Sunday, April 26, 2009

How to Talk to People

There were a few times, like when I’m riding around in a patrol car, and because, again, they look at you and they go, “Oh, look, a woman police officer,” the first thing in their mind is that they can challenge them, you know? And we…I guess, you know, there was women police officers but it was not a lot. And…I guess people are so used to the fact that women should be behind a desk, at home, whatever, so they don’t look at us and take us seriously. Um…I remember one time we were driving down the block and we stopped at a…in our patrol car, and we stopped at a traffic light. We were in this area where it was all Projects. And we pulled up…we stopped at a stop light, and this guy who looked like some war veteran, with his army fatigue jacket, he’s walking, you know, he comes up to the window, and he goes, “I wonder what you would do if I decided to take your gun now.” Right?

So again, we’re back to that verbal command and, you know, how we look at this thing. So I…I looked him straight in the eye and I said, “You’re gonna have to try that and you’ll find out what’s gonna happen to you.” Then he…he looked at me, for like a couple of seconds, and he didn’t even look at my partner. My partner was like a…um…like a 5’8”, 5’9” guy, um…and he didn’t even like, address it to him. He just totally looked at me and said that. And when I responded, he didn’t expect that response. So he just goes, “Oh…have a nice day officer” and he walked away. You know? So I said, “Okay! One for me!” because, you know, it’s the way I responded, that kinda put him in shock.

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