Written by Thomas Cain
thecainreport@gmail.com
The cops in
Provo, Utah are usually adept law enforcement professionals.
Most are courteous, considerate, and respectful.
Yet, they do have their bumbling moments in their pursuit of the bad guy.
Yesterday afternoon, I had the privilege to watch close-up a Keystone Cop moment in action.
I was a passenger in a friend’s car, when suddenly a slue of police cars came barreling toward us. We were stopped at a traffic light with two other cars ahead of us. The first patrol car nearly hit the back of our car, as he came to a screeching halt. Another cop pulled along side us on our right, impatiently waiting to turn right at the signal light. The six other cop cars behind us, pell-mell out of their vehicles, and made a Keystone dash to a white van parked at the curbside.
After a quick look inside the van, they apparently realized they had the wrong vehicle. They made a comical mad dash back to their vehicles, bouncing off one another like a rubber ball hitting a wall. The cop car along side us, and the one behind us, finally weaved their way around the waiting traffic to another white van, also parked at the curbside. They too fumbled out from their patrol cars, with the other cops catching up to them.
It was purely a scene out of a Charlie Chaplin movie. They all surrounded the vehicle with their guns drawn as they stumbled closer to get a view inside the van, when it dawned on them the vehicle they were looking for, was just a block ahead of them. So off the Keystones went in a mad furry to get their man. Only as they sped off, three of the police vehicles had to swerve out of the way from hitting one another, two other patrol cars nearly hit parked civilian vehicles, and even funnier, the other police cars were blocked by traffic.
When the light finally changed, my friend and I decided to follow the Keystones as they stopped, yet another white van. By now we were laughing hysterically. The scene was as comical as the first two stops, only this time they were able to apprehend their suspect. The poor Hispanic suspect did not speak English, and there was no one among the police officers that spoke Spanish. The communication gap between the suspect and Provo’s finest was as wide as the English Channel.
To their credit, the police (however bumbling the scene was) did capture the villain and hauled him off to jail. Our cops are usually the best in law enforcement, unless they are having a Keystone Cop Moment, such as this one. God bless the men and women in blue.
