COUSIN
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Eddie's cousin was at the door. He was dressed in hip hop cool: tank top undershirt, khaki pants that came to just below the knee, high riding white socks and black tennis shoes. At one time this was a fashion that identified gang members but once the suburban kids picked it up as high style, it lost its identity. I didn't know by looking if Eddie's cousin was a real hoodlum, posing, or simply liked to wear gang chic.
We were invited into the small place and Eddie got right to the point, "I've got to call in a marker, Cuz. I'm in a spot of trouble and I need some stake money."
"I'd more than like to help you but you know how it is, I just got out. I don't even have rent money."
We could hear a car pull up outside. "Shit," he looked out the blinds.
"Who's that?"
"Fucking PO. He's new to the job so he's dotting all the 'i's'." We sat and waited for the doorbell to ring.
The Probation Officer dispensed with small talk. "You got a job yet?"
"Been out on five interviews this week."
"You got the contacts written down?"
The cousin went into the kitchen and picked up a scrap of paper with the names scrawled on them in pencil.
The PO looked at the fragment and said, "Couldn't you give me something more legible on a decent piece of paper."
"You didn't tell me you wanted the Encyclopedia Britannica bound and collected. Just write them down you said. So I wrote them down."
"What were the results of these contacts?"
"They all wanted me to run their company but I'm holding out for stock options. What do you think? If I was offered work, I'd be at work now. What do I say when they ask me where I've been the last 24 months?"
"Tell them the truth. You've been in jail. Dishonesty is what got you into trouble to begin with."
"Think the guards will mind if I use them as a reference?"
"Don't cop an attitude with me. You violated the law not me, not the judge and not the police. You've got a debt to society so get with the program."
"Oh, c'mon, I got popped for holding prescription pills. Hardly a serial killer. If I was an Air Force pilot, it'd be mandatory that I carry them."
"I don't know about that, but I do know you aren't an Air Force pilot. We're in a war on drugs and you're the enemy. The policy makers gave you fair warning but you failed to take heed. You broke the law."
"Policy makers? We don't make policy, policy makes us. It made me a criminal. It's not a war against drugs, it's a war against those who take the drugs the policy makers don't sell."
"Your opinion is less than credible. It doesn't matter what you think. I say thank God for the DEA. Without them this country would be awash in drugs. If you need proof you're on the losing side in this war, then read the papers. Every year the DEA takes more and more drugs off the streets."
I should have kept my mouth shut. It wasn't any of my business. There was just something about his smug righteousness that irked me. I knew better. If you want calm water, you don't go casting stones. I was tired and groggy from driving so I said to myself, what the hell. "If every year there's more drugs being seized, doesn't that indicate more drugs are out there for sale every year."
He gave me a "who-the-fuck-are-you" look. "Maybe we've just gotten better at policing the bad guys."
I conceded to him by not adding that the price should be going up if that was the case.
He looked straight at me but directed his voice to the cousin. It was a great act, just needed a ventriloquist's dummy to complete it. "There's not a user or a dealer that we can't eventually get to. We've even busted that Noriega joker down in Panama and he was the President of the damn country. We've never lost a face to face confrontation."
I hesitated to tell him that it reminded me of my high school football team. Half the team would be crowing about how they took number 24 out of action meanwhile the score was 56 to 7 and not in their favor.
"And if it wasn't for weak-willed people, we could clean up this mess. Weak-willed people that want tidy streets but aren't willing to do what it takes to get the trash off. I lost a big case in court because of a jury full of them. We spent plenty of manpower building the indictment. We had these guys cold. We had the evidence on them. All we needed was the verdict and the jury didn't have the balls to lock them up. If they'd get out of the way, we'd put an end to this drug problem once and for all."
Eddie was talking now, "You mean you'd lock up any person who couldn't pay his way through the courts or didn't have a doctor on his payroll as a supplier."
"No, he's not talking about that. They've got plenty of people in jail, at least plenty of black and brown people." His cousin had weighed in.
I was beginning to feel guilty about throwing out the first pitch and then not taking the mound myself. Eddie's cousin was on parole and Eddie should probably have been in custody and might be anytime that the right person took the time to run his ID but I was free and clean and that meant it was incumbent on me to make the argument. "He can't be talking about incarcerating large numbers of people because we've already got more people locked up than any civilized country in the world. He must be talking about putting drug user's nuts in a vice. Now, that would cut down on trafficking."
"Or at least identify narcs. Anyone who didn't speak like," and the cousin went into a falsetto voice, "'Hey dude, you wanna buy some smoke?' could not be trusted."
"Psst, pass the beer and reds." Eddie too went into a falsetto voice and the cousin and he thought this was remarkably funny.
The PO turned a sour imperious voice on the cousin, "I warned you. Watch your attitude."
I said, "Yes sir, Eddie, it looks like this gentleman may be a little too fond of squeezing nuts already."
The PO left and before we drove off I told Eddie's cousin that I hoped he didn't get in any further trouble on account of us goofing on his parole officer. He responded that I needn't worry about it. Whatever comes, comes. "And that big fucking case of his. It was bogus. Trumped up the evidence to try to get a promotion and make himself a bigshot player. The jury saw through the testimony. You want to make the streets safer, take guys like him off of them."
When we were back in the car I wanted to talk about Eddie's cousin. I found him a likeable fellow but I figured he never would have run afoul of the law if he didn't have a dark side, right? "Two years seems like an awful long time for having some pills in your possession." Eddie gave me one of those looks that made me keep talking so that he didn't think I was a complete idiot. "I mean they must have had more on him but let him whittle down the charges."
"The DA told him he had a choice, 10 to 20 in prison or 4 and out in 2 on an honor farm. They had on him the one thing he couldn't beat, he didn't have any money."
"He had a public defender didn't he?"
Eddie laughed a mirthless snicker, "Yeh, it was after talking to the public defender that he copped the plea."
"Well, he should take his advice, the Public Defender knows."
"Advice my ass. The stupid fuck couldn't remember his name. Now tell me what chance do you have if your own attorney doesn't remember your goddamn name?"
I was quiet trying to figure what I would have done in his place.
"Tell me," Eddie said, "You any safer with him locked away?"