As a uniformed patrol officer,
As a uniformed patrol officer,
I was assigned and rode a very active and busy beat. It included the housing projects commonly referred to as “the bricks”. (The residents called it the “bricks” as well) Now, travel to my lifestyle at this time. Arrive for “roll call” at 11:45 p.m. and get off at 7:45 a.m. the following morning providing everything was in order. What kind of people are you dealing with during these hours? Most “tax payers” were horizontal (sleeping) during these hours. Yes, on occasion, you could find taxpayers working these late hours. My point is I usually dealt with folks who weren’t very responsible. The Jerry Springer types and I was the problem solver. This resulted in many trips to the jail, along with many court appearances. If you locked somebody up, you ended up with a subpoena to go to court.
Well, this is where part of my real estate troubles began. Keep in mind, I was going to court almost every morning at am. Our courthouse is the busiest building in our entire state, as far as traffic count of people. A typical morning in court may involve me having to appear for 3 to 6 different cases, all scheduled for 9 a.m. For example, imagine being scheduled to appear in 3 different court rooms at the same time… 9 a.m. You develop relationships with attorneys on both sides of the fence. There are attorneys representing “the commonwealth” (good guys) and there are other attorneys representing the bad guys. Many of these cases were discussed and remedied with simple solutions in what was called the “conference room” adjacent to the courtroom. If you’d developed a reputation as a good police officer with common sense, you were labeled good to the system among the attorneys.