Cigars, Donuts and Coffee

The blogs you find listed in my blog roll are those that I read daily. I've discovered some new ones, like Guitar Girl RN, about a guitar and bass playing nurse, and it's really cool, but it's so mostly about being a ER nurse that it's a bit too medical for me, what with all the shop talk and medical terms over there. Still, she's saving lives, and that's cool as hell!

But another new to me blog I am reading daily is Cigars Donuts and Coffee . Jason, the blogger there, is in the non-profit business, meaning he's a cop, and I enjoy his blogging.

When I was a cop in Houston in my youth and attending parties and the like, when asked what I did for a living I would tell them I was a garbage collector. I found that the hip young people I attended college with had far more esteem for the garbage collector than for a police officer. Once they got to know me and found out what I did for a living, they generally stayed my friends, but there is always a few that being a cop scares off.

Once, when taking college classes at St. Thomas University, the first month or so of the semester I was taking comp time from work. I had earned so much comp time working overtime that the powers that be said I had to take a hunk off because I had reached my limit of comp time I could carry.

So the first month of the semester saw me attending classes in jeans and a t-shirt and sprouting a beard. But then came that time I had to go back to work. I worked the 2p to 10p shift then, so when I hit my late morning classes, I was in uniform.

Jaws dropped. Folks that had gregariously interacted with me and invited me to their parties and happy hours looked at me like I was a werewolf. It taught me a lesson.

At that same time of my life, I was friend's with the Chief's secretary, Nadine. I had known her for years, and she was always a good friend to me, looking out for me like a second mom. One day, as we were having coffee, she told me that she thought all criminal defense attorneys should have to be a cop for two years before they got their license to practice. Like the Israeli's and other nations have mandatory military service.

Nadine said alot of the young defense attorneys she had dealt with in various jobs around the courthouse needed to understand what the real world was like. What it was like dealing with a suspect at 3 in the morning with no one around to help you if trouble came knocking. Seeing what kind of pain gets visited upon the less-fortunate and young and the disabled of the world. Most of all, she said, they'd learn that the stories their clients often tell them in court are just that, stories and not the truth.

I'm no philosopher like some of the defense attorneys blogs I read. But what I do know is how manly and righteous being a police officer is. So is Jason, the cop and blogger over at Cigars Donuts and Coffee.

Many years ago, the Houston Police Department had a PR campaign with bumper stickers and TV ads that said "The Badge Means You Care.". I thought that was great and I'm one of those folks who think cops are great too. Thanks for protecting us and our families, even those who don't appear to like you very much.

So, I'll close with this quote from one of my TV hero's, Hill Street Blues Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, who always closed his roll calls with:

Hey, and be careful out there!