Anyway, he's late to work. I've agreed to drop him off. Problem is, cable guy is on the way to fix the internet service at the crib. You know how they give you a 12 to 3 window. I decide to risk it and run little man to his gig.
Of course as soon as we are half way there, phone rings. It's Snack: "Daddy! Where are you? The Cable guy is here."
'OK booboo. Show him where the modem is. Tell him I will be back in 5 minutes.'
"But Daddy, he says he can't come in unless there is someone 18 here too."
"What. Ahh man. OK. Ask him to wait. Tell him I will be there in 5 minutes!"
To DV Jr. "Hey son, I'm going to bust a UTurn here. You walk up to the corner and go to work. It will save me 5 minutes of messing with that traffic at the intersection. Cool?"
"Sure Dad".
As soon as the car passes in the opposite direction, I bust a U ... right in front of a cop car.
Ohhhhhhh Shhhhhhhiiiiiit.
Before the cop can flick on his light. Before he can motion me over. I stop the car right up next to him. Window to Window. I roll down. He rolls down. I look at him. He looks at me. I smile. Cop smiles.
Cop says: "You know I got you don't you?"
I say: "Yup".
A white cat in a metallic blue Toyota Camry does the same thing.
Cop says: "Whoa! Another one. Hold on".
As the cop motions the other car over, I turn to DV Jr. "Hey man. Go on to work. No need for you to be late."
Little man opens the passenger door and starts walking.
Cop says (with a smile) "Where you going?"
DV Jr. (with a smile) "To work". Little man steps off up the street.
Cop walks around to my window.
Before he can get started. I tell him Y"eah officer. My son was a little late to work and my daughter is home alone. Cable guy just rang the bell. I was trying to save some time to get back. My bad."
Cop says: "Let me see your license .... How old is she?"
"She's 10."
Cop says "Hold 1." He walks up to the white cat in the Camry.
A few minutes go by. I hear the white boy yelling. Cop writes him a series of tickets and walks back to my car.
Cop says "OK. I could give you 5 tickets. That's a double yellow line you know? I just gave that guy 3 tickets. But any man dropping his son at work and rushing to get his daughter can't be too bad."
He kneels down and says to me ... "pretend like you are signing this paper ..." and hands me a pen.
I take the pen and write an invisible signature in the air above the paper.
"Be careful, we're always sitting here." He taps me on the shoulder, smiles and steps off.
Hustle Hard.
Constructive Feedback said...
You are alright with me DV
The other FOOL failed to see what you saw - A MAN I INSIDE OF THAT UNIFORM.
The other FOOL - regardless of his race - pissed off the man in the uniform. You piss me off - I am going to work within my range of power to SCREW YOU.
This is just the way it is.
YOU on the other hand sufficiently detailed to him the emergency situation that you faced - with your young daughter - you followed it up with supporting behavior and due respect - he WORKED WITH YOU.
This is one for republishing.
Good job bro.
17 comments:
WHAT A BLESSING. AND YOUR SON DEF WALKED AWAY LIKE A #BOSS
Yeap. Keep it civil and at least you have a chance of making it out without a ticket. I've been lucky a couple of times, but nothing as dramatic as yours.
I'm loving that!
You are creating your reality DV.
Every time I see a posting of your son raised, its all sun rays.
DeeVee takes me back to Ed O.Gee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQMVsQW_kjM&ob=av2e
Great story. Had an incident with the cops a week ago. Not as dramatic as yours, but the cops recognized who I was (as a human, not celeb) and chilled.
Makes one dare to hope for tomorrow.
this post inspired me to dig in the crates and share my own experience: http://www.tha144000.com/2012/05/how-not-to-get-ticket-or-get-arrested.html
You were lucky. Unlike these folks.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/law-enforcement-corruption--abuse-1/my-brothers-keeperthe-rise-in-police-violence.html
DeeVee - serious questions.
How significant is your investment in schooling your sons on how to present and conduct themselves interpersonally at all times?
Has the thought ever crossed their minds to sag their pants or otherwise imitate exemplars of oppositional culture?
Hey Fellas! Thank you for feeling me on this one.
Dealing with the police with your son in the passenger seat is some very SERIOUS shit.
Little dudes watch everything.
Kids have very sensitive BULLSHIT meters.
Daddy can't be "The Blackest Man On The Internet" and shook of cops at the same time.
The last thing I want to do is transmit any kind of subservient fearful attitude towards the boys in blue.
Many brothers make the mistake of trying to come off on some "FUCK DA POWLEASE! DEY JUS WACISTS ASSHOLES FUGGIN WITH A BLACK MAN CUZ HE IN A BENNNNZZZZ" shit.
The fact of the matter is ... Daddy made an illegal U Turn.
He knew it was illegal.
Took a chance.
