Journals

Like when they had the rookie read me my Miranda rights, only he had lost the little card they keep in their wallets for it, so everyone teased him then someone finally loaned him theirs.   And when he was done reading them to me he said:     "Do you understand these rights as I have explained them?"   "Yes, officer"   "OK...um, do you have anything you would like to add to that?"   "...To my rights?"   "...I guess?"   "Um, no officer, I'm not sure what I would say."   "Right, OK, alright."   And when I was being fingerprinted the officer booking me and I marveled at the digital fingerprint thing-a-ma-bobber that he was using. It was actually really cool and would show you on a screen as your prints came up and highlight unique ridges and score the quality of the impression. My officer was good, he had to do about 30 scans (seriously, they do paired fingers, thumbs, individual fingers, rolled fingers, palm, side of palm, EVERYTHING) and only had to re-scan one of them.   Then there was my boss, who I tried to call to tell him I wouldn't be in. First, he got a message that said "Luke, I won't be in today, I appreciate your leniency, I will explain everything later." Very casual and sly until the officer handling the dialing said "All set?" and I said "Yes, thank you officer" and THEN he hung up. My boss also didn't think to check his voicemail for most of the day and sent me frantic message after frantic message. The cops got sick of my phone blowing up, told me as much, and turned it off.   And finally the bailiff in the courtroom when I got my continuance. He had a simple routine, he asks your name, tells you to sit on the right and to watch your step, as there is a little step up to the seats. Well, he accidentally told me to "Watch my name" then we both chuckled and he repeated it "It's important" he said and smiled. I didn't think much of it, other than that it was nice to have such a pleasant situation while in handcuffs, until the judge repeatedly mispronounced my name.   The fact that I spent most of my time being cuffed, in cuffs, in the paddy wagons and jail cells thinking about the exact mechanisms of restraint I was being put in. I can say definitively that 2 of the 5 times I was cuffed it would have been trivial to remove them. There are even spans of 30ish seconds in the paddy wagon where you go completely unobserved by any officer or camera, which would have been plenty of time in the circumstances. Now - would I do that? Never. It's just a nice distraction to realize that I could have.   Off to the doctor!   ° Schuyler