After you spend a lifetime in the cop business surprises are few. They do come, though. Here're two that rattled my cage. You may find them hard to believe. Had I not read the actual court papers, I wouldn't have believed them, either.
The first happened over by Lake Okeechobee. I'd gone there to pick up a prisoner and got to telling war stories with one of the Deputies. He topped my best one all to hell with this.
A black man had been out on the town one evening and had consumed too much liquid stupid. Too drunk to make his way home, he hailed a taxi and rode it to his downtrodden rental project room. Arriving, he found he was short of money and decided to run for it and not pay. He didn't get far before the taxi driver pulled his trusty hog-leg and blew up his insolvent fare. Stone dead. The cops, of course, charged the taxi driver with Second Degree Murder.
A grand jury was convened to decide the matter. The actual decision read like this. No true bill. (No charges) A nigger shouldn't take a taxi ride he can't pay for.
The second happened in Eastern Tennessee, near Etowah, where I worked a short time. I guess every law enforcement agency in the area had a copy of the coroner's verdict in this particular case, and every new cop got to read it. To sort of show them the lay of the land, I guess.
It seems a car with three black tourists ventured into a mountain village where blacks were not allowed. And yes, that was still possible in Tennessee in the 1960's. They entered the little town but never came out. Their Cadillac, with New York plates, was found abandoned. Now, driving a Caddy with New York plates would put you in disfavor in many places in the South, but one occupied by blacks was tantamount to loading up with vials of nitro-glycerian and doing a bungee jump.
The three missing folks were found hanging by their necks in a tree. This was the actual coroner's verdict: Worst case of mass suicide I've ever seen.
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