New Years Eve is always a wild night for a cop. In years gone by Darrell, Dan and I would sit on top of 52nd and Orange watching tracer rounds light up the mid-night sky. We would guess the type of guns being fired. O, that was the bark of an AK 47, boom of a 12 gauge, the concussion of a 45 cal and that wimpy one, well that’s a 22 short. You knew the next shift would have to take reports of stray rounds that hit houses in the area.
On a recent New Years Eve a colleague of mine and his team were assigned the Gaslamp district as part of their undercover duties. After walking around the crowded area for hours having beer spilled on them, being accosted by drunks and spat on by well meaning, and at other times normal people, they decided they had enough. They retreated to a safe corner where the crowed what thin because of the poor lighting. They guys (and lady) decided they would ring in the new year smoking a fine cigar and watching drunks engage in what drunks normally do, lunacy.
As they stood smoking cigars, the fragrance wafting to the heavens above, laughing at the revelry as only cops can, the sidewalks filled with an angry crowd. One drunk man decided he would take on ten others all twice his size. The reasons really don’t matter as a massive fight broke out, bodies flying into the crowded street. One person bounced off a storefront window, another got knocked to the grown and trampled. Shirts were ripped and noses broken. This was the first 10 seconds of the fight. Most people can’t last much longer. The detectives in unison waded into the fighting crowd that look more like a mosh pit at a punk rock concert than a public street.
One of the detectives not wanting to give up his splurge of a $15 cigar grabbed the trouble maker from behind and by raw strength, surprise and violence of action, bent him over the hood of a non suspecting car. The team formed a circle around the detective showing shields and hollering, “Police.” One drunk got dropped for his lack of good judgment and the rest of the crowd decided to comply fully, except for the one on the hood of a car.
As the detective pinned the fighting drunk to the car he whispered into his ear to calm down. The cigar, burning at 560 degrees, was neatly tucked into the side of his mouth like George Burns or Milton Berle in the 60’s reality shows. POOF. A fire started. The cigar inadvertently touched the product in the drunk’s hair setting it ablaze. Not realizing his hair was a flame, not from his natural color but from the flames shooting skyward, he calmed until detectives began patting his head to extinguish the flames. This caused a struggle until the sent of burnt hair reach the senses of the man on fire. With a little advice and the heat of the cigar the guy decided to go along with the program. What if there was one friend of his who had the sense to advise his friend?
Tell him hey idiot you are getting out of control. The Apostle Paul told his followers, “The things you have seen in me, do!” In other words pick up his behaviors. In Isaiah 30 the Jewish people are told about how gracious God is when we cry for help. They were told there will be teachers and “when you turn to the right or to the left your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying “This is the way; walk in it.” I believe that voice is the Holy Spirit that was promised us upon salvation. I don’t have a new year’s resolution but to listen. Listen to that quite voice telling me, “This is the way (Andy); walk in it.” It might keep my hair from catching on fire.
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