Playground or Road

While out conducting routine residence verifications, I came within 5 feet of destroying multiple lives.

As a part of my duties, I have to go out into the field and verify that the offenders on my caseload are living where they say that they are living. At one apartment complex where an offender reports to be living, I had become lost. Lost really is not the word...unable to locate with accuracy the building in which I was searching for.

I pulled into a parking lot that slowly looped around, back the way I come. In the center of this loop were a picnic area and a volleyball court. Across the road from the volleyball court was a fenced in playground. In my peripheral vision I noticed that a group of women were sitting at a picnic table next to the volleyball court.

As I continued around the loop searching for the particular apartment number in question, I heard a woman asking for someone to come to her. I discounted it as one of the workers in the playground calling a child. As I neared the playground on my way out of the parking lot the voice grows more urgent.

I looked out the left window, following the voice, and saw that it was one of the women at the picnic table. I noted that she was looking in the direction of the playground and turned in that direction. I thought she might be calling to her child in the playground. Not seeing any of the children near the fence, I again discounted her voice and went back to the task at hand, while she continued to call.

When I neared the entrance/exit intersection of the loop, I leaned forward in my seat to see around the left windshield post. To my horror I see two small children (no more than 2 years old) stepping off the curb and into my path. They were no more than ten feet from the front bumper when I saw them. I put all of my weight into the brake and managed to stop in time.

Here is where I steer away from the main point. Today, I was driving one of the newer fleet vehicles, in this case a 2008 Chevrolet Impala (unmarked, no marking showing that it is a Police vehicle). To be clear, I hate the Impala line. However, today the fact that I was driving it, instead of my preferred vehicle (Ford Crown Victoria) saved the lives of two infants. The Impala I was driving did not have a driver side spot light so evident on all police vehicles. Normally this annoys me to no end, but the fact that it was not there (this being the only vehicle in our fleet without it) gave me the extra sight line to see the children in time.

As the adrenaline high began to wear off, I saw the children continue to play as if nothing in the world was wrong. What continues to amaze me is the complete lack of screams of terror, not just from the mother of the children, but anyone in the playground. I yelled out the window in the direction of the women at the picnic table, "Ma'am! Get your kid's out of the road!" The women turned in my direction and only one called for the children. Do you kennit? She called after them. She did not get up from the picnic table and GET the children.

Now I was livid. Not only did she, and the others, not care about the children enough to watch them. But, she and they did not care enough to get up and get the children out of the road, mere feet from a running vehicle.

I stepped from the vehicle. Badge and gun plainly visible in the sun light. I walked to the front quarter panel of the car and leaned against it. I crossed my arms in an unconscious motion to bottle up the rage and motion for someone to come over. Two of the women respond. The one that was calling to the children and a new one. They approached timidly.

When they were ten feet from me I let loose, "Ma'am, what on God's green earth are your children doing playing in the middle of the street?!" The two women scoop up the children without ever taking their eyes of me. Neither of the women utter an answer. "Do you realize how close they came to dying?!" The caller reacted defensively, "Well you should..." I did not let her finish. "NO! You should have been watching your kids! If I hadn't been paying attention, if I had been going faster, or if my window hadn't been down, they would be DEAD!!" I am relatively certain that most of the people in the complex heard the last part.

"If you and your friends are to freakin' lazy to watch your kids then there is a fenced in playground for them to play in right there. With people willing to watch them." I somehow managed to keep my composure enough not to start cursing at them. I continued to explain that I could call DSS (the Department of Social Services, a State run Child and indigent Adult protection agency) to take the children away, etc. As I go on I noticed that I might as well have been talking to the fence or the volleyball net. I ended the tirade with a simple question, "What are you going to do from now on?" The caller huffs and says, "We'll be more careful next time, sir." I stepped forward to invade her personal space and tell her that there had better not be a next time.

I turned and got back in my car. Slamming the door. When I looked around, I noticed that there was a rather large gathering of people. Dangerous, considering my tirade had taken up all of my focus. However, the closest people were the workers in the playground the people at the picnic table. I drove off slowly to continue my search for the apartment I was originally looking for and I try to put the events aside. This is hard considering the people I was driving past who had come out to see what was going on.

No one was on the phone or had come to the defense of the two women. Apparently the on lookers managed to see more than the Caller, actually seeing the badge, gun and blue lights in the car.

I am not sure if I handled the situation correctly, considering I have never gone off on a tirade of such ferocity before. Nor have I lost such control that I became unaware of my surroundings. But I do know that if I had it to do all over again, I would not change a thing.

Semper Fi Deus
Goose