You have the right to remain stupid

There is no such thing as a BAD episode of “Cops”.

It can be watched in the rerun version or as the new season unfolds on Fox. It doesn’t matter which, either version clearly gives you insight to the potential of how stupid the human condition can crater. To me, it is a ‘mini-guide’ of places I don’t really want to live-in and at a minimum, drive through after the sun goes down.

Pierce County, in Washington State, decided to no longer allow the Show to drive about with their Officers fearing it would give the wrong impression of the ‘pristine area’ of Tacoma. Well, a tad too late I fear, I don’t see tourism flourishing in the near future because of this move. We are talking Tacoma after all.

One thing this show often points out to me is the matter of choices. You choose where to be and in most cases, this can result in the choice you make for your personal environment.

Stopping for a bottle of Vodka at a liquor store is not by itself a bad deal; stopping in for said purchase at 1:30 am in San Bernardino County might well be.

The one thing I have also observed in many ‘Cop Reality’ shows, as well as, seen on the 11 o’clock news in Southern California, is to avoid “am/pm” stations.

In my past life, I was always disheartened to see that these stations were the apparent favorite areas for dumb crimes.  It was almost a sure thing; arrest a hooker, “am/pm” store in the background and so on.  Maybe the cheap beer thing was more of an indicator than the cheap gas; but, hey, what do I know?

A few years back a court decision made it illegal for “Cops” to actually follow the police into people’s homes, since it was deemed an “invasion of privacy.”

Man, I miss those episodes… some drunk trying to fight 4 cops while all the while he or she is getting the hell shocked out of them with a taser.  Now, that was good TV.

The only thing I remotely enjoy more is the “chase”.  In LA, ‘Live’ coverage of a fleeing idiot on the streets and freeways of Southern California could and would stop folks in their tracks. All the channels would rush to get the ‘Live’ coverage on their station and once you started watching, you were hooked.

You jump from Channel to Channel in hopes of seeing a somewhat better angle of the “chase.”  Channel 9 (KCAL) seemed to always have the edge on the coverage.  

I miss that up here.  If there is a police chase, we are reduced to the footage provided by DOT (Department of Transportation) cameras…not nearly as entertaining.

I recall friends who had just moved to the LA area being amazed with how addictive watching these could be.  One friend was amazed that his wife actually stayed up till 2AM to watch the conclusion of a “chase”.  I was barely able to discuss the issue, since I was pretty tired from being up till 2AM.

The thing that amazed me was the different vehicles these pranksters would choose to runaway in. Our family fave was the guy in Orange County who made a run for it in a stolen, 7-UP delivery truck.  This was actually a smaller, tractor-trailer rig with the side doors opened to get access to the 7-UP.  He would careen around a corner and cans of pop would go flying out of the truck.

It was amazing and the worst part of the “chase” would always be when it was over… almost like the end of a good sporting event.

Anyways, in the end, it comes down to what a friend of mine (a retried cop of 25 years) said, “We call them criminals because you can’t actually write “Dumb-Shit” on a police report.