Ride along part II

A. Blinken….. (We continued on to Howard’s Bar.)

A.B.: How many arrests do you make a month?

Bill: It depends. These things tend to go in cycles. In summer, there are more DWI arrests, and a lot of disturbing the peace type arrests in the campgrounds. People from the valley come up and they think they’re in the wild west and anything goes. A little alcohol, a little meth, maybe one more guy than girls, that’s often a source of trouble, the next thing you know, I’m heading to one of the campgrounds. In winter, there’s more domestic abuse, with alcohol and meth.

A.B.: Sounds like alcohol and meth are factors for crime.

Bill: Sure, either or both; both is a bad combination.

A.B.: Maybe alcohol should be illegal?

Bill: Look, I’m a simple cop. I know you think pot should be legal, I don’t think so, I don’t think we can really discuss it much.

A.B.: Is pot involved in crime the way alcohol and meth are?

Bill: Sure it’s involved in crime, having it is a crime.

A.B.: That isn’t what I mean.

Bill: I see a lot of pot where there are other type crimes.

A.B.: I guess I’m asking if pot causes people to commit crimes like alcohol does.

Bill: No. Not at all. But for me, that doesn’t change anything. Alcohol is legal. A lot of people use it responsibly. I drink occasionally myself and so do many of my friends. Pot is illegal. None of my friends smoke pot because they would be criminals and I can’t be friends with criminals.

A.B.: Maybe it’s a bad law. If it were repealed and your friends could smoke pot instead of drinking alcohol, it might be better.

Bill: Yeah? Well, if the lawmakers decide to make it legal, we’ll see. Until then, anybody who uses it is a criminal.

A.B.: What about people who have prescriptions for medical cannabis?

Bill: Still criminals under federal law, which I am also sworn to uphold. It’s not illegal under the state statutes, and so we don’t automatically bust a medical grow. I’ll tell you this, though, a lot of those people are just using the prescription to grow and sell illegal pot.

A.B.: What if you had a relative with a serious health problem and using it helped, would that change your mind?

Bill: No. It probably does have some medical benefit, after all, alcohol was used for years as medicine. No doctor gives you alcohol to knock you out any more, though, because modern science has given us better drugs. I think the same way about pot, it probably does do something, but not as well as a more modern drug, one that doesn’t get you high.

A.B.: So, it’s the fact that it makes you feel better that bothers you?

Bill: Don’t try to paint me like that. But, yeah, a little. That and the fact that people who use it are just rejecting the rest of decent society. There are better medical drugs available, but that isn’t what it is. These people want to be able to smoke pot even though polite society disapproves. They’re all fringers, out-liers. I’m going to try to talk to a medical pot patient today in Howard’s Bar. He’s kind of a resource for me in the community. He’s fat, lazy, has two kids who "home school". He grows pot for himself and his wife, who also has a pot prescription. They sell a little but their grow is small, because I told him, "keep it small, I’ll leave you be." They smoke all day everyday, so they just grow enough for themselves. I like the guy, and he’s smarter than your average pot head. He keeps tabs on the really bad people in the neighborhood for me. Do I respect them for smoking pot and keeping their kids from the advantages of public schools? No. I think he’s wasting his life and maybe his kid’s lives, but you know what? His kids are happy, they love him, he loves his wife, they grow a lot of their own food and have chickens and goats, and all things considered, society is better off with him at home instead of in jail. If everybody in Howard’s Bar was like them, I wouldn’t spend much time there.

A.B.: It means a lot to you that people are like decent people, then?

Bill: Let me tell you something. Most people are happiest and most productive when they’re following the rules. I think people are born right out to follow rules, because we always make rules, every society does, and people are always happiest when they follow the rules. If there were no rules there would be no order. I’ve seen it when people think society isn’t watching. They do the worst things of their lives, always to the weak. Laws are what make us human instead of animals. People like pot smokers weaken society and all of us.

A.B.: And people who do what they should, blindly, like slaves, must make society strong?

Bill: Don’t be an asshole. No one follows the law blindly in America, no one is a slave. Still, people who obey the law, live good lives, yes, they make society strong.

A.B.: I see it differently, Bill. I see it this way: there are people who like to make rules for other people to follow, and there are people who can be decent without rules. Laws don’t make people good or honest, it just channels their instincts for larceny through "legitimate" channels. For me, Bill, a happy life is one where I make my own choices. I respect others and don’t prey on the weak even when there aren’t any cops. Smoking weed should be my choice.

Bill: Yeah, sure sure. I know what I know. I know smoking pot makes you just a little less American. I know that everybody could smoke pot, or molest kids, or steal from old ladies, but most people don’t. It’s a choice they make in their lives, to do the right thing instead of what they could do. It’s that.

