Police Officer Attitudes

My man got a ticket for rolling thru a stop sign on his bicycle earlier this week. In and of itself, not a very remarkable occurrence. One thing I do know - even if no one is coming, if there is a police officer (po) in your line of sight, ALWAYS be a very good citizen. The way that the cop pulled him over is disturbing, though - he ran my man off the road - no lights, no siren, no other warning. The po was actually down and on the other side of the road when it happened. So the po whipped a u-turn and came speeding after my man, who didn't know he was the object of interest to the po, but assumed that the po was off in some distant pursuit. That is, until the po drove him off the road. This is disturbing behavior and not the first time that I've observed a cop acting like this.



No, of course not all po's act this way, but I've seen enough examples in my lifetime. Let me back up to my ex-husband - the one I married at 19 when my head was way up my ass. He fantasized about becoming a police officer - local, state, FBI, DEA. He liked to dominate and control using violence and fear, he was into martial arts big time, loved to pick fights, was very good at losing his temper and did some crazy driving when he was mad, trying to run people off the road sometimes. Ironically, he became a 'Christian' marriage and family counselor. Trust me, he was no *christian* we are now divorced and I'm an atheist, but I digress.



Awhile later I befriended a woman when I worked in corporate america. We started doing stuff after work and one day on a group date, I met her husband, who happened to be a police officer. This was the first time I'd met him. He came off as very aloof and intimidating. He was dressed like one of the characters in the movie 'The Matrix.' We went to see 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.' (or Hidden Tiger Crouching Dragon?) He was big into martial arts. After the movie we were hanging around outside the movie theater waiting for some of our group. He was off in the corner practicing his side kicks and front snap kicks. His form was impeccable, but his overall behavior was very disturbing. He was into weapons and martial arts. In his off hours he drove like a maniac - really fast and aggressively. Then there was the day that his wife and I came back to their house after shopping. She went into the bedroom to get something and he and I were alone in the living room. And he was looking at me in a way he should not have been looking at me.



I see a lot of dangerous cop driving in front of our house too. We live on a pretty busy street and it's not unusual to see cops really speeding down the road with no lights, no sirens, no warning that they're going too fast and no apparently good reason for it. It's really frustrating. That said, there have been times when I'm been very grateful for the fast response of law enforcement officers. Like the time one of our neighbors (dumbass) decided to shoot off a semi-automatic weapon in his backyard - a night when my man was out running errands and I was alone and freaking out.



There is a certain group of people that are drawn to careers in law enforcement for all the wrong reasons and as much as possible, they need to be called on their inappropriate behavior.

Introduction

Now that it seems to be kinda out of vogue, I've decided to start blogging. I want to share my thoughts with the world and to me, Facebook and Twitter are a little too limiting for some of my thoughts. I'm gonna run the gamut and talk about all kinds of things; commuting to work by bicycle, bicycles, cyclo-cross, playing the oboe (past hobby), dance, weight-lifting, gardening, divorce, primary school, college, graphic design, gymnastics, figure skating, baking, pie crusts, buttermilk cake, roller skating, diy house projects, grammar, spelling and punctuation and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Let me start by saying that I commute to work by bicycle in all kinds of weather. It started when I lived 8 blocks from my job and my boyfriend reintroduced me to bicycling. Then we worked on my fear of bicycling in an urban setting - an urban setting that isn't exactly pro-bicycle - Kansas City. Oh yes, where I work, you have to pay for parking. So this was a no-brainer. I felt free and young again when I was riding a bicycle and it was a way to save gas and get some exercise. I also started doing mid-day bicycle rides for fun and then we tried cyclo-cross and strangely enough, I liked it. Then we got a fixer-upper that was a little bit farther from work and that changed our cycling habits a little bit. We have mostly stopped racing and just focus on our commute. Racing got so expensive and time consuming and working on the house became our main focus. Our commute is a good workout - it has challenging hills, the occasional dog chase and some rude drivers. I do ~7.5 miles a day and it seems to be enough.

I'm learning not to take my health for granted. I work at a desk job and I know what it can do to the body and I've seen people who don't take care of themselves - it's a continuous wake-up call. I want to be physically active as long as I can. There are days when I don't want to ride my bicycle to work - when it's pouring down rain, or really cold, or there's ice or I'm just really tired that day. I do it anyway and know that I'm better for it. Sometimes people ask me; "isn't that dangerous?" Living is dangerous and not exercising is dangerous. I've been very lucky - I've never been hit by a car, or had a really bad crash. I try to be careful, signal my turns, wear a helmet and visible clothing and be aware. In spite of all that, I may still get killed riding my bicycle, but I'm not going to stop.