I Admit It, I'm a Fucking Asshole

I worked last night and it was, well...it was New Year's Eve...

Around 0430, I make a car stop.  It's a drunk driver.  A female.  And her boyfriend is in the car, his car.  I arrest her for the DUI and place her in the backseat of my cage car.  As you can imagine, the dude is not happy...his woman is handcuffed and in the back of a police cruiser.  His virility has been challenged.  So, he becomes a little bit lippy...whatever.  I could care less.

But he moves towards my car in an effort to try and talk to his girlfriend when my back up officer tells him to move back.  This pisses him off and says he only wants to make sure she's safe.  I tell him she's fine...she's in our care and custody.  He replies, "Fuck you guys. I don't trust you. It may not have been you (pointing to me) or you (pointing to my back up) that shot them, but you guys kill people.  The police have killed a lot of people.  And for no reason."

So, I ask him if he's being robbed, who is he going to call?  (Two things...Please don't immediately say or think "Ghostbusters" and please know that robbery is the taking of something by force or fear of force. Robbery is usually violent.)  He says, "I'm not calling you guys.  You guys are fucking assholes."

Yeah, I'm the fucking asshole that earlier in my shift was dispatched to a domestic violence in progress, but diverts to a "mayday" call at our county's crisis center because some crazy chick, whose real name is Princess, but believes she's God, is attacking a crisis counselor and security guard with a knife.

Yeah, I'm the fucking asshole who then gets dispatched code 3 to another domestic violence in progress, where the 12 year old caller is scared shitless because his mom and dad are fighting...again.

Yeah, I'm the fucking asshole who responds lights and siren to a suspicious situation for an open 9-1-1 line with sounds of screaming and yelling in the background to find out a boyfriend and girlfriend were fighting while her 4 year old was present.

Yeah, I'm the fucking asshole who stopped and arrested the drunk driver who was racing down a residential street, possibly preventing him from hurting or killing himself...or much worse, someone else...a family,  maybe.

So, yeah, I'm the fucking asshole that stopped and arrested your girlfriend, who was almost twice the legal alcohol limit, while she was driving you home.  Maybe she would've made it unscathed.  Or maybe she would've wrapped herself...and you...around that tree or light pole.  Our maybe she would've crossed that double yellow line and struck that family minivan as it was returning from a gathering of friends and family, hurting or killing all or some on board.  Or maybe she would've struck and dragged that pedestrian who was simply taking her regular early morning walk.

We'll never know because that didn't happen.  No.  I stopped her.  This fucking asshole.  You were able to go home with your buddies who came to get you.  After she was processed, she was able to sleep in her own bed.  That family made it home to spend more time together.  And that walker was able to complete her ritual to start her day.

I'm not looking for thanks...no way.   Not by any stretch.  I just want the respect for what I do.  I don't think that's much...you'd want it to.

So, on behalf of me and the other almost 800,000 fucking assholes I call my brothers and sisters in blue...Happy New Years.  I'm glad you made it home safe.

"My Client Suffered a Traumatic Event"

Today was a shitty day.  I spent the entire day in court and I only had one case.

Fridays are domestic violence, or DV, dockets in Montgomery County.  The one I had was a bad one.  Both the victim and suspect, her lover and the father of one of her children, had been drinking alcohol.  Apparently though, this time she had had enough and got angry with him.  Shouting followed.  And soon, it broke into a physical fight.  She was no match for him.  She got one good lick in and that was it.  He punched her in the face and then the belt came out.

I saw the marks.  Two very distinct loops on her back.  Bloody and bruised.  Red with a black hue.  There was also blood that had dried in her right ear from a blow.  A large lump grew on her forehead.  Soon I saw more smaller marks covering her arms.  She was drunk.  But that probably helped her in the end.  Maybe preventing her from feeling the full extent of her pain.   Maybe...I could only hope.

