MORRISVILLE - When Morrisville police officer Chris Gill handed him a ticket, Kent Kauffman coughed. Next thing Kauffman knew, Gill was charging him with assault on a government official.
I suppose having lived in South Korea for the last two years I have become accustomed to a much kinder and gentler sort of police force. Just the other weekend I witnessed a site that humored and saddened me. A man stood in front of a police station yelling and screaming at three police officers - he threw papers that the police had given him, kicked a tree, pointed his finger in one of the officer's face.
What was the reaction of the police? Did they have their hands on their weapons? Did they circle around the man, call for their "friends" and pull out their mace and tasers? Did they throw the man to the ground and rough him up a bit? No, none of these.
I was humored by the minor spectacle and saddened to realize how differently the scene would have played out in the States.
You see in Korea there are no road side killings of civilians by police during traffic stops. There are no traffic stops. The police in general are very "hands-off", I have never once looked at one of them and thought to myself "that guy thinks he is Dirty Harry, he could be trouble". I cannot say the same for police in the states. I am a law abiding citizen, serving in the military and yet I have at times in the states wondered about my own safety in the hands of the police. Don't take me wrong, I have never had any sort of difficulty thus far but I can certainly envision how one of these events you often read about could go badly with me. I for one would not be pulled out of my car for merely coughing if I truly did not mean to cough on the guy. I have never sought trouble but I will not be laid a hand upon if I am in the right.
Perhaps the Koreans could teach some of our goose-stepping Nazis a few lessons - I have been spoiled in this environment.
I would like to agree with you about the S.C. police Department. I had lived in Greenville for three years and work for the Dept. of Corrections there. I moved to Idaho to get away from all the bigitry down there. Some folks dont know the the American Civil War has been over for some years now. I was born a Southerner, but
ReplyDeleteI dont know if I would make any more claim to it.
I moved back there to be with my brothers and sisters.
As I was driving along I was stopped by a police officer. after checking my Idaho drivers lic. He told me I had lived in S.C. before.
I said yes about Five years prior. Then he arrested me for not paying a reinstatement fee, after losing my SC drivers lic. I had paid the ticket, but not knowing about the reinstatement fee. I didnt pay it.
To make a long story short, I had to go to court. The judge had noticed that I didnt have a Southern accent and said " You aint from around here boy are you?"
He told me that because I didn't pay the reinstatement fee that I lost my right to drive in his State.
Will I visit South Carolina again? Yes. but I wont be driving