Good will to all men …
December 24th, 2008
We were comparing stories about ‘police experiences’ and a friend of mine recounted a story from his recent long distance journey.
He’d been stopped by the police, for speeding, on a stretch of road that is well known for having speed traps in it. A few months earlier he’d had a huge argument with the police there when they stopped him and he knew he had not been speeding at all. So he said his first reaction when they waved him down was extreme irritation with himself; for not remembering that there would probably be a trap in the area, but most of all for not taking a careful note of his speed to know whether he was about to be falsely charged or not.
By the time the policeman arrived at his window to tell him he was speeding, my friend was already wound-up in a state of annoyance.
“I was NOT speeding!” he insisted.
“Look sir, I can show you”, and the policeman produced the machine with the speed recorded on it.
My friend got even angrier: “I was not going that fast; how do I even know that is my car speed you’ve recorded and not the car before me?!”
The policeman insisted it was his car and proceeded to write the ticket.
My friend freely admits that the whole time the guy was writing the ticket, he was giving vent to his frustration: “You guys always ask me for lifts – I’m never ever stopping for you again! You can walk everywhere… ” And: “The next time you stop me and I have extra stuff in my car, don’t even think about asking me to share it with you”. If you knew my friend and his legendary temper, I can imagine the scene was fraught with tension and irritation and anger and also that his venting would have been an ever-growing list of things he would never ever do for the police again.
When the guy finally handed over the ticket, my friend exploded properly; it was for a paltry figure – so small that there were no longer bank notes in circulation in a small enough denomination to properly pay it. Inflation may have pushed up prices in the shops, but the police and government admininistration fees lag way behind. All my friend had was a note for hundreds of millions.
My friend said that when he realised he’d be handing over a note that far exceeded the value of the fine, he was even more infuriated and let rip properly, telling the policeman what a stupid state of affairs the country was in, and why did he even bother fining people for that amount. His punchline was, “… and I suppose you’re now going to tell me you have no change and you’ll be keeping the balance of this fine for yourself!!”
By now the policeman had had enough himself: “I tell you what”, he snapped back, “I’ll pay your fine for you myself!” He reached into his pocket, extracted the right amount of small denomination notes, then turned around and walked off.
It can be humiliating being a policeman in Zimbabwe these days – a person linked to violence and illegal detentions etc, someone whose job has been turned into a joke, a figure of fun and ridicule