A Gentleman

...or not. One thing drew my eye from the video in this tweet

The gentleman isn't, really, but for a second reason in my peabrain. 

 

The apparently routinely philandering wife might have little value in some circles, but she's still a woman and a human being. When the cop-husband let the man drive off, he did so without so much as a glance back. He had not a care in the world for leaving a woman alone, in a relatively isolated area, in the hands of an angry, armed man, even if he was a cop. No suggestion that he might take the woman to a place of safety and drop her off, no stopping a short distance later to check on her. 

Nothing. 

Eric Hines

10 comments:

Grim said...

Yes. It’s usually wise not to get involved in domestic disputes, but he had no choice but to be involved. It’s also inappropriate for a policeman to use his state power to confront his wife’s boyfriend. No one did right here.

raven said...

There is the problem with casual sex, yes? "not his problem".

Also, probably best not to start confronting the husband in that situation- I thought the cop did remarkably well, considering the emotional stress- nobody got beat up, nobody got shot, nobody got arrested.
And there were houses in the background, not as if she was in the middle stretch of highway 50 across Nevada. A long walk home might do her some good thinking time.

E Hines said...

No need to confront the cop/husband. Just an offer of transport--nearby restaurant, whatever--with the cop following. Put it on the cop to refuse, if he does, head on off.

He didn't even try. He's the sort where not much of anything is anything but someone else's problem. Tinder types and casual sex. Casual, no responsibility for much of anything.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

The cop probably did do better than usual, but 'not beating the shit out of the innocent guy and/or shooting him' is a low bar. Pulling him over and sobriety testing him because he was unwittingly driving the cop's wife around is not cool. Making him put his hands up, that kind of implied threat is all based around state force. Not cool.

But yeah, it's good he didn't shoot the dude.

douglas said...

Is it real? What PD allows long hair like that on male officers? Or even female officers? I have questions.

E Hines said...

What's your evidence the cop pulled the driver over because he was driving around with the cop's wife?

@douglas: lots of city departments in New Mexico and Arizona allow that.

The colors that bleed through on the license plate blurring could be a New Mexico centennial plate. Less likely, maybe a Nevada plate. The black uniform is consistent with what New Mexico puts their state police in.

Eric Hines

Grim said...

What's the evidence that he's actually a cop, and not an actor along with these other two? It's just the way it looks; I'm taking it as it appears, as you are.

Aggie said...

Looks like a scripted production to me - not real, staged. Sound quality is too good, and the camera subtly shifts during the video.

Grim said...

Even as drama, it can be useful for ethical exploration.

E Hines said...

As Grim and I have been doing, more or less.

Michael Walsh noted for instance in Last Stands that what was important about Roland's stand in Roncevaux Pass was not whether the tale was true but the moral complexity at its center.

Eric Hines