Sam Gets Busted, Meets His 1st Crooked Cop...

A Prequel...

Published on March 25, 2004 By Sean Conners aka SConn1 In History

It was a chilly Sunday night in early March, 1985. Sam is setting up to play another "All-Ages" gig with his local hardcore band. They do their soundcheck, what has become a running joke to do a "pop" song in a punk way. Tonight's choice was a hardcorish rendition of Devo's "Whip It." The soundman does his final checks and makes a few notes before having the band tuck their gear behind the stage to make tonight smooth.

Sam's band is the #2 on a 3 Band bill. That means they will go on 2nd, around 9 or 9:30 and have the stage till about 10:30. Since it was only about 7, he and his friends decided to do some of the things they most enjoyed doing. 1st, they headed over to the local beer store and using Lisa's fake ID that she had made in Art class. Lisa was a talented artist, and often that came in handy for the rest of the crew, which consisted of Sam and two of his friends, Lenny and Carl.

Of the group, Sam was the youngest. But all were still underage by state law standards, ranging between Sam's youthful 17 and Carl being the elder at 20.

They took the beer and headed around town, plenty of time to spare and headed to the local headshop. Lenny just got paid and wanted to get some new supplies to go along with his new stash, which they had been smoking on all day. They went to their favorite local merchant, "Heads Together" located just a few blocks away from the venue they were playing. Lenny picked up a new pipe, some screns and some cleaning supplies for when this pipe got too resin filled.

Carl seized the opportunity by picking up a new water pipe in his favorite color of red. Returning to the car, they decided it would probably be best to wait until they got home to try out the new bong. Instead, they packed up a bowl and enjoyed it returning to the venue.

It was now 8pm and Sam headed in to check out the opening band. That night the crowd was a little thin and Sam felt he should go in and support the opening act. His friends followed Sam into the venue and they all went in , ordered a soda to combat the cotton mouth they were all experiencing, and tried their best to "support" the lousy band they witnessed.

After about 10 minutes of the "music," that was lousy by punk standards, Sam's friends decided that their time might be better served enjoying a bowl and beer in the car outside. Actually, Sam thought he heard Carl say "we're getting the fuck out of here and gonna go get high." but it was hard to tell amongst the noise.

Sam soon followed and the 4 sat in Lenny's 1970 something Nova and passed the bowl while each enjoyed a cold brew. Sam sat in back with Lisa and watched his own breath as he waited for her to pass him the pipe. As she hit the pipe, Sam thought he heard "walkie talkies" but he couldn't tell with all the fog on the windows. Sam rubbed out a circle on his rear window and came eyeball to eyeball with,,,an eyeball.

Quickly, that eyeball was replaced by a rapping nichtstick which made Sam jump back. Sam looked over at Lisa
and she was just looking sideways, with the bowl still at her lips, with a look on her face as if to say "uh-oh."

Lenny vocalized that look as he realized another officer had come up on his side and was directing the foursome out of the car. This was a bust.

Sam exited the car as instructed and the 2 young black officers looked over the punkish foursome. All had black leather "biker style" jackets on. Lenny sported a mowhawk where Carl had a standard issue army buzzcut. Lisa looked glamorous, but punk in the colorful garb that was under her leather. Sam stood out in the cold city night wondering if he was going to actually play the set he had been hired for or was he going to be calling mom and dad for bail money in the morning.

The officers began asking questions as Lenny and Carl tried to straighten up their act, the LSD they ingested earlier beginning to kick in. If Lenny and Carl weren't experienced trippers, they probably would have fell apart right there. But these 2 had the ability to "hold it together" as they all did, even when extremely intoxicated.

One officer removed the remaining beers from the front seat. Lenny and Carl might have been inclined to start yelling "illegal search and seizure" as they removed the beer, and then the bong and other supplies from the car. But their state of altered conciousness, combined withtheir knowledge that this was indeed a "plain sight" call that couldn't be argued, kept them silent.

The officers then turned to Carl and asked him "where's the dope?"

Sam thought that they were doing a play on the popular "where's the beef" comercial, but it was obvious that any attempt at humor was lost on Carl as he just answered "I dunno, I don't have any."

"Really?" the officer bebuffed, "let's just see about that."

And with that he began to search Carl. He then told him to empty his pockets, which were many, and Carl pulled out an empty cellophane bag. The cop quickly snatched the bag and looked at Carl.

"I guess they smoked all of your's first" said the cop, chuckling as Carl just looked on with a sad look.

They then moved on to Lenny, and a routine search on him turned up another baggie. Only this time, it was not empty. This bag contained some fine bud Lenny had just picked up that afternoon. The officers gathered the beer, the paraphanalia and the bag of reefer and placed it all inside the bag holding the 6 pack.

They then turned to the four youths. Sam was sure that this was it and another car should be rolling up soon to haul them all off. The other officer went to Sam and oredered him to empty his pockets. One thing the officer didn't realize was that Sam's band was on some sort of 'anti'littering" kick, so his pockets were filled with wrappers, paper, rolled out cigarette butts and other junk. I think Sam estimated that he hadn't emptied the pockets in that jacket in a few days, and stuff had gathered up.

After putting up with Sam's tedious emptying of the contraband, none of it more illegal than a gum wrapper, the officer's grew impatient. But not in a way that most would think. They didn't get rough with Sam or try to hurry him anymore than they were. All of a sudden, as his patience wore out, the cop said "that's enough" and the 2 cops started walking towards their car. This was indeed surreal. The cops had them dead to rights...and Sam was a minor...and he even said so, when asked.

The cops reached the patrol car, and one officer turned to them and just said..."you can go now." the other cop placing the bag into the car. And with that, they drove off...assumingly to have their own party.

Sam walked back into the venue and walked up towards the stage, which was now vacant of the opening band's caterwalling. He plugged in his guitar and played the set. Sam was shaken, but it really didn't hit him for a couple of days in a more sober moment. And right then all his 17 year old mind knew was that "the show must go on." At least that was something similar to what the rest of his band said to him as they were waiting for his tardy ass to get to the stage.

Later that night, after the gig, Sam walked out to Carl's car. There he found the other 3 waiting on him. Carl, was picking some lint out of the buds he had dropped in his pocket while removing the supposedly empty baggie earlier. Sam got in and took a hit from the bowl Lisa was puffing on. They found some humor in the situation, discussing how the cops must have been having one hell of a party on their weed. Well, 1/2 of it anyway.

That was Sam's 1st experience with a "crooked cop." Before that, he always believed that all policemen were good and honest. He believed they were above corruption. Since that night, Sam never met a cop who wasn't dishonest in some way or another. Fortunately for Sam, it worked out in his favor more often than not.

by the way,, if you want to check out some of Sam's other adventures, including his smuggling and internet pot buying adventures,,,click here...

Link

Comments

Dan Kaschel

on Mar 25, 2004

lol fun story. I read your response to one of the recent blogs... too tired to remember which one... and decided to check it out. Good stuff- the writing, I mean, not the drugs

~Dan

Sean Conners aka SConn1

on Mar 25, 2004

thanks Dan,,,know anyone hiring writers? lol

sean:)

Dan Kaschel

on Mar 25, 2004

lol if I did, I would have taken the position long ago...

~Dan

Sean Conners aka SConn1

on Mar 26, 2004

lol dan

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