard and hurt. I told Sam to tell this girl to find someone who would turn the phone into lost and found.
If she doesn't turn it in, I feel like I have to give her name up to the cops. Her or my kids - no choice. This sucks. It's not the cops fault. They're doing their job, and they're what the system demands. It's not my fault. It's not even my kids' fault. And I don't even know if this girl is the one who took the phone - as a prank, impulsively, stupidly - last year she was taken away from her mom and put in some juvie home down in Illinois (why the fuck she was taken to Illinois, 400 miles away, I dunno) and she flunked out of eighth grade and is back now and repeating eighth grade. I don't want to give this girl up. Maybe I can talk to her. Shit.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-04 06:55 pm (UTC)That's my understanding, too... once they get to a certain point, they're interested in building a case against you, *not* in the truth.
If you want excruciating fairness, I can say that they rarely know who actually committed a crime, so they have to take their best guess and build a case as best as they can. And for real crimes, where real people get hurt, I can sympathize, but even then, it seems like they sometimes over-reach the evidence out of conviction-hunger.
I think cops should get special citations for finding crucial exculpatory evidence. After all, their job is to protect the innocent, and clearing a suspect who seems to be a good fit is doing exactly that.
I hope the phone is found without any unjust legal repercussions.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-06-04 08:30 pm (UTC)