Incident Objectives: Fill & Download for Free

Spoilers for the Singapore GP are ahead.......So, ok. What Vettel pulled in Singapore wasn't the finest racing move ever. From what I've seen it seems like you can safely say that his move was the catalyst for the opening lap DNFs, and I'm sure he's not partying with Kimi right now. But in 95 out of 100 other starts, that move would have pushed Verstappen into empty space rather than a charging Raikkonen, who appeared to have been fired out of a cannon.There wasn't any excuse for Vettel’s punting Hamilton in Baku. But as much as I was rooting for Raikkonen and flipped out when I saw the incident, objectively I don't think Singapore is anything more than a bit too much aggression and some bad luck.

When I lived in New York, New Jersey, and California, I got called for jury duty just about every time it was possible. I think I got into some database, because I always loved it and was happy to serve. I loved being part of the system and seeing how it actually worked rather than how it was shown on TV. I loved the jury room discussions and arguments. Those long recesses? Back in the day, I was a smoker who was always reading, and there was a room I could put my feet up, light up a cigarette, and read a book until I was called back.I saw many great stories. But tackiest? One case stands out.The case was a simple buy and bust that should never have gone to trial. The undercover officer was a young Hispanic woman. On the witness stand, she was rather plain, in glasses, hair done up in a bun, dressed conservatively. The prosecutor made his perfunctory examination about how she had bought heroin and then signaled for the arresting team to move in, and now she was in the hands of the defense attorney. The defense attorney was trying to make a case for entrapment, but really, really should have checked the files. (And so should have the prosecutor, for that matter.)The defense attorney asks her, “That’s not how you looked when you made the purchase, was it?” Objection, allowed. “No.” “Your clothes were a lot more revealing, weren’t they?” Objection, allowed. “Yes.” “Can you describe your shoes?” Objection, allowed. “I wore high heel shoes with leather straps.” “And can you describe your shorts?” (Apparently he and his client had had a very detailed conversation about parts of the incident.) Objection, allowed. “They were provided by the department. They were very tight and cropped very short. I would say they were revealing.” The prosecutor about had an aneurysm. “And can you,” waving at her upper body, “show us how you looked on that day?”OBJECTION OBJECTION OBJECTION!She turned to the judge and says, innocently, “I don’t mind.” He considers his options, and says, “I’ll allow it.”She unbuttons her shirt almost to her navel. She takes her hair out of the bun, licks her lips, takes off her glasses, and says, “ On the day of the arrest, I looked something like this.”She does a classic hair shake into a sexy chest thrust and pout, looking at the defense attorney, at the judge, at the jury. Even at a distance, in the jury box, the effect on all us men was pretty major. The defense attorney is ecstatic. The prosecutor looks like he’s about to poop cubes. The officer calmly begins getting re-dressed.“Is it unreasonable,” the defense attorney manages to squeak out, turning to the jury, “to believe that an innocent man, when faced with a woman like that, would move heaven and earth to get her what she asks for?” He turned back to the officer. “That he was entrapped by your womanly wiles?” (I clearly remember him actually saying “womanly wiles.”) “That he never would have been involved with drugs if you hadn’t asked him for them, dressed like that?”The officer turns to the judge and says, quietly, “may I have a moment?” He agrees, and she finishes getting re-dressed. Soon, the plain-looking woman is back.“During the first buy, I was dressed exactly like this.”Checkmate. Just checkmate. Game over.Tacky describes the defense attorney. The judge. The prosecutor. Us men of the jury.The officer shone like gold.

I’ve been retired for 6 years, but I was on the street during the Rodney King incident and the aftermath.I tried to look at the incident objectively, with what information I had (which was the same that everybody else got from the media). I formed my own opinion of the actions of the officers.I felt more “under the microscope” than ever before. It may have been just my imagination, but it seemed to me people were angry at me. I noticed stares from people walking down the street as I drove by. On more than one occasion a motorist told me I should be out beating up some innocent black guy rather than writing them a ticket.I kept it in perspective, as I do now. I realized there were people in uniform who were unprepared to handle high stress situations. They may have been nice guys, but when the ship hit the sand they didn’t have the psychological tools to slow things down and to react in the moment. There were some who were easily drawn into a pack mentality.And there were some, like a partner I had, who ran and hid when I fought a man for control of a gun he pulled on me.I think of the officers I worked with for 37 years. I think of the ones who I know who were in shooting situations, and the ones who fired, and the ones who didn’t. I try to imagine what I would do in those circumstances.Of my 37 years 28 (I think) were spent on the street as a beat cop or as a street sergeant. My city was not New York or LA or Detroit or Chicago, but neither was it Mayberry.When I think about how I might have reacted, I realize I do not know. Not with any certainty, at least. None of us do until we are there, in it. We can say, “I would do such and such …”, but it is meaningless, especially in a high stress situation.As I’ve said before, I am pro-police. I am pro-good-police. Pro-honest-police. Pro-professional-police. When I see and hear things that run contrary to that, I am just the same as you. I get angry.I was also angry when I was falsely accused of brutality when force was necessary. I was angry when I was sued (unsuccessfully) in federal court for excessive force by a handcuffed prisoner in the back of my squad car who beat his own head against the side window, broke the glass, then jumped out through the broken window onto the glass covered cement floor. Fortunately, it was all captured on video. There wasn’t a single police officer within 20 feet of the squad car when he did that.All I ask for is accuracy in telling the story. To some, accuracy is not relevant.Sorry for taking a roundabout way, Alecia.