A young police officer called me this past Saturday morning (I did not seek permission to use actual names for this piece, so for the moment they\u2019ll remain anonymous). Apparently, he was going down the list of contacts in my friend\u2019s phone and I happen to be the second number on the list. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is officer [Young Buck]. Do you know a Mr. [Older White Male]?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes. I know [Older White Male],\u201d I answered. \u201cIs everything ok?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I pulled him over and we\u2019re on the side of the road (here in San Vicente), but I can\u2019t seem to understand what he\u2019s saying. Is there any way you or someone can come over and help? I think maybe he has some kind of sugar issue?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes!\u201d I said emphatically. \u201cHe has severe issues with drops in his sugar levels where he will actually pass out, if he doesn\u2019t induce sugar immediately. I\u2019m only a mile away and he lives right around the corner from there\u2026I\u2019ll be right there,\u201d I said. <\/p>\n
I pulled up behind the police vehicle and found the officer standing by the driver\u2019s side of [Older White Male\u2019s] car trying to talk to him. And, sitting in the driver\u2019s seat was [Older White Male].<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what the [expletive] is going on here!? Can you just take me to my [expletive] car?\u201d he rambled out from behind the steering wheel of his own car. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to get home! Just take me to my [expletive] car!\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou are in your car, Buddy,\u201d I answered.<\/p>\n
Officer [Young Buck] told me, \u201cI pulled him over because he ran the red light and was driving down the middle of the center lane.\u201d<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Over the course of the several years that I had known [Older White Male] I witnessed him pass out several times from his low sugar\u2014literally talking one minute and a second later face first on the ground beneath him. Scary to say the least, but something our general circle of friends have become accustomed to and know that we need to shove chocolate bars and anything high in sugar into his mouth to revive him. I had heard of him becoming disoriented and, in fact, belligerent at times due to a downward spiral in his sugar levels, but Saturday was the first time I would see it firsthand.<\/p>\n
By all indications, I would have guessed he was plastered drunk. And, let\u2019s just say there was sufficient evidence to suggest that Saturday\u2019s stop was a drunk driving issue\u2014not the least of which included slurred speech (with a sailor\u2019s mouth no less), belligerent disorientation and a wobbly gait (once I was able to talk him out of his car).<\/p>\n
And yet somehow, the [Young Buck] Officer thought well enough to reach out to his contacts and investigate further before dragging him out of the car and tossing him in the back of his cruiser. Honestly, it takes a special kind of mannerism to field the kind of belligerence being displayed by [Older White Male] on that morning without resorting to physical tactics to remove him from the car and off the side of the road. We all know the types of sad stories that come from meathead cops not being able to keep their cool\u2014the [Young Buck] cop in this case kept his cool and, in my humble opinion, saved a man\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
[Older White Male\u2019s] wife was working in the yard outside their house when I pulled into the driveway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think your husband is having another low sugar episode,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n
We helped him into his house where the wife essentially force-fed him Reese\u2019s Peanut Butter cups and made him drink several cups of orange juice along with some other thick syrup (I assume loaded with sugar).<\/p>\n
\u201cI just need to get home,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou are home, Buddy,\u201d I responded several times over.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, can I at least sit down!?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are sitting down, Buddy\u2026just keep drinking your juice,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what [expletive] is going on here!?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI know. Just eat your chocolate,\u201d I kept saying.<\/p>\n
So went the discussion for what amounted to somewhere between 10 to 15 minutes. And then suddenly (as if a switch went off in his head), \u201cJim. I\u2019m sorry man. How did I get here?\u201d <\/p>\n
His wife asked him to read the clock on the wall and he said, \u201c10 minutes to 12\u201d which in fact was the correct time. He was back.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
The alternative scenario could have been that the [Young Buck] cop assumed he was drunk, dragged him out of the car, cuffed him (presumably face down on the ground), shoved him into the back of his car and took him in for booking. I\u2019m no medical expert, but I have doubt my friend would have passed out and likely slipped into a coma or worse crossed over to the other side on his way to the station. For emphasis, I believe the [Young Buck] cop in this case saved my friend\u2019s life this past weekend.<\/p>\n
Perhaps, it was due to good training, but I\u2019d like to think that it was due to a good upbringing\u2014an islander upbringing where our elders get the benefit of the doubt and our instinct is to help first. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, the young man exercised his police discretion and, in this case, got it absolutely correct.<\/p>\n
The truth is that sometimes disabilities manifest themselves in ways that take on the appearance of something else\u2026more often than not, as something less than desirable. I don\u2019t think anyone could have blamed this young police officer if he had arrested my friend, so on behalf of a grateful circle of friends and all of the people living with the various types of often misunderstood disabilities in our community, I thank you, young man, for choosing the less restrictive alternative. You have done yourself, your profession, the Department of Public Safety and our islands very proud.<\/p>\n
For more on the rights and needs of people with disabilities, please contact the Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems, Inc. (NMPASI) at (670) 23507273\/4 [tel.] or 235-7275 [fax\/tty] or on-line at www.nmpasi.org. <\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Jim Rayphand is the executive director of the Northern Marianas Protection & Advocacy Systems, Inc.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A young police officer called me this past Saturday morning (I did not seek permission…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[162,21,11390,67],"class_list":["post-227206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-car","tag-life","tag-peanut-butter","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}