Every morning I wake up on

The wrong side of capitalism

Thank-you, Officer Siddhartha Gautama

On General

by tim @ 8/8/2006 10:38 pm

I guess you know you’re in Berkeley when even the police are hippies (and you know the revolutionary potential of hippiedom is truly exhausted when it’s possible for the police to be hippies).

So, we had some stuff stolen from our house yesterday; I got off pretty lightly, as they didn’t take my (fairly new) desktop computer, just my laptop, which is pretty old and knackered.  The police came round to take down our details (why, I wonder, do I have to give the cops the number of my state ID when I report a crime?), look at the house to see how the people got in, dust for fingerprints, harass the neighbours, and generally do the things they do when there’s a burglary.

I imagine all this activity on their part is more or less ineffective, but the police officer who came round was quite pleasant, sympathetic and polite (terrifying-looking nightstick notwithstanding). As she was about to go, she asked us, “what have you learnt from all this?” Expecting a bit of a lecture on home security, I grumbled, “well, I guess we should make sure to check all the windows are closed whenever we leave the house.” She looked like she hadn’t expected that answer, and took a moment to mull it over. Then said, “and, you know, you should probably try and be less emotionally invested in material posessions.”

 

4 comments

  1. I enjoyed this anecdote a lot.

    Comment by Marty @ 8/9/2006 5:14 am

  2. I don’t believe it. If it’s true, I’ll order myself a large Extreme pizza with chicken wings right now. I swear, I’ll do it. If that anecdote was true, which it is not. So, I guess I’ll go hungry.

    Comment by Peter @ 8/10/2006 9:07 pm

  3. Man, you had me cracking up, with this, and that is just what the doctor ordered. Hippy, cops with concerned looks, hahahahha. the whole thing, man . a story to tell all my friends. laughter from canada canadada candadadadada landa of immanence . ha

    ha

    ha.

    Comment by clifford duffy @ 8/17/2006 9:32 pm

  4. Thank you for reminding me to “never trust a hippy” (thanks Johnny).

    Comment by Sarcy Fenian @ 8/19/2006 1:20 pm

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