A.B.: I never stole from old ladies, why are you trying to lump weed into crime in general?

Bill: It isn’t the weed or the old ladies, it’s the choice you make to be a good citizen, or not.

A.B.: I’m not a bad person.

Bill: Hey, I didn’t mean to make it personal, Aaron, I think you’ve done that.

(Silence)

A.B.: There is only one thing wrong with your view, Bill.

Bill: Yeah? What’s that?

A.B.: It’s un-American.

Bill: Yeah? How?

A.B.: What makes America different is our view of the person. There are kindly dictators out there who take it on themselves to make decisions for everyone, for the common good. That sounds nice, but in America we think the individual person has the right to liberty, and liberty means the right to be left alone. A perfect, orderly society is not American, the American ideal is revolution, innovation and above all the right of the person to be let alone in the pursuit of happiness. In America, we have a vision of the individual who has rights which even the many can’t take away. That’s what makes us great, not the fact that our people obey every law, no matter how arbitrary. The marijuana prohibition is a good example, Bill. There is no reason for it, it’s arbitrary, and in America, that is a limitation of liberty. You know what else weakens your argument? Your definition of a good person is a person who does what other good people do: that’s a circular argument, it goes nowhere. Your description of good people reminds me of an oxymoron I once saw in a photo of the Fort Dix stockade. It was a sign that said "obedience to the law is freedom". That’s twisted, Bill. Freedom means law which doesn’t unnecessarily limit the actions of the individual. In your definition of freedom, there is no freedom.

(Silence)

Bill: Well, you’ve spent some time thinkin’ about this, haven’t you?

A.B.: I have, and I’ve spent time at my granny’s knee reading Thomas Jefferson, the architect of liberty. In your view, we are free to move about within a fence of the law, like cows are free to graze any part of the field, but not free to leave the field. In my view, people have the right to do what they want within the constraints of their impact on other people. It’s open range, and people fence in what they want protected.

Bill: Bull. (Brief silence, snigger) I’m kidding, relax. Don’t take this all so seriously, there isn’t anything you or I can do. The law is the law, I try to apply it as fairly as I can, you try to obey it as well as you can. By profession, I have to keep you as orderly as possible, and by nature you can’t quite be like other people. It doesn’t mean we have to get personal and bring dead national heroes into it. Aw, crap, look at that. Some non-conformist threw his trash beside the road. Hold on, we’re going to stop and see if we can get some ID on the litterbug.

(Car sounds, door opens.)

Bill: (Outside the car) Look at this, it isn’t garbage, it’s a bag of clothes and personal items. (Near the car) Looks like it belongs to an old man, see, wool pants, old pictures. I’m going to put it in the trunk, maybe we’ll get an ID and track down the owner. (Trunk sounds. Door slams. Inside the car, into computer microphone:) Large black garbage bag found on left gutter eastbound SR (#) at mile marker (#). Contents seem to be personal effects. Bag was resealed with no contents removed.

A.B.: Wow, you even have to record that?

Bill: Of course. What if there’s a missing old man, and believe me it happens all the time. Older gentlemen become confused, or miss their medications, and they travel, usually not very efficiently. They’re weak, Aaron, so they get preyed on by opportunists. Maybe the owner is wandering up the road, or perhaps he’s fallen off the road. The location of his effects would be an important clue. Look ahead, we don’t need any more clues.

(Off the side of the road was a newer station wagon with three generations of family. The roof of the car was tied with bags and boxes and items like a dog sled headed into the frozen waste. The younger man was tightening a rope that had come loose.)

Bill: (Outside the car) I think I might have something of yours. (Trunk sounds) Here, does this belong to you, sir?

Voice: Oh, my god! My pictures and everything, thank you so much!

Bill: I’m glad I could help out, sir.

Voice 2: We weren’t littering, we sure didn’t mean to lose it.

Bill: No, I understand.

Voice: I’m moving in with my daughter and her family. I’ll get to see the grandkids every day.

Bill: That’s wonderful, sir. Well, good luck, I have to be going.

Bill: (In the car) Folks like that are wonderful, but if you let them, they’ll talk your ear off. Anyway, Aaron, what would you have instead of cops if you were king?

A.B: I’d still have cops. I’d educate them about liberty, but I’d still have them. I would reduce the power of police to invade privacy, and I would make them liable for damage to property. If you search a car, you have to put the stuff back in. Bill: Yeah? Well, when I search a car I usually just move things and put them back where they were. You want to know something else? People prefer I don’t put stuff back, they don’t want me handling it twice.

A.B.: Oh. Well, when you break down a door, you have to fix it.

Bill: I never broke down a door, I generally just knock. What else would you change?

A.B.: Mostly, I would throw out laws which arbitrarily reduce freedom, and change policies which favor large corporations.

