EMT 08/19/17

A bit of a good story to partially stem all the bad in this world.

Thursday night, I'm driving down from Louisville to home in Tn. Late, but instead of stay the night, I want to beat the race traffic.

It's been raining, and it's foggy, and I'm driving a set of secondary highways through the Cumberland Gap in what I am sure is some amazing scenery on a clear day.

Come off one mtn a little past the Kentucky border into Virginia, and my right headlight goes.

10 minutes later, a Jonesville deputy has the rollers on behind me.

It's 3 a.m. The world is crazy. Your mind can't help but think of all the ways a simple stop can go wrong.

I pull into the first well-lit parking lot I find in their sleepy little town, put on the dome light, and hold the wheel at 10 and 2 until he taps on my window.

"You've got a headlight out"

"I know - it literally went out 10 minutes ago coming off that last mountain".

"License and registration" he asks.

I hand him my license and my CCW, telling him I am carrying, and it is in the door pocket, and that my registration is the glove box, and it's a mess in there, so it may take some looking.

He thanks me for letting me know re. the pistol, and tells me to take my time finding the registration.

I hand it to him, and he asks if he can take the gun from the car and put it on my roof while he calls everything in.

I know it's not a requirement, but I don't want a hassle. So I tell him sure and "Would you like to get it yourself? It's in the door-pocket, a round in the chamber, and the safety is on."

He agrees, I open the door for him, and he takes the piece and puts it on my car roof while he returns to his car.

A few minutes later, he comes back, says everything checks out, puts my pistol back in the door, and says to be sure I get the headlight fixed.

Then he says something really nice and unnecessary:

"It was a pleasure meeting you."

I presume it was because I was calm, courteous and let him know everything I was doing so there were no surprises.

But I appreciate that he repaid my respect.

Chris Rock will not steer you wrong when it comes to dealing with the police, it doesn't matter what your skin tone is.

posted by krakatoa at 06:00 AM

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