Deputy Dan has no friends

Meanwhile, back at the ranch the other day I observed a King County Sheriff “transit” deputy saunter onto the Metro bus I happened to be on. He entered from the rear door and slowly strolled to the front of the bus, thumbs in belt, in what I’m certain he intended to be an “intimidating” pose. When the crew-cut, bespectacled deputy (if he had a moustache he’d pass for Heinrich Himmler) finally made it to the front of the bus, he asked the driver if there was anyone she wanted him to throw off the bus; he’d be “happy to do it.” His tone did not suggest he was “joking.” There were only a half-dozen people on the bus, and there was hardly a sound to be heard, mainly because people were just sitting minding their own business—except, of course, the deputy. “You’d be surprised how much that helps” he declared, seeming rather certain in his power to abuse his authority. The driver laughed and “thanked” the officer; I couldn’t tell if she thought he was merely “jesting” and joining in the ”joke,” or showing her appreciation for this particular offer of “assistance.” But I knew from experience that he was entirely serious. The question was why he decided to enter this bus and pose that question? Perhaps it was the “Mexican” who he spied and wished to intimidate if he couldn’t find immediate justification to harass. This deputy apparently has the same mentality as the SPD officer who recently stomped and kicked a prone Latino man while shouting racial slurs, or the one who put four bullets into the sides of the Native American woodcarver (a police union spokesperson still claimed he posed a “threat”). He was just like the officers I overheard saying on another bus that they only hassled “short people” because it was “safer.” These are the kind of officers who shouldn’t be on the street.