To Protect and Serve???

I had a most unfortunate run in with a Plano police officer yesterday. Not quite as unfortunate as having to stand by as Josh's info was taken for the accident report last week...but unfortunate none the less.

As the trains pull in the station there is a mad rush of people who get off the train and trudge across the parking lots, pedestrian cross walks, sidewalks and thorough fairs to get to their car. If I estimate 50 people per train car (which is an under estimate considering it's rush hour) and 6 cars per train then that is about 300 people trying to walk to their cars at the same time every five minutes as the trains arrive. I give you this background to stress that there are hundreds of people in this area. The Parker Road train station area is fairly self contained - I mean that anyone who is over there at that time of the day is probably not "just passing through", but knows that they need to slow down and that pedestrians have the right of way. It's like a school at 3:00 when the bell rings! Kids running around, crossing the street, and parents waiting in cars....

I am among a group of pedestrians, not too many at this point as people have taken on their own walking pace and others have turned off the sidewalk as they neared their cars. There was a car sitting at a parking lot driveway waiting to turn out and she waved us across in front of her and smiled. Before we could take a step a police car turns into the parking lot without paying the pedestrians any attention. Mind you, there are police cars driving around the area everyday keeping an eye on everything...protecting and serving the people of Plano, so this isn't alarming or anything. Then I hear a soft-ish screech and see another police car (SUV) that stopped suddenly because someone was crossing the street in front of him. He starts to go again but this time me and a man behind me are the victims! We have started to cross the driveway to the parking lot and he doesn't want to wait for us! He hits his breaks and throws up his hands and screams "COME ON!". To clarify the "come on" - this was not a "hurry hurry get across the road please" type of exclamation. This was a "what the hell, you crazy people!" kind of tone. Yeah, he yells at a 7 month pregnant lady who isn't even doing anything wrong to COME ON! His windows were all down and that's how I could hear him so perfectly. I wonder if he could hear my feelings being crushed in confusion and hurt. So maybe I am a little emotional right now but he still hurt my feelings.

Everyone stared at him like he was a crazy alien from another planet, probably all equally shocked that he was yelling at us like that....NO blue and red lights on, NO white or yellow lights on, NO siren on, NO light (or hard) horn tapping, NO warning or indication that he is en route anywhere important. Even without these standard police warning devices turned on in an area with hundreds of people crossing the streets, I will give that sorry guy the benefit of the doubt and assume he was going to save someone's life...with the windows down and the breeze in his hair. Judging by his "jovial" size and arm casually dangling out of the window I will not assume he was on his way to eat some donuts at 7-11 or perhaps the early bird BBQ special at Dickeys. No, I will hope that he was going to help a pregnant lady deliver her baby or save a man from jumping off a bridge.

I will not be mad at the men who took an oath to protect and serve. I will not be mad at the men who have only ever given me tickets or appeared b/c of a car wreck. I will not be mad at the men, police men whom I personally know, who drink and drive, have questionable morals and values, who mistreat their family pets, who walk around with chips the size of the empire state building on their shoulders.

So maybe in their line of duty and from the tragedies they see everyday they have taken on a cynical view of their job. Well, so have I, I guess...
I just hope he wasn't late for his date at Dickeys.