Many years ago in a conversation I had with an ex-cop from
Boise, Idaho, he disclosed the following. He, and as far as he
knew, every other policeman on road patrol carried a throwdown.
That was decades ago in Dumbfuck, Idaho and when I say
dumbfuck I am not disparaging, I like to think I live in
Dumbfuck, Florida. If you saw the film “L.A. Confidential”
you’ll recall the scene in which the custom was depicted.
Until recently that had been the only in-depth conversation
I’d ever had with a policeman.
Within the past year or so though I have become acquainted
with a young police woman. She road patrols in a large Florida
town, at night, alone, in a primarily black neighborhood.
She is not black…. , thought I’d let that sink in.
This young woman described to me an armed confrontation
she had with a fellow one night. Her gun was out and trained
on him, his gun was out and pointing down. She withheld fire.
I asked her why and she said “he wasn’t pointing it at me”.
If he had she would have opened fire, talk about nerves of steel.
Her backup arrived and the fellow dropped his gun. Turns out
she knew him and he knew her, that helped perhaps.
I asked, “if you had to shoot, would you shoot to kill?”.
She said,”yes”. I asked, “is that protocol?”.
She said, “yes”. I said, “and of course you don’t want
some son of a bitch to come back and haunt you”,
she replied “You got that right”. Quite a gal.
Islander