A Police Car, A Boy And Stuff

You know how sometimes there are things called coincidences? I don't believe in them, but was lucky enough to enjoy the majesty of one yesterday.
My son for awhile now has said he wants to be a Police Officer when he grows up. COOL!
Anyway, I was in the hospital going for some tests and had my laptop with me. I'm a Macintosh guy, so I was looking through IPhoto. I have so many pictures. Every one of them releases a plethora of memories. Anyway as I was viewing the photo library I was remembering when my son was just born.
Want to hear something weird?
I remember looking at his newborn hands and feet. I looked at his fingers and for whatever reason was amazed that he had finger prints. He had fingernails with the little half moons where the nails met the skin. I remember looking at his feet thinking that these feet have never touched the earth or have beared weight of any sort......
So I get out of the hospital and head home. He is in a Summer program at his school, and every day he comes home with arts and crafts.
When I get home he has a policeman cap, and badge made out of construction paper on the counter.
"DADDY!"

"Little Dude!"

"Look what I made Daddy!"

He took the cap and badge off the counter and put them on.

"Dude!"

"I'm Officer Dude."

No idea how cool he looked.

So I hear my lovely wifes voice from the foyer.

"Lombozo, there are 2 police cars in front. Go see what they're doing."

"Daddy I want to come too!"

"Come on little Dude!"

So we walk out front. The two patrol cars were stopped driver to driver and they were talking through their open windows. We slowly walked up. The officer facing me was looking at me. My son still had his cap and badge on. I asked permission to approach and was granted it swiftly. We walked between the 2 cars. I said:

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"A polices man. I want to arrest monsters."

The 2 officers were smiling. I lifted him up and showed him the inside of the cars. Frankly I was astounded. I never realized how much technology was in these cars. I mean it looked like a freakin' cockpit. A computer teminal mounted to the dash, a video display which showed both fore and aft and was able to zoom in (which he showed us). There were about a billion buttons and switches everywhere. Weapons, communication devices. I mean WOW! They've come a LONG way since ADAM 12. My son was entranced. The Officers could not have been cooler. After a couple of minutes I said:

"C'mon Dude. Let's let the Police men go back to work."

One of the officers said:

"Officer lombozo. Want to sit in the car?"

How cool is that?

He sat in the passenger seat for a about a minute. I say again. How cool is that?

"Daddy look! I'm a polices man!"

"Yes you ard Dude!"

"Daddy! Call me Officer!"

"Oh sorry Officer Dude."

He got out, and I asked as we were walking back up the driveway.

"Can you hit your lights for a second?"

They both hit their lights. My son was in his glory.

I don't care what officers make, they don't make enough. Yesterday two officers absolutely, completely made a childs dream come true.

Awwwwwwwww... What a WONDERFUL story... I'm sure your son will NEVER forget that as long as he lives!! and kudos to the cops as well...I'm sure in their own way, it made their day as well...=)

Thats a cool story, One cool story, again as always reading your stuff is gold lombozo

We need tons more stories like this to combat all the negativity towards cops on ATS. I myself have met many great cops who were just stand up guys.

Thanks for the great story.

reply to post by ben420


But guess what? The good cops can take care of themselves. It's the victims of bad cops that need help.

True, cops suffer b/c of PTSD and poor supervision and need to be empowered by their superiors, but they do have guns and vicitims do not.

reply to post by Badge01


I have known way way way more cops like the one's in lombozo's story than the abusive power hungry kind. I have met that kind as well.

Heck I have been in jail a few times and met cops like the ones in this story. I still maintain email contact with a detective in my hometown. Why? Because he is a decent guy.

Don't let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

Originally posted by whatukno
reply to post by Badge01

 

Again, I assert the good cops can take care of themselves. They don't need our support - they have guns.

Don't let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

To whom are you making this comment? If not to a cop, then who? They need to find and weed out the bad cops, because nobody else but the good cops can do this. My question is, are they doing it and if not how can you say they are good cops if they ignore or fail to act on these bad cops?

Just curious.


[edit on 9-8-2008 by Badge01]

Ha Ha, Lom when i read the title of this thread i thought "damn, Lom got arrested in front of his kid" now that i've read this i feel like an idiot



Roswell.

reply to post by Badge01

To whom are you making this comment? If not to a cop, then who? They need to find and weed out the bad cops, because nobody else but the good cops can do this. My question is, are they doing it and if not how can you say they are good cops if they ignore or fail to act on these bad cops?

They do, Cops that do something out of line are relieved of duty pending an investigation. If they are found to be breaking the law they loose their jobs and in some instances go to jail.

Case in point from my own personal experiences with police. When I was younger I used to hang out at a local coffee shop that was attached to a park. I was sitting down near a bench with some friends when two police officers approached me and one of my friends and asked us to come talk to them.

One cop started to harass us, claiming that we were blocking the right of way. I pointed out that there is no cross section of my body that could possibly block the right of way in this particular area. An argument between me and the police officer ensued. Eventually a patron of the coffee house yelled at the cop (the officer was pretty flustered at this point from the verbal bashing he was getting from me) The officer went into the coffee house and started to talk with the customer.

The customer was a local business owner, he called the department and made a complaint, The coffee shop owner called the department and made a complaint that the officer was harassing two customers. (me and the business owner)

The cop was suspended and reprimanded. He also lost rank because of the incident. The other officer who witnessed the incident while doing nothing to prevent the incident did in fact testify against the harassing officer. (leading to the harassing officer's demotion)

Yes there is a thin blue line, but good cops know where that line is and when they need to cross it. Not all cops are bad, most cops are great people that are just doing a job. Most cops are doing this job so that you and I can be safe and sound every day.

reply to post by whatukno


OK, first, glad to hear it didn't escalate to you getting arrested for something.

Second, you have to realize this is EXTREMELY rare that a cop gets called on harassment and exceptionally rare that his partner would testify against him. In fact it's almost unbelievable.

Why do you think he was really hassling you and why doesn't this incident make you fearful of cops? You got -lucky- my friend.

In this story I think the cop, while being somewhat harassing did nothing to deserve disciplinary action. He didn't assault you or mace or taze you.

I wonder what his partner could have said that caused it to go beyond a warning?

Are you sure this is a true story because I just don't see the facts as presented rising to the level of any action against the cop. Did he have a record of harassment? Sure you're not leaving anything out?

Thanks for the comments and I have to say I have empathy for the cop who did nothing wrong here.

Wow..

What a heart-warming story. Not only do we need more posts like this, but I think we need more Dads like you in the world too....

God Bless you for being a real cool DAD.

Hey Lom. Always love the stories. Little Rush wants to be FBI.

But this reminds me of our last "run-in" with the law, this one involving my neice. hehe

My sister and I took the kids to visit a friend of the family that still lives in our old neighborhood. We had a great visit and my 11 yr old neice went down to the basement to 'explore' and discovered a rotary phone, still in working order. She called our cell phones, we had fun but then was shocked to see two sheriff's cars pull in front of the house. We all go out and apparently she had indeed called 911.

Well, the cops could have been really impatient and cross with her, I'm sure this happens way too much (kids calling 911). But, they weren't. They were really nice and not 'scary' to her at all.

Rush