I’m surprised it took them as long as it did to pop me, I knew the first day that I showed up in town that it was only a matter of time before some racist redneck cop decided to fuck with me and stop me for some dumb shit. Please, don’t get me wrong, I knew a lot of the local cops and 95% of them were cool as shit and looked the other way on most minor things as long as property didn’t get destroyed and no one got hurt. They even tipped me a few times when I was playing on Dickson St. For the most part I back the blue but, if you’re an asshole, your badge won’t save you.
Oh the irony to think that a mere fifteen years later I would have companies send me paraphernalia to use weed in ways we never thought of… But anyway.
I was leaving work on a Tuesday night around ten and was leaving the Square about a block away from College Ave. I was alone and, as anyone would be, I was paying attention to my surroundings. The cop that was creeping behind me in his patrol car decided that I was staring him down because I turned my head for a half a second to see who was behind me.
The next thing I know I’m being told to put my hands up and put my face against the wall. While I hadn’t been technically arrested prior to this, I had already had a few run in’s (surprise fucking surprise I know) and knew the routine. I also knew that I was outnumbered and fucked and the best thing to do was just be cool and respectful and not appear to be a threat.
Then they found the weed in the fifth pocket of my jeans.
It was less than a gram, a shitty little nug of mid grade shit that would have maybe packed two bowls. But this was back in 2002 in Arkansas and this was gold. Being that it was 2002 Arkansas and you’ve read the title of the article, you know already they read my my writes and arrested me for possession of marijuana.
At this point I had been more or less a daily stoner for years and knew that at some point, my number was going to get pulled and I was going to take a charge. I wasn’t thrilled about going to jail but I didn’t have a massive freakout. This is why I never carried much with me and always tried to be super discreet.
Most of the cops I knew from playing on Dickson and the fact that I was the manager of the sub shop 100 feet away from the station. They weren’t pissed, they were just disappointed. The guy at booking was a total asshole. I’m not saying the guy was a Natzi but he looked just like Ed Norton in “American History X” and had no sense of humor. I wasn’t trying to funny, I was trying to be cool and get through the process without any extra drama.
For some reason, they never put me in holding, instead I was put in a phone booth and told to call someone to bail me out. The problem with this was that I didn’t have a lot of friends and the ones I had sure as fuck didn’t have the $300 for a bondsman. I called a few of the Frat boys that I worked with since I knew they had the cash and those assholes laughed and hung up on me. To add insult to injury they also called the owner to let him know I was in jail and not coming to work the next day. Turns out that my boss at the time Joe was a whole lot cooler than I thought he was because 45 minutes later he was there with the cash and not pissed off at all.
This guy was not the kind of guy you would think to be cool about something like this and was the last person I would have called to ask. When he showed up he was genuinely concerned that I was okay and if I needed anything. My mind was blown and to this day if the guy ever needed me, I’d have his back.
When I got out the first thing I did was go straight to the bar, because I didn’t have anymore weed… I was a regular and when the bartender saw me walk in he started pouring my drink and then saw the bracelet and me pulling my wallet out of the evidence bag. “Holy shit, you finally got your cherry popped! Congrats bitch!” he laughed as he sat the bottle next to the glass “Put your wallet away and let me know when you need a cab, you’re with friends”. He could tell that I was a bit rattled and needed a good laugh and this was industry taking care of industry at its finest.