My Brush with the Law

I somewhat pride myself in the fact that I've never been in any major trouble. I've never been in jail, never been an addict of any sort, and can say that I've never been arrested (been picked up, but not arrested). This is why on August 15^th 2007 I got the shock of my life.

I had just left our bank's drive thru and was sitting at a stop sign. I made my way from the stop sign to a stop light and turned left onto a major road in our area. I then continue down this road and make a right at yet another light and start toward Wal-Mart. I had noticed that there was a Suburban behind me at the stop sign and at the two stop lights. Little did I know that this particular Suburban was following me for a reason, and little did I know that this Suburban was a police officer.

I looked back to check on my almost 3 year old son and saw something flash out of the corner of my eye, naturally I then glanced in my rear view mirror and saw blue lights blazing. I pull off into the Wal-Mart parking lot and soon realized that this was no ordinary traffic stop.

The officer stepped out of the Suburban and another officer pulls up in another unmarked car. What gave it away to me that this was not another regular traffic stop was the fact that both officers where in business suits, and the Suburban driving officer was doing the little side step walk looking at me in the side mirror every step of the way, with his hand on his gun and ready to draw. He stepped up to my car and started looking at my son in the back seat in his safety seat. This is when he proceeded to ask me to place my hands on the steering wheel so he could see them. Of course my first response was "Yes, sir.", he then stepped closer to me and my car and asked if I had my drivers licenses and I of course told him once again "Yes, sir." He tells me that my car as well as me matched the description of a woman that had just abducted a child from a local pediatricians office. He then takes my ID and steps behind my car, gets his radio, talks with the other officer and then calls in my licenses number and tag numbers. By this time I am terrified!

Finally the second officer that had pulled up walks up to my car and tells me that he is sorry if they scared me and that they just wanted to check my car since the initial officer had seen a blonde little boy, a car that matched the description, and a woman that fit their descriptions. I had said it several times to the other officer and but repeated the statement of "This is my son.", the officer then asks if I have any family photos with me, or a picture of the child in the back seat. All I had in my wallet was a kindergarten ID card from 2 years ago of my now almost 8 year old. The officer saw that and asked to see it, of course I obliged. The nicer second officer tells me he can see the resemblance between my son in the car and the picture of my oldest. He then apologized to me again and told me that I was free to go.

I told the nicer officer that I hoped they found the little boy soon, and that all was well. The second officer then tells me that they believed that it was a family abduction and that they were hoping for the best. I agreed with him and made my way onto my original destination across from the Wal-Mart.

This whole situation got me thinking about the article published the other day that I had written titled Unfit Parents: How Can Society Allow Them To Continue To Parent, and the things I had pointed out in that article rushed back to me after I had settled down some from the situation. What the heck are people thinking? What is wrong in this world that people can walk into a doctors office and just take a child? The fact the pediatricians office was also the office I take my two sons to freaked me out more! My thoughts quickly turned back to wondering what is going on with people.

More then ever we are hearing of children being abducted, murdered, abused, and otherwise treated wrongly. I realize the officers I had dealt with were only doing their jobs, and I appreciate what they do day in and day out. But, there has to be a better way to approach people. I was scared out of my mind seeing this officer walking toward me with his hand on his gun. Yes, I realize that they did not know the situation they were walking into, and yes I realize they have to protect themselves.

We as a society need to become more caring, and watchful of each other. We need to work together more to combat the awful in the world. Maybe I am too optimistic of this, maybe I am hoping for something that will never happen. You are probably saying to yourself that I am absolutely nuts to think that our society will ever be in position that neighbors actually look out for one another like they use to, or that we as a society will ever get back to wanting to help our fellow human beings, or that we can all come together to fight the stupidity and hurt in the world around us. I am here to say I do not think that it is far fetched that our society can come together to do just that. All it takes is a little compassion, and understanding. If we step up to learn about people, to understand that some people do still care, and that some people are willing to go that extra mile to help another person then our world will be a better place for all of us. Yes, I do realize some people do not want help, can not be helped, or refuse to participate in a "normal" society so to speak. Those are the people that need to be identified and need measures taken against them to get them out of our society so that our children, other people's children and our world as a whole will be safer and happier.