What's in his pants?

In one of the jurisdictions where I worked, we often had officers on foot patrol in our downtown area, especially at night.  Night was when the downtown restaurant and bar foot traffic was heaviest. There were also several prostitutes included in the foot traffic and our presence tended to decrease their business. (I plan on talking about prostitution issues in future blogs).

During the past few weeks many of the bar owners in the downtown area were having beer glasses stolen. That was a cost to the bar owners which they were not happy about. Additionally, it was a safety issue. Glasses outside were at times used as weapons; broken glass can cause painful and dangerous lacerations. Broken glass on the streets could cause flat tires or eventual blowouts that are annoying to the drivers and possibly very hazardous.

Back to the story. My sergeant and I were on patrol one night downtown and we observed several people walking on the sidewalks in the area carrying beer glasses in their hands or sticking out of their jacket pockets.  We approached them, checked their identification, and checked them for wants or warrant locally, statewide, and nationally. If we found no reason to arrest them on any wants or warrants we walked them back to where they took the glass. The glasses often were etched or painted with the bar name and or logo. If the glass was not marked the people did tell where they took it. (Yes, there were times when we did arrest people we stopped on foot patrol that were wanted in other states.)

At some time that evening, I observed a young male walk by us and I observed a bulge in his groin area that didn’t look like any erection I had ever seen before. It was larger and the shape was not right.  It didn’t look right to me and to my gut instinct it wasn’t right.  I turned around and briskly walked toward the man who was walking away and spoke in a loud voice toward him  “ stop, police”. I asked him to slowly remove whatever was in his pants. “ My sergeant had the most horrified look on his face.  I’m not sure what he thought the guy was going to pull out. I can only guess. The young man pulled out a beer glass from one of the area bars. The glass was returned and we went back to our foot patrol.  I got razed about the confrontation for a few weeks.

You probably ask, why am I so knowledgeable about what a man’s groin area should look like? That area sometimes is used as a place to carry a small handgun. Women sometimes use their cleavage area for the same.

These areas that people shy from looking at can be dangerous for officers. I always wanted to go home after my shifts so when I felt the need to be safe, I looked.

Many cities, as did ours, eventually started requiring the use of plastic disposable beer glasses in their bars in certain locales. Is that fair, for government to dictate what type of glass a business should use? The disposable glasses cost more than the purchase and reuse of glass glasses. The business owner and the customers bear the increased cost. Is that right?

Until tomorrow,

Sally S