Things seem to always be busy between family, church, work and military. And with COVID, I suspended my trips to my current fitness center of choice, Planet Fitness- can't beat $10/month, but even that stops when COVID rages.
So I started doing early morning walks around the neighborhood before the work from home day started. Sometimes I would ramp it up and add in a ruck sack with a bit of weight in it, the actual amount depending on my ambition and the feel in my shredded knees and arthritic ankles, back aches, etc.
So this early Monday morning, as I walked along with my ruck, headphones in, listening to one audiobook or another, I was coming out of one of the sub-neighborhoods and I see 2 SUVs coming down the road. I move to the side to avoid getting run over, and as one passes, I notice it is local PD. And the other angles in front of me. I check behind me and the other has angled behind me.
OK, I'm the person of interest here in the dark early morning hours. I remove my sweatshirt hood, pull my headphones and keep my hands out wide to keep folks happy.
One female officer and one male officer, I would guess she was in her 30s, him in his 20s, both white, him with a short military style haircut. They tell me they got a call from someone in the neighborhood about a prowler, asked for my name and address, which I provided. The young man then indicated it seemed obvious to him that I was out on a ruck walk. I think the fact that I had a military rucksack on my back and was wearing combat boots may have tipped him off. I also shared with him that I'd been doing these walks for months by this point, so that neighbor had missed out on my potential prowling many times prior to that.
I would have considered it all unremarkable, excepting that this past year has had much in the media about various less successful citizen-police engagements. I have rarely ever felt targeted, and even in this case, they quickly worked to put me at ease, as I did with them. Being an MP myself hasn't been a big factor, I don't identify as law enforcement, but I do know a large number in the Guard and Reserve who are also civilian police. We've had some good discussions over this past year.
Glad this engagement was one in which the peace was protected and preserved for all involved.
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