When God Created Peace Officers...
When the Lord was creating
peace officers, he was into his sixth day of overtime when an angel appeared
and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."
And the Lord said, "Have
you read the spec on this order?
A peace officer has to
be able to run five miles through alleys in the dark, scale walls, enter
homes the health inspector wouldn't touch, and not wrinkle his uniform.
"He has to be able
to sit in an undercover car all day on a stakeout, cover a homicide scene
that night, canvass the neighborhood for witnesses, and testify in court
the next day.
"He has to be in top
physical condition at all times, running on black coffee and half-eaten
meals. And he has to have six pairs of hands."
The angel shook her head
slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands... no way."
"It's not the hands
that are causing me problems," said the Lord, "it's the three
pairs of eyes an officer has to have."
"That's on the standard
model?" asked the angel.
The Lord nodded.
One pair that sees through a bulge in a pocket before he asks, "May
I see what's in there, sir?" (When he already knows and wishes he'd
taken that accounting job.) "Another pair here in the side of
his head for his partners' safety. And another pair of eyes here in
front that can look reassuringly at a bleeding victim and say, 'You'll be
all right ma'am, when he knows it isn't so."
"Lord," said
the angel, touching his sleeve, "rest and work on this tomorrow."
"I can't," said
the Lord, "I already have a model that can talk a 250 pound drunk into
a patrol car without incident and feed a family of five on a civil service
paycheck."
The angel circled the model
of the peace officer very slowly, "Can it think?" she asked.
"You bet," said
the Lord. "It can tell you the elements of a hundred crimes;
recite Miranda warnings in its sleep; detain, investigate, search, and arrest
a gang member on the street in less time than it takes five learned judges
to debate the legality of the stop... and still it keeps its sense of humor.
This officer also has phenomenal
personal control. He can deal with crime scenes painted in hell, coax
a confession from a child abuser, comfort a murder victim's family, and
then read in the daily paper how law enforcement isn't sensitive to the
rights of criminal suspects."
Finally, the angel bent
over and ran her finger across the cheek of the peace officer. "There's
a leak," she pronounced. "I told you that you were trying
to put too much into this model."
"That's not a leak,"
said the lord, "it's a tear."
"What's the tear for?"
asked the angel.
"It's for bottled-up
emotions, for fallen comrades, for commitment to that funny piece of cloth
called the American flag, for justice."
"You're a genius,"
said the angel.
The Lord looked somber.
"I didn't put it there," he said.
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