Went to the Yanks-Mets game on Saturday. My favorite co-worker E was going to be at the game with her family too, so I decided to go find her and say hello at around the 5th inning. The Yanks were losing anyway, so I figured why not go roam around for a bit. When I got to her seats I saw her cousin sitting there brooding in a way that suggested it was over more than the Yanks being shut out. So E tells me that her cousin, who is a Westchester County cop, had a bit of a run-in with an NYPD cop outside the stadium. It’s quite a long story, but basically the gist of it is that E’s brother had an open container and was stopped by a stadium detail. E’s cousin comes over, shows his badge in hopes of getting his cousin off since his cousin is hoping to try out for the Academy himself in the near future. The PO, apparently a rookie, says no and an argument ensues at which time the PO decides he’s going to write up the cop instead of E’s brother. Issuing a summons to another cop is practically unheard of. So the Westchester cop asks the PO to go call a sargeant. The PO refuses and more arguing ensues. The ticket gets written, and E’s cousin, now furious, enters the stadium in search of a sargeant. He finds one who has already heard about the incident and takes the summons and says that it will be taken care of. Today, it becomes a hot thread on the NYPD rant board and I forward the link over to my co-worker so she can tell her cousin about it. Most people on the board don’t even believe that such a thing happened, so he posts that it’s true and he was the one who was given the summons. Someone from the board speaks to the PO and posts his version of the story which basically says that E’s cousin was rude and disrespectful to him right off the bat and that’s why he pressed on with the ticket as opposed to being embarassed in public. That is certainly plausible too. But since E is not the type of person who bullshits, I certainly don’t think she changed the facts in telling me how things went down. The truth probably lies somewhere between the two versions of the story. My guess is that the rookie PO was hesitant to let the violation go, then E’s cousin understandably peeved requested that a sargeant be called, at which time the PO probably took offense to being pressured into calling a superior to the scene and flat out said no. That’s probably when the shouting started and the situation was aggravated by the wife joining in the screaming. Once the PO was being publicly berated, I can understand why he would carry thru with issuing the summons. I would think any officer, rookie or not, would not stand for that. Facts being facts, I still think it’s wrong for a cop to write up another cop, but men being men, it’s certainly understandable. It’ll be interesting to see the fallout, since certainly officers on both sides will be reaching out to superiors at the other agency. Such high drama.

Speaking of drama, most of my favorite shows end this week. Deadwood finished on Sunday night with a neat final line from Swearengen; two words he learned from Wu during an earlier episode- “Hing Dai”. Tonight was the season finale of 24. Excellent finish to an excellent season. The season as a whole was better than most action movies, but I’m kind of glad that the season is over so that I can have my Monday nights free again. The season finale of House is tomorrow, so then I’ll have my Tuesdays free too. Just in time to give me a few weeks to put together my best man speech for the wedding in June, plus more practice time to get into playing form for the WSOP.

That will leave me with Sakura on Sunday nights as my only must-watch TV show. I’m almost ashamed to say how hooked I am by that show. I could say that I love the show just because Takano Shiho is so ridiculously cute, but the truth probably has more to do with the fact I’m just a sap sometimes. If anybody out there has access to the entire series on DVD with subtitles, I’d be willing to pay big bucks for it. Not only would I want it for myself since I missed the first 30 episodes or so, but it would also make a killer present for my sister. I think it’s a lot of the crap she made us watch when I was growing up that has given me a soft spot for really really sappy shit. Anyone remember Frankie and Jennifer from Days of Our Lives back in the 80’s? That’s the kind of stuff I’m talking about. Sick isn’t it? I may have to go and watch Commando a few times or something, just to rinse some of the sap off.