(At this point we turned on to a narrow paved road heading down toward the river)

Bill: Right, well, other than letting you be a pot-head, what arbitrary freedoms?

A.B.: Well, abortion is a big one, a woman’s right to choose whether to be a mother.

Bill: To be honest, I never arrested anybody for having an abortion. Still, nature decides whether she becomes a mother, and probably alcohol. What about the baby, doesn’t it have a right to live?

A.B.: That’s a tough one.

Bill: Really? I figured you would look at it like this: the mother gives up less freedom if she has the baby than the baby gives up if she kills it. She doesn’t have to keep it, there are good, childless couples who would take it a raise it right. If she kills it, the baby gives up every right.

A.B.: Well… that’s the simple answer, sure. But if you look at it from the perspective of the individual, you’ll see that, in a way, the woman might also lose a life, since having a baby is a physical thing, it brings changes and has dangers. It also has emotional consequences. I personally think the best thing is for a woman to have the baby, and give it up for adoption, but I know women who have done that, and they are haunted by the knowledge that the child is still out there, and they should leave them alone. Whatever, abortion, at some point, needs to be a decision made by the person who has a decision to make, the mother. The baby, it’s true, has no decision. Here’s Howard’s Bar.

(We were entering a small community of a few older buildings including a small store but no gas station, a bar, a volunteer fire garage and a few houses, some old, both decrepit and maintained, and some newer manufactured homes, both decrepit and maintained. A little out of town was the same mix, but spread out more, with more old rusting logging and mining equipment, and more dead cars of every vintage. We drove through the little town, turned around a mile or so out of town, and drove back, stopping beside a large man in torn jeans and a stained thermal undershirt. The wooden fence in front was patched with old pallets, and the house was rambling, white and flaking, but there were dozens of brightly colored children’s toys in the yard, and a flock of kids was playing on a large dirt pile beside a ditch running behind the house. To one side was a small greenhouse surrounded by high chain link fence; clearly the most valuable thing on the property.

Bill: How’s it going, Woodsman?

Woodsman: Good. Been quiet since last night.

Bill: This is a friend of mine, he’s riding along.

Woodsman: Howdy.

Bill: He still there?

Woodsman: No, he left after you left last night.

Bill: Any problems at the house on the corner?

Woodsman: No, a couple of Mexican kids came by for a few minutes this morning, so they’re out shopping for groceries today.

Bill: Local boys?

Woodsman: I don’t think so, I think they’re from down the valley.

Bill: There’s that much less of their poison up here. OK. Well, thanks, Woodsman. How’s your back?

Woodsman: Not so bad. Those Wright brothers haven’t been back at my fence since last week. Ha ha.

Bill: I know you think it’s funny, but one of these days your going to fire your shotgun in the air and someone is going to return fire and hit you or one of the kids. I have already recommended you just get a motion detection light back there, and shout when someone is trying to get to your plants.

Woodsman: I know, Bill, but I just couldn’t resist getting a little even with those brothers.

Bill: All right, Woodsman, you take it easy.

Woodsman: I will.

(We drive on)

Bill: Well, there’s one of the problems with your medical cannabis, thieves, a lot of times minors, come after it and this guy, trying to protect his property, fires his shotgun in the air. Where you have gunplay, you have problems.

A.B.: The problem is it’s illegal, so it’s worth a lot of money. If it were legal and people could buy it at a state store, or even a bar, there would be less crime. No one shoots guns over bars.

Bill: Maybe, but…

(The radio cuts in, again the dispatcher speaks too quickly for me to understand.)

Bill: (Into collar mike) Right, Base, I’ll complete my current task and head back. (To me) Well, this ends our fun, I have to go back and transport a prisoner down to the city. He’s been a problem at the jail, we’re glad to turn him over to another county. First, though, I have to stop and get some information from this house. Between you and me, I have the information, I wanted to give her bruises a chance to show before I decide whether to turn the case over to the DA. She’ll probably refuse to testify against him, but maybe filing will cool him down awhile. It might just teach him to hit her where it won’t show, though.

(We stopped in front of an old green aluminum trailer surrounded by rusting machinery. There were a few kid toys in the yard. Bill knocked on the door. A heavy set young woman in a blue blouse and black stretch pants came to the door. She looked suspiciously at me. I didn’t see any bruises from the car. Bill spoke with her, nodded, gave her a pamphlet of some kind and nodded goodbye.)

Bill: She’s got bruises, but she has pancake makeup on so it’s hard to be sure how bad. She says he’s looking for work down in the valley; he’s an expert at chopping stolen cars, so that’s probably true. He’s out of my jurisdiction. Well, we’d better head back.

End of Part II; Continued in Part III