Muleskinner

Issue date: 9/28/06 Section: Opinion

I was so embarrassed. My usually reliable car had broken down right in the middle of a Kansas City intersection.

I wanted so badly to get away. People kept looking at me and rolling their eyes, not one of them willing to get out and help me move the car onto the shoulder.

To add insult to injury, I soon saw the flashing red and blue lights of a police officer.

As humiliated as I was, I felt a little relief. Finally, here was somebody to help me push the car to the side. Heck, I will push; I just needed somebody to steer.

As the officer approached my vehicle, he seemed to be upset at me. He asked for my identification and took it back to his car.
He came back and had written me a $90 ticket for blocking an intersection with a stalled car.

"What? This can't be," I said. "Can't you just steer the car, and I will get it off the road?"

Before the officer made up his mind on whether to help me, my father got there and we pushed it through the intersection.
The entire experience made me wish I was a child again. That's when police officers were good guys.

That's when I believed their job was to protect and help you.
They had that cool "McGruff" dog puppet that told you not to do drugs and thought that being a police officer was probably the noblest profession on the planet.

I am not exactly sure what happened between then and now, but needless to say, my opinion has changed.
The point of this column is not to rag on every police officer.
I am sure there are many officers who are willing help a guy push his car to the side.

I understand police officers have very important and sometimes difficult jobs. But, I don't understand why they do some things they do.

Any student who has driven through the fine town of Greenwood, Mo., knows what I mean.

The police like to harass drivers younger than themselves.
I have been pulled over in Greenwood so many times I lost count.

Anything from doing 37 mph in a 35 speed zone to the officer "thinking" I might have had a crack in my windshield.

There is also the Lone Jack police, who sometimes like to pull people over and tack on 5-10 mph on a speeding ticket.

Whatever the reason for these actions, it has got to stop. Isn't the motto of these protection agencies to "serve and protect?"

The "service" part of that motto has been lost to many officers, and I am calling them out.

It is time to put respect and nobility back into your profession.
Quit pulling people over because their license plate light is out and start catching the people who are out their breaking into to people's cars and homes.

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