Monday, May 31, 2004

   Cream Filling & Nougat: Third Helping (Chapter IX)
Nougat shouldered his way through the front doors of the precinct the next morning. As the doors swung shut the shouts and chants of the gathered crowd outside filled the small hall, causing everyone present to look towards the entrance.
"I am really getting tired of people waiting for me outside those doors . . ." Nougat muttered as he made his way towards the interior of the precinct. Most of the officers gave a form of consolation to him as he passed, though there was little that could be done to change his mood.

Nougat had just finished pouring himself a cup of coffee when an officer called him to the television in the upper corner of the large office area.
"Nougat," an officer said to him, "the news is talkin' about ya." Nougat grumbled lightly and made his way to the table of gathered men and women. Sure enough, the morning report had a quick note of the lawsuit and of the people involved.
"Oh geez, I don't wanna watch this . . ." Nougat said, turning away from the screen. Still, he remained in his place.

The report went on to show a clip of Nougat walking out of the precinct the previous night, looking not especially content with himself. As the reporter gave the facts he had, the segment went on to an interview with the as-referred victim.
"I haven't been able to work for the past two months, and my dental plan is really stretching what I already have," the man said into the microphone. "I feel that that officer was out of line and well beyond his authority, and I think that demanding compensation is more than acceptable in this situation . . ."
"This is such bunk!" a young officer exclaimed. "He was in that friggin' riot, walkin' in it and parading in it! He shouldn't be getting off like that!"
"No kidding, huh?" another officer said. "It's like people have forgotten that we're the good guys . . ."

As the news segment finished up, the gathered officers immediately went on with their own conversations.
"Ya know, I hate the media . . ." another sergeant said. ". . . they're even worse than the damn hippies that do all the stupid stuff because they tell other people that the hippies are right . . ." Another officer responded to the comment quickly.
"Hey, isn't calling people hippies sort of something you shouldn't be doing?" The sergeant responded,
"What the hell do I care? I'm never gonna be able to talk about them out there and it'd probably be unhealthy for me to keep these feelings bottled up, wouldn't you say?" Several of the officers laughed at the comment.

As the laughter died down, another younger officer spoke up.
"Did I ever tell you guys about this thing that happened at a train station some weeks back?" She began to get up to face the small group of officers as they replied in the negative. "Anyway, there's this windshield-caddy guy down in one of the train stations, causing some sort of a disturbance. All the local transit guys . . . you know, the ones that wear the blue coats . . . well, they're trying to calm this guy down. Of course, he doesn't calm down and proceeds to punch one of them in the stomach . . ."
"Ooh boy, here we go . . ." someone said as everyone sat attentively to the story. The officer continued.
"So, naturally, Nihil and I get called in to take care of it. When we get there, two other guys are already there . . . it was, uh, Veras and Aequi who were there . . . anyway, they had already pepper-sprayed him and were trying to hold him down. Meanwhile, he's still thrasing around, swearing, spitting, ya know . . ."

By this point a few other officers had stopped to listen in on a story many of them had already experienced in one form or another.
"So anyway, we get a hold of the guy's ID and Nihil gets sent to run his name. And well, he's still screaming and kicking all over the train platform, so I got in and grabbed his legs as best as I could while the others got his arms and tried to cuff him. He keeps fighting, I get kicked in my upper thigh, leaving a shoeprint about an inch away from my fly . . . SO glad I'm not a guy, by the way . . ." More officers laugh. ". . . but yeah, all the while, a big crowd of people have gathered around us as we tried to keep this guy from spitting into our eyes . . . I mean, who knows what kind of crap could've been in his spit, right?"

The gathered policemen nodded as she continued.
"Anyway, what was the point . . . . . oh yeah! The crowd!" The officer began gesturing with her hands to describe the mass of people that were there. "So yeah, there's the three of us swarmed on this dirty, violent dude, trying to restrain him. And what's the one thing we can't help but hear from the wonderful bystanders all this while?" Everyone nodded, knowing exactly was was coming next. "Hey, that's police brutality! You can't treat a human being like an animal! You can't do that! And so on and so forth until we all wanted to puke . . . . . of course, we didn't say anything, or puke . . . but yeah, I mean, what the suck is wrong with these people?!"

The office space was immediately filled with other officers expressing their various grievances with people and the media to each other. Nougat, meanwhile, quietly finished his coffee completely unnoticed by everyone in the room and got up. As he turned towards the direction of his office, he saw what looked like Cream heading towards the chief's direction. He didn't think much on it, though, and quickly looked away in fear of potential eye-contact that might have occurred. He discreetly made his way to his office and closed the door, shutting out the stories, the news, and all the protesters in his mind.


[Hehe . . . yeah, that ending didn't really go anywhere . . . . . ah well. So, I'm sure by now you've all noticed that some personal views of mine have bled into this story. What can I say, my bro's a cop and he sees a side of things that we mostly miss because that's not what people want to report. In fact, the story the one cop tells is one my brother once told me! In any case, it sure makes for some neat chatter though, ya figure?]
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