The Johnny Law Chronicles

My HUD House was recently mentioned on another blog called The Johnny Law Chronicles. I discovered that blog several months ago through a link on Bobby G’s blog. Johnny Law is a pseudonym used by a current police officer in an undisclosed location.

I enjoy hearing JL's perspective as he writes about the frustration that comes from the often conflicting demands placed upon him by the public. I also like that he doesn’t seem to deal in ultimatums. A lot of police officers appear to be saying that the public should just shut up and quit complaining about the police. Many of them seem to think that people outside of their profession have no business at all in telling them what to do, even though they are the paid agents of those very people.

But what JL seems to be saying is that the public should either quit complaining about the fact that he uses physical force to subdue the crazy man, or the public must accept that the crazy man is going to hurt someone. In other words, he’s saying “Either change the requirements of my job, or shut the f**k up and let me do the job you’ve told me to do.” I think that’s a fair reaction to the damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation that many cops feel they are in.

JL doesn’t hedge about his thoughts on the drunk who pisses in an alley, then calls him a pig before he even has a chance to just tell the guy to move along rather than arrest him. And let’s face it, some people’s degree of idiocy is just too great to even warrant debating the issue. I think it was very fitting that he told that particular guy he was going to jail for being an asshole, rather than for public indecency.

I like his post about the girly-man for several reasons. On the one hand, he opines that citizens should be more willing to handle some issues themselves, rather than always calling the cops. I agree with this sentiment to some degree, but his commenters brought up a few very good points. First of all the official police spokespeople frequently suggest calling the police rather than handling an issue yourself. Also, there is too little context here to adequately appraise the situation. I know that I once walked out to ask a couple of drug dealers to get off my property. One of them responded rather vociferously and threatened to “take my house down”. There was also that night that I followed one of them out of my back yard only to run into about ten of his buddies standing in my front yard.

This post points out the irony of the man not wanting the girl to be arrested. So, he wants the police to enforce the law, but only to a limited degree? Yes, Johnny Law, some of us do get it. There is a house in my neighborhood which has a reported disturbance about once or twice a month. No one ever seems to get arrested from it though. I am guessing here, but I expect this is one of those cases where the man beats his wife/girlfriend until she calls the cops for help. Then as soon as they get there she proclaims that everything is fine. I think the person making the call to the police in cases like this should get one or perhaps two recants at best. After that, I think that if they are not willing to press charges then they should be charged with false reporting. I shouldn’t have to pay my police to baby sit!

This particular post also exemplifies something else I like about Johnny. Most of the comments here were not in direct agreement with his stated view, but he allowed them through anyway. True, JL does hold his comments until he has had a chance to review them, but from the comments of mine and others which he has allowed through I’d say he is a pretty fair blogger. Although he is definitely of strong opinion on most matters, he seems to grasp the concept that there actually might be some degree of legitimacy to points of view which are different than his own.

Overall, I’d say Johnny Law’s treatment of me and my blog was pretty fair based only upon what he has read here. I certainly don’t agree with all of his opinions about me, but I can see how he could get them from reading my blog. My story is far too complex to believe that I could have told it completely and accurately, and JL also does not have the benefit of being from this area and understanding the greater context in which my story takes place. But Johnny seems to be an introspective and inquisitive person who invites discussion and is willing to listen. And I’m not sure what else could be asked of a person.

JL has a sense of humor, which he displays in The Great Escape Attempt. Even a die hard cop-hater would have to laugh at that drunken fool. He also shows he can laugh at himself, which I take to be a sign of a functional personality.

Finally, he displays the one thing that might be most useful for someone who is not a cop to understand someone who is. The fact that the media and the public seem to be far more concerned about an arrest which may or may not have been appropriate, but which definitely resulted in little to no lasting damage, than they are with the deaths of people who fight to protect them is truly worth considering.