(Law enforcement says an un-armed 54-year-old woman drove off with a police officer’s arm trapped in the window. Hey, wait, this is a Jeep with side curtains. How does that work? Photo Courtesy of StarExponent.com)

I wonder if I can really walk down here, if I needed to?

The words flying around the capital- when we can separate Greek melt-downs from carbon dioxide catastrophe to the looming war with Iran which appears inevitable- makes me look nervously to the exit.

I am down at the farm, on a mission of urgency for the company. I cleared the junk out of the mailbox by the quiet country road and read the lead story in the local rag with amazement. Above the fold on the front page was an account of the investigation of a fatal police shooting in Culpeper. They will have a special prosecutor, the paper says.

There is some nasty stuff that happens in the country, methamphetamine-driven, for the most part, but this story has nothing of that about it. It is a straightforward matter of a police shooting of a citizen.

Admiral Herb “The Superb” Browne used to tell us in the morning meeting- normally the Monday meeting after the antics of our boys and girls in Tijuana- that nothing good happens after midnight. Mayor Chip Coleman of Culpeper agrees. He is asking citizens to be patient while the Virginia State Police investigate the shooting. I am a little anxious about it.

Here is the official story: State police say an unidentified Culpeper officer shot 54-year-old Patricia A. Cook on Feb. 9 after she drove off with his arm trapped in her vehicle’s window and refused his orders to stop. Patricia died at the scene.

The shooting occurred after the officer responded to a report of a suspicious woman in a vehicle in a (church) parking lot late at night. She reportedly rolled up the window, trapping the officer’s arm, and then drove off, dragging him along, hence the application of deadly force at point blank range with the Glock .40.

Look at the picture above, gentle readers. The Jeep has a soft top.

I mean, check out the detail above (on a different vehicle, of course) and tell me how the poor woman managed to roll up the driver’s side window fast enough to trap anything. I don’t have a lot of confidence in the story as it is being told.

This is a microcosm of my distrust with the instruments of the State. In the end, this representative of the government got himself all hot and bothered and murdered a citizen in the name of the state. He is not going to serve a day in jail. Everyone deeply regrets the incident.

Homeland Security at work? Or just a panicked officer after midnight?

It does not seem like we are a lot safer here at home after a decade of Homeland Security. Given the consensus of hysteria this morning about the coming war with Iran, I am left with the feeling that we aren’t a lot more secure overseas, either.

Here comes the third war in a decade. What did I get my kids into?

If I have to walk down to the farm to get away from the capital one of these days, I will definitely have my papers in order, try not to loiter suspiciously and tread lightly.

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com