Come Monday...My Trash

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of (or commentary about) websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

Arlynda started calling shows that she likes to have on when she feels like just vegging-out in front of the television her trash.  They are usually reruns of her favorite shows, and she is perfectly willing to admit that they are merely providing background noise—not true entertainment.  Hence, the reason why she calls them her trash.

Well, I must admit that I have my own trash.  For the past few months, it has consisted of reruns of [COPS] and [JAIL] on [Spike].

There is a difference between my trash and her trash, however, which has to do with the differences in ourselves.  For my trash has to have at least some entertainment value left since I am never in need of just some background noise.

Yeah, it is something to hang one’s head in shame over.  For I would not be in need of any televised trash if I had the energy to do something constructive, and I am perfectly willing to accept that my current pathetic existence is mostly my fault.

Nonetheless, my trash still holds some value.  For their episodes often put on full display how some police tactics actually encourage law-breaking.

Let us take that segment with the traffic stop in North Las Vegas, Nevada for an example.  For the driver of the car was displaying all sorts of indications that there was something funky afoot, but the cop went ahead an attempted to place him under arrest without any back-up, which made it easy for the driver to pull away, which started a chase, which could have resulted in the deaths of innocent citizens.

Yeah, it is easy to second-guess from afar, but is it really so hard to see where the cop messed up?  For as soon as the driver started acting overly nervous, the cop should have politely asked him to stay in his car while he went back to his police cruiser to check on something, which would have really been for the purpose of calling for some back-up.  Yeah, the driver of the car might have just sped off, but at least the cop would have been in a better position to give chase.  Oh, and shooting out the driver’s side front and rear tires as soon as the driver went to take off would have stopped the subsequent high speed chase before it started.

After watching several episodes of COPS, one might wonder why many cops are issued firearms in the first place.  For I was taught to never pull a gun on someone unless I was willing to use it because of the danger of them taking my gun away and using it on me.  Yet, far too many cops use their firearms just as a threat, and away they go on a foot pursuit that disturbs the peace of entire neighborhoods.

Okay, marksmanship has to be taken into account, and if most cops are like some [NYC cops] a couple of years ago, I would rather them not have anything to shoot with.  For the NYC cops wound up injuring 16 innocent bystanders while in the process of killing a dangerous suspect.

Maybe I have watched too many television shows and movies over the years?  For shooting a runner in the hip seems like a perfectly acceptable means of taking someone into custody without placing anyone in too much danger.

In all fairness, some police departments will not allow their officers to fire on a suspect unless they find themselves in a fight for their life and the suspect has already drawn a considerable amount of their blood.  Methinks that would be something good to know if one was criminally-inclined—don’t you?

Alas, it all comes down to a judgment call in the heat of a moment, and one of the worst judgment calls that made it onto the show was when one of our very own Springfield, Missouri cops went to take the driver of a wrecked car into custody.  The incident started out as a high speed chase not all that far from where Arlynda and I now live (and even closer to the last place we used to live on the west side of town).  The chase ended with the car leaving the road and catching fire.  When the cops (and the COPS camera crew) made it on scene, they found that the two occupants of the car had been thrown out.  The passenger from the car was content to just lay there in the dirt and moan after coming to, but the driver just wanted to be left alone.  When the cops insisted upon checking him for weapons and illegal items, the driver stumbled to his feet and tried to get clear, which the cops took as him trying to escape custody, which resulted in the driver being tazed without any consideration being given to how badly he may have been injured in the car crash.

Hey, I can certainly relate to how the driver of the wrecked car felt while coming to.  For I once fainted while standing up to sing a song in church when I was 11-12, and I came to swinging when I felt my dad trying to loosen my belt to help with my circulation.  I also remember it taking what seemed like several minutes at the time to realize that I had been in a very serious automobile accident (where I should died) several years later, and I am quite sure I would have resisted efforts to help me while I was still severely dazed.

Being completely unscripted make COPS a true reality show, and I am sure that many high officials would like to crawl under their beds and stay hid for a few weeks after a segment with their particular police department is aired.  For there is (or at least was) one city policemen in California who has (or at least had) trouble distinguishing between vehicle types.  For he kept referring to a car-hauler (big truck) as a car, and he kept warning people around that gas was spilling onto the roadway when it was actually diesel.

No, I am not just being nitpicky.  For communicating accurate information should be of the utmost importance to a police department in the hope of avoiding confusion and possibly disaster later on down the line.

There are also some cops who love making [felony traffic stops] way too much.  For they will order the suspect to get out of their vehicle with their hands on top of their head, take two side-steps to the left, two back-steps, two side-steps to the right, go to their knees, lay flat on the ground, cross their ankles, and then they will pounce on the suspect for no other apparent reason than to just jerk the suspect around.  For if the cops really did consider him to be a great threat, they would have been standing behind the doors of their vehicles as they had him do that little dance to see if he might have any hidden weapons.

Oh, and watching my trash on Spike adds all the more to my viewing pleasure.  For Spike generally considers scheduled air-times as merely being suggestions, but on rare occasions, a show will actually start and end when it was scheduled to.

Of course, there is no telling what episode it will actually be.  Coast to Coast (2008)  A car chase, a gun battle with a man on PCP, a suicide threat is the description of one episode that has aired at least 30 times in the last 100 episodes, which would be bad enough, but I have yet to actually see that particular episode.

Yeah, it is said that a little mystery adds a lot of spice to a life.  So, I must have started really living now.  I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

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