Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?

Normally, I'm "Pro-cop". I know that's not a popular stance to take to the "punks" out there, but really, it's a shit job, they don't get paid a lot to do it, and like any other group out there, a couple assholes give them all a bad name. I truly believe that the vast majority are good, hard-working people trying to do their best.

That said, a couple of them pissed me off yesterday.

There has been a drunken bum woman who has been hanging out around my work lately. Maybe the "bum" moniker isn't exactly PC, but I believe there is a big difference between "homeless" people who are truly down on their luck and need our help, and "bums" who choose to live like that, asking for change so they can get shitfaced drunk and cause more problems. But that's another blog.... :)

Anyway, I'm fairly certain this woman is harmless. But she is CONSTANTLY drunk. She sits on the front patio at my work bumming change off of our customers as they come in. When I go out to POLITELY shoo her away, I get "I'm gonna fuck you up, boy. Fuck you." blah blah blah. So, I've gotten less and less polite in my shoo-ing. I'm now at the point I don't even bother. I just call the cops. They have told me that I shouldn't even have contact with her. Just to call them right away. Well, yesterday, she and another bum we have trouble with were in the parking lot here, sitting against the wall sharing a bottle of hooch. They were there for quite a while, getting progressively louder. So, I called the cops.

They actually showed up fairly quickly. Five or ten minutes. I thought, "Oh, good. This will be the end of it." I watched as they asked for their id's. (without ever getting out of the car, mind you.) I couldn't hear what was going on, but after chatting for a minute or two, the cops drove off, and the bums went back to what they were doing. WTF???

About 15 minutes later, the man was gone, and the woman was passed out drunk in the parking lot. Now, the parking lot is basically my front yard. I'm pretty sure those cops would have been pissed if they got home from work and found a couple bums getting hammered in THEIR front yard! I went out and yelled "HEY!!" at the woman. Nothing. After yelling a couple more times right in her face, I came back in and called the cops again. I got the same dispatcher I got the first time. I told her the cops showed up, did NOTHING, and now she was passed out in the parking lot. She apologized and sent another cop out. By the time he showed up, she was gone. Probably to bother shoppers at Safeway for change.

They always say, "Don't take the law into your own hands." Well, when they don't do their fuckin' job, what choice do we have? If the situation arises again, (I mean WHEN it arises again), why would I call them? I know she's going to get abusive, and if she's drunk enough, she might even come at me. But if I can't count on the cops to do their job, I have to do it.

There was another time that 3 drunk guys were hanging out in front of my work on the patio at closing time. I went out and started stacking chairs. I said, "Closing up, guys, I need your chairs." They said "fuck you. We're not leaving." So I called the cops. The drunks broke bottles, kicked chairs around, yelled, threw stuff, etc. I told the dispatcher all of this. This was about 6pm. Fucking 11:30 that night, the cops showed up! Five and a half fucking hours??? Are you kidding me???

Ah, to hell with it. I'm gonna go have some watermelon.