Aw gee! David Brooks says “not enough attention is being paid to the emotional and psychological challenges of being a cop.” Such fragile flowers they are. I recall that William Burroughs gave it some thought back in 1968 when Flower Power was in bloom: “The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn’t going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence. The only way I like to see cops given flowers is in a flower pot from a high window.”
Anyway, Cody Maher had a few streaming thoughts about cops the other day. He jotted them down in a heap and dumped them like so:
The good cop gets up in the morning. The good cop takes a shower in the morning if he has time and if the good cop does not have time the good cop throws hot water on his face or cold water and the good cop stares into the mirror and asks himself the question he or she has asked a million times and after that question has been asked and there has been no answer the good cop continues to stare into the mirror and maybe the good cop has seen the movie Taxi Driver when Travis stares into the mirror and says you know what you have to do or was that Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy yes that was John Voight in Midnight Cowboy says the good cop to himself what did Travis say in Taxi Driver
oh yeah he said you looking at me and he kept repeating it and was he pointing a weapon or did he draw a weapon and point it at the mirror the good cop will have to see the movie again the good cop hears the cars in the distance or he or she hears nothing in the distance he or she hears only the baby cry or the dog bark or the neighbor banging on the walls or gunfire in his head the good cop sometimes hears gun fire a gun going off last night or was it two nights ago the good cop pulled up to a park and saw another good cop standing in front of three kids they were black kids and the three black kids were laughing at the cop or the cop was laughing at the three black kids and the cop in the dream said I am not a good cop if I was a good cop I would not do what I am going to do and what he did was not what a good cop would do and then the three black boys were dead and then the good cop remembered he had two brothers but why did he see himself as one of the black kids or did he he could not remember but his wife had said if he had a wife or her husband had said if he had a wife that you are a good cop and good cops don’t kill for nothing good cops are there to protect the people the people need good cops because without good cops the people would not keep the law they would take the law into their own hands they are the same ones that will kill for the right to kill for the right to have a weapon for the right to defend their property against the good cop and the good
cop is there to protect them and all of the other citizens who live by the law but the good cop sat in police cars with the bad cop but the bad cop was rarely a bad cop sometimes it was a frightened cop or a sick cop who should never have been a cop should never have worn a badge should never have put on a uniform but the good cop became a cop because he had seen High Noon and as a kid he wanted to be the kid that ran to Gary Cooper and said he wanted to fight the bad guys that was why the good cop put on a uniform but as the years went by the good cop became a bad cop or a sick cop or he was a sick cop from the beginning and never a good cop so the good cop stood in front of the mirror and asked himself if he had any last words he always said that he didn’t know if any other cop ever said that but he always said do you have any last words and he always said back to himself I am going out there to uphold the law to protect the innocent and then he walked out the door after kissing his wife after kissing her husband after petting the dog the cat or bringing the children to school the good cop was still shivering in the dark bedroom when his wife came home when her husband came home she was kneeling in the bathroom with glass from the mirror scattered on the floor and she said to her husband and he said to her I can’t find the piece of my life and her hand was bleeding that he took in his hand that was bleeding and the good cop walked out the front door into the line of fire walked out the front door with the police car waiting with the sick cop and the sick cop and the good cop decided to go get some coffee and donuts and as they were going to get some coffee and donuts the good cop and the sick cop saw three black boys standing around a car and the good cop and the sick cop just to make sure these three boys were not attempting to steal a car pulled over and the sick cop got out of the car as the good cop slammed on the brakes and told them to put their hands up and the good cop woke up drenched in sweat or was it the sick cop the sick cop was drenched in sweat the good cop and the sick cop were confused in the head of the cop that was not good or sick but just doing his duty facing what no man should have to face in a moment a decision of life or death has to be made said the wife to the good cop and the husband to the good cop and now the good cop is standing over the dead boy or is it the sick cop that is pleading his innocence as he throws down his badge and we see Gary Cooper walking alone toward High Noon.