Got caught.
The color of my skin or the type of car I was in had nothing to do with it.
Daddy didn't want a $375 ticket.
Daddy didn't want Geico to up his premiums.
Daddy didn't have anyone to blame but himself.
So the primary lesson on my mind between the time I bust the U Turn and the moment I realized a cop saw me was ... "Teach your son how not to be a bitch."
...
...
Accept responsibility.
Do not demonize the cop.
That would be giving the cop too much power.
So I went the other way.
I disarmed the cop.
I pulled right up to him.
Looked him dead in the eye.
I essentially pulled myself over.
The cop was discombobulated.
But he felt me.
"Punishing" me with a ticket became unnecessary.
Gratuitous.
Within minutes ... the cop and I became co-conspiritors.
Hell, the "race" thing fell apart instantly.
He fucked the white boy.
Big time.
3 tickets? That can mess your life up.
My brother Sharif Ali hit the nail on the head: "I'm loving that!
You are creating your reality DV."
Big Ups for peeping that.
Geeeeeee Chhhhheeeeeee V!
My man.
LOL. "Father To Your Son"
You took me back with that one.
I watched that video 3 or 4 times.
With mixed feelings.
I mean.
Encouraging men to live up to "their responsibilities" is all good.
But.
Unless cats are straight jumping out of the bushes and raping women ski-mask style ... it takes 2 people to make a baby.
I've always felt that placing the emphasis of responsible parenting on men was something of a head fake.
Since women become pregnant ... not men ... and since men can never be 100% sure about paternity ... it makes more sense to me to make songs telling women not to have sex with men not committed to them.
That's what I plan to teach my daughter.
"Baby ... if you get pregnant by some "boy"friend ... and he doesn't commit to you and the child ... what did you expect? That's what "boy"friends do."
"Baby ... that's why God invented marriage".
...
...
I think women are the gatekeepers of the womb.
Shaking our collective heads at 19 year old men who have sex with a woman ... but did not necessarily bargain to spend the rest of his life with her and half of his little earnings before he is ready ... is not going to change anything.
Imagine a song called "Save your pussy for you husband"
...
...
Crude?
Yes.
Effective?
I think so.
DV is a good citizen.
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
You are alright with me DV
The other FOOL failed to see what you saw - A MAN I INSIDE OF THAT UNIFORM.
The other FOOL - regardless of his race - pissed off the man in the uniform. You piss me off - I am going to work within my range of power to SCREW YOU.
This is just the way it is.
YOU on the other hand sufficiently detailed to him the emergency situation that you faced - with your young daughter - you followed it up with supporting behavior and due respect - he WORKED WITH YOU.
This is one for republishing.
Good job bro.
Wait a minute bro.
I went from being depicted as a tight suit wearing 70's throw back with a hard shell briefcase and a fro over to a due who looks like the scene my brother created years ago when he lifted a can of my father's paint over his head and it spilled out all over him???
:-)
Ha!
I feel ya Feed.
But bruh.
Anything is better than that bald head ass androidian-negro mannequin you using now.
lol
Feel free to send in a shot.
Don't mind me.
I demand the full responsibility for my life and my death in a predatorial universe.
A person who accepts the full responsibility cannot be offended, have hurt feelings, be shocked or scandalized, or insist their rights are violated.
They demand nothing from this life, and have more to give than any persons could possibly take from them.
"Jump'n out of bushes w/ ski masks..." lol. yeah, I agree.
During that decade most artists still ran off the residue of James Browns and Marvin Gayes...feeling a measure of responsibility to drop at least one track with social commentary.
This is probably the 1st time in 15 plus years I've revisited that song. Probably because Ed OG never reached Rakim or Cube status. At the time I didn't think how strong his position was but never the less my marriage to rhythm, kept that mantra locked in my head.
With no mind for social workers & preachers, the concept of the sacred family coming off a "12-inch piece of black polyvinyl chloride" to a teen was gospel. And salt & oil are fitting materials for such a message being that they are traditional sacraments.
Dayum DeeVee... THAT'S how you handle it.
Right after that guy tried to jack me in the McDonald's drive-thru - the cops pulled up with guns drawn. Everyone else waited in their cars but I had to get to work. "Nigga', that ain't my shit - I gotta' go to work." I said to the cops as they waived me through to the other cops.
I've always had good ralationships with cops. Once, coming out of an El Polo Loco, I noticed cops holding a young brotha' on the ground with guns drawn. "Ducky. What did you do do this time?" I yelled to the perp. A cop looked up to tell me something but noticed that I used to school him in water polo back in the day and said, "What's up John? What you been up to?". I made small talk for a while and the cops let the kid go (shoplifting).
I think your right about this being a class issue. Not just being a member of a 'higher' class but more about handling oneself with class.
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