I arrested him for assault and reckless endangerment.  The endangerment alone carried a maximum of 5 years.  And, although this was Montgomery County, I still held out hope that justice would be served.

But I already told you, I had a shitty day, so you can probably imagine the outcome.

And that was just my case. The whole fucking day was DV shit.  This one shitbird put his hands around his baby's mother's throat, trying to choke her.  Probably over money.  After the judge heard his case, he talked about how "disturbed" he was by the facts of it.  And then proceeded to sentence him to 60 days in jail for the second degree assault.  He quickly followed that up by suspending all, but 58 of those days because the abuser had already served 2 when he was initially arrested and booked.  No fine, just court costs because when the public defender talked about his client, he talked about what a model citizen he was and how he's already gone through yada yada treatment or counseling programs and then the defendant vowed it'd never happen again.

They all say the same goddamn thing.  Its fucking sick.  There's so much emphasis in our judicial system, particularly this county, to ensure that none of the accused's rights are skirted.  Fuck the victim.   And the betterment of society.  During one of these defense narratives, his lawyer stated that her client experienced a "traumatic" event when he spent 2 days in lock up.  What?!  Fuck him.  He's lucky he's not castrated.

And it was like that ALL day.

One defendant's victim, now former girlfriend, was so afraid of him, she stayed in a secured room to avoid him as much as possible.  Another who got thoroughly beaten invoked her marital privilege, a one time free pass in Maryland for the wife beater to get off scott free because the wife still "loves" him.  Or is completely petrified of him and what he'll do to her if she doesn't invoke it.

My favorite though was a dude who is active duty military.  Now listen, I'm in the military reserves, but even if I wasn't, I'd still be a huge supporter.  So, this guy is an alcoholic and supposedly this was his first out of control episode.  Well, I guess, if you're gonna do it once, you might as well go big...A neighbor calls 9-1-1 and reports the domestic assault, says it been going on for a while and they can hear a woman screaming.  The call taker can hear the victim pleading in the background, "I didn't do anything!" as the defendant is dragging her into the middle of the apartment complex courtyard.  He beats the fuck out of her...rupturing an eardrum.  But the defense gets to tell everyone how great of a guy he is, what a decorated servicemember he is, how he's changed, gone to programs and all the other complete bullshit.  He brings 3 members of his branches' command cadre to speak on his behalf and say what a good dude he is and how he's taken this seriously.  Then he speaks...reads a fucking novel that he wrote.  And it's all about him.  He tells everyone what's he's done and that it took courage to tell his command.  He says he really wishes he could walk up to his victim and tell her he's sorry...to free his guilty conscience, right?  Screw what'd it do to her mentally.  But he can't...she's got a protective order out against him she's so damn scared.  Throughout it all, he's never humble, he never mentions the sheer terror he must've put his victim through...and never says jackshit about her permanent physical injury, the ruptured eardrum.  His attorney pleads with the judge to give her client PBJ, probation before judgement, so that, when he faces his military trial board in February, he can say he doesn't have a conviction.  Fuck.  That.

But he made out...he got the same sentence as the others...all suspended sentences.  No one got any jail time.  Not a day.  They got a stern talking to, maybe some probation with the threat of jail "if you ever do that again", and a few got actual fines.  That's it.

How am I, let alone a victim, supposed to have any faith in our judicial system?   Obviously, there are significant affects on the victims, but there's also fallout on the officers that handle these calls for service one after another after another.  And the holidays are a hotbed for domestics.  Never fucking ending.

I left court sick.  Exhausted from the mental and emotional drain of utter frustration and anger.  20+ years of shit like that piled up inside of me.

My guy...pled to a lesser, amended charge.  He was sentenced to 60 days with credit for 2 and the remaining 58 were suspended.   No fine,  just $57.50 in court costs.  Twelve months probation and he must complete the county's Abused Persons Program.  Done deal.

Oh...I almost "forgot"...the military defendant?  He's a chaplain.  And you bet your ass they rode that pony until she dropped...