I don’t have particularly bad luck with police officers, but it just seems as though most of them don’t have very personable personalities. Friday night at Oodle’s in Gainesville proved otherwise. Two officers were eating at Oodles where my wife, son, and I frequent. Balthazar noticed the cars outside while we ate and was very interested. As the police officers were leaving Oodle’s, he started pointing them out very excitedly. I waved one of them over, Dwayne Moran, and he spent a couple of minutes talking with my four-year-old in a manner very appropriate to his age. It was really cool. All too often, people ignore little children because they either don’t know how to interact with them or are too above the station to bother. I really appreciate the personal attention that officer gave Balthazar – it’s especially important to see that because having a child, you realize how civil service employees are real celebrities to them. It’s very similar, as I see it now, to when I dress as Batman or Chewbacca. Kids eat that stuff up and it’s really important that you show them respect – if not, you lose a big piece of your positive Public Relations.
I too had a delightful experience recently with two Hall County officers that aided my husband and I in the rescue of an injured cat that was hit on Thompson Bridge Road.
Someone hit the cat and kept going, and it lay stunned in the middle of the highway, hurt but alive. I, of course, having inherited the animal nut gene, blocked traffic with my car and forced my husband to grab the cat and move it out of harm’s way.
In the meantime, two police cars pulled up. I fully expected to be in some sort of trouble for causing a disruption over a hurt cat, but they were more than understanding. They redirected traffic, summoned animal control, stood and waited with us (and the grumpy cat) for 45 minutes until animal control showed up, and then even helped the animal control officer catch the wile feline who ran into a briar patch.
Kudos to 2 of Hall County’s finest.
thats my dad