More Cop stories from Kevin previous life as a police officer…circa 1975

More Cop stories from Kevin previous life as a police officer

Small new Jersey town, circa 1975

The hero, me 19 years old.

My background

my father was Stephen Sampson,

now if you Are from New Jersey

particularly union county.

You would know this man,

from Elizabeth.

I came from a home that had to be one of the early originators

Of afro=centrism

My father actually possessed

and worked on the first African American Flag

Fortunately

we didn’t do kwanza

which I always thought was a silly holiday

anyway

but my father had his dashikis and African hats

he wore them daily in the 1960’s and 70’s

my father too this day looks like bill Russell or Morgan Freeman

to me, and he had that kind of presence

In fact although my father appeared to be calm

He was known as having a temper

A dangerous temper

But fortunately unlike his son

He could control it…..

Anyway 1975

Here I am a cop,

my father made me become on

before this one of my specialties was repeatedly drawing illustrations

from the black panther magazine,

you know the drawing of police as pigs

I mean that

Anyway

My father made me become a cop

I think he figured it would give me discipline

And it did

It just took until I retired to figure out

How much that job did for me

Besides saving my wild ass from myself

Remember in the 1970’s cops

Were Gods

You could do no wrong

And cops didn’t get arrested unless

They really did some thing wrong

Like shoot the mayor or some thing

Where was I

I was to be quite frank wild

My father was recruiting African Americans for the police force

Throughout new jersey

And he said it wouldn’t look right unless one of his sons

Took the test

I did

I was in between colleges, at the time, lol

Anyway I scored so high a 94

on the test and was in such great shape

plus I was Stephens son so I was a made guy

Eddie Gray a Elizabeth cop,

a icon a legend became my mentor

Eddie gray who along with his son was the best shot in the universe

Was a dear friend of my father

And beloved in the black community

Because of his fairness

Good man

A Saint, I still tear up thinking about Eddie Gray

What a nice man what a good cop

Anyway

His son Pat

who took the test with me

went on Westfield PD and became a life long friend

I was so connected because of my father

That I got on rather quickly

I wanted the city of Elizabeth

where I would have been a legend and protected

Instead

I wound up in a small town

not far away because of the hiring freezes

remember it got bad in the 1970’s too

Ok Ok

so here I was black cop

Black man

Stephens son

1975

19 years old

I will never forget that about the third

day I was on the job

We backed up another police department on a car stop

Small towns work together

Some times we would only have four cars on the road

For a town that was one of the biggest in size in Union County

Ok

ill give you a general location

Of the other town’s around mine

Have you even been to the area

Towns like cranford, Westfield, Plainfield

And the dreaded

you couldn’t even drive through The town at the time

if you were black

Clark

When I drove through Clark, NJ

As a cop

I used to put my gun on my seat

Kept it real handy

Never trusted that a black

could get out of Clark with out A problem

and I was Stephen son

My Father carried a gun to the day he died

Legally of course

Anyway

Was I

Anyway while backing up

one of the cops

From one of these town’s

I watched them

Snatch these two young kids from a car

One was black and one was white

Young guys, good kids

They locked them up for nonsense

Because as the white cop who was in charge said

When ever you see a black and white kid together

There is some thing up

They are up to no good

I got so mad

And any of you that know me

Know what a temper I used to have

I have mellowed with age

really I promise

anyway

I went right after that cop

Didn’t say any thing

Just started walking toward him

I was not that articulate back them

And tended to want to punch quicker

Than to talk

Anyway my partner took one look

In my eyes and grabbed me in a vice grip

This was one of the strongest brightest

Kindest men I have even known

And one of the few men that I knew I really didn’t want to fight

Because it would have been to the death

I was strong as a bull

But I was a young bull

Ernie was the prototype

Anyway

Yes there are tons of good cops

And Ernie was one of the best

Where was I

Let me describe Ernie

He was my Hero he took me under his wing

He was at least 15 years older than me

But looked like he was about 25

He was built like no one I have seen since

Like Bruce lee, or Jim Kelly

slim and lithe, strong and in shape

Ernie was the best roller skater I have ever seen

Remember the 1970’s

When you would go out skating to the music

Played on that pipe organ

Anyway Ernie, calm, smart and he was

The best dressed cop around

He was known for having a crisp sharp uniform

A poster boy

Unlike me who was known for always having

A bit of egg or ketchup on my tie

See it was the rebellious artist in me

Forming even then

Yea right

In fact

After the cop stop

Ernie

Anyway he lead me away

And told me that if I got upset every time

A white guy said any thing about black folks

I was in the wrong job

This was just after the Plainfield riots

I knew cops that carried Sawed off shotguns in their brief cases

Scared that the riots went over yet

Because they had seen

A cop Gleason

Stomped to death in Plainfield during the riots

Anyway Ernie

Would make a cop stop

He was so polite

as to be almost funny to me

I watched in amazement

On tons of occasions

When people would call him names

While he was writing them a ticket

He never lost his polite if some what amused smile

This would piss them off even further

It took me years to figure out how Ernie

Fought back , in this white world of cops

And robber……

Smile to it hurt

Anyway

They would call him every thing under the sun

And he would continue to smile and write and be polite

Ernie was a professional

He had a standard

I never could achieve,

I guess because of my temperament

Anyway by the time Ernie was done writing the ticket

People would be tired from mumbling and calling him name’s

Ernie would say have a nice day get into the car

And we would be off

Ernie was fine unless you touched him

Or called him a Nigga

Even then Ernie had a patience

he could wait

Anyway when ever that happened he would spend

Most of his time, stopping me from losing my job

Remember Stephen son

But if you touched Ernie

He would just as calmly

Arrest you effectively

Without brutally

I have never seen this man hurt

Anyone unless they deserved it

Even then the Christian in him

Would make him later inquire after the person

A saint

He could twist people into pretzels

And as he was I sitting on your back

As you woke up

He would talk to you

Are you ok sir

See that didn’t have to happen

Wow what a cop

I am writing this to illustrate

Professionalism

Even your hero

In time learned that their were things you did

In public sight and things you didn’t

Like locking up a famous person

Or someone prominent

In front of witnesses

Write the ticket

That’s what court is for

Or wait until its late at night

And they are alone

And read them the riot act

Without witnesses

anyway

And my specialty because when you called me

A name like nigga and I have gotten called

The n word much more than most

I had time in most cases and I never forget anything

See the temper is showing

Anyway

I became a master of

taking care of stuff later

But that’s another story

Ernie

And I became life long friends,

he was so handsome and nice

that wife adored him, fawned over him

and feed him more than a few times a week at my house

he was divorced and couldn’t cook a hotdog

anyway

Cooked for him and generally my kids still call him uncle Ernie

I havened seen this guy in like 5 years

He was one of my role models

My cop and life teacher

He moved to Florida and we lost touch

Anyway hats off to good cops

Who make the right decisions

Who have the right temperaments

My temper hasn’t really gotten much better

Age just makes my stomach hurt

when I get annoyed

so I try not too

but I learned for Ernie

when I public view be polite and

courteous

And don’t sleep on black cops either

They do more than you know

to stop a lot of the mess

That happens

And there are tons of good cops both black and white and other

Some of the brightest, toughest and fairest people

I have even know have been cops

Salute the good cops

But remember the bad ones

And get rid of them

Anyway more to come