SOCIAL CIVILITY

This happened years ago, but is illustrative of today’s situation. Two of my childhood friends became police officers. I stayed in touch with them from time to time over the years. They told me this years ago.

Some local “do-gooders” convinced the captain he should instigate a program of social and civility awareness for the police department. The captain finally relented (mostly to get “them” to shut up) and assigned a lieutenant to one of their college courses in criminology taught by a professor of socialism.  The lieutenant dutifully attended all the classes and often engaged the professor in some contentious conversation about reality.  The lieutenant suggested the professor take a sabbatical leave and attend the police academy to temporality become a fully qualified  police officer. The professor accepted the invitation and the captain approved.  He (the professor) became a fully qualified police officer.

The police department policy was to assign rookie officers with experienced officers for their first several assignments.  His first assignment was to ride with one of my friends on night duty.  Everything was more or less a fairly quiet evening. The professor took copious notes on every incident.  He was making preparations for a thesis for a doctorate.  About midnight they got a domestic disturbance call.  On the way not the scene my friend explained he had made this call numerous times. He told the professor to stand by next the cruiser.  He (my friend) said he would walk onto the porch, beat on the door, shout “Police” then step aside.  The guy in a drunken stupor would rush out the door like a mad bull.  He would stick his foot out to trip him.  He then would jump on his back, handcuff him, drag him to the cruiser and throw him in the back seat.   Everything went down exactly as my friend said.  The professor rookie saw this as an excellent opportunity to question the guy to get his opinions about how he was treated and what he thought about the experience. He got his little pad and pen out, opened the back door, leaned in to ask a question. The guy violently  kicked him in the  groin where it hurts most.  The professor’s attitude about social civility changed in a second.