Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Yesterday I was at the local Amoco station gassing up my car. There was a Madison County Sheriff's Dept. car next to me being gassed up by the sheriff of Madison County. I could tell this man had on his Kevlar vest. He must have been very uncomfortable in it--the temperature was 90 degrees and the humidity about the same.

The man was tall and slim and gray haired. He had wrinkles that had turned into creases; every line etched on his face deepened by his knowledge of the perfidity of the acts human beings are capable of committing upon one another. His face bore witness to every mean, base, terrible thing he had seen.

I asked him where was Madison County? He looked over with eyes that matched his face--wary, tired, skeptical, cynical.
He said it was right above Jackson (Mississipi's state capitol) which would put him about halfway up the state. I said you're a long way from home. He nodded toward a young white guy in shackles being escorted to the car. Had to go down to the Coast to pick him up, the sheriff said. The Amoco station is about halfway for gas and bathroom breaks.

The escort was a fat man in a suit, maybe a lawyer. The prisoner was handcuffed and the cuffs secured to a belt around his waist. His ankles were handcuffed which allowed him to take shuffly little steps. He was wearing gangbanger pants and tatoos. This guy must have done some serious crime because they weren't taking any chances with him. He was put in the back seat of the sheriff's car which had a cage separating the front seat from the back. The sheriff and escort got in front.

Mississippi had had several law officers shot by prisoners over the years when the prisoner had their hands cuffed in front of them and managed to grab the lawmen's gun out of their holster and shoot them. I think there was a regulation passed after the last two were killed that prisoners being escorted have to be have their hands cuffed in back.

This is what gets me about the prisoner. He couldn't have more than 17 years old, a nice looking boy, healthy, and his life was wasted and ruined most liiely over some stupid drug or gang thing, I wanted to shake him till his teeth rattled and slap him silly and tell him to wake up before it's too late. But for him, maybe it's already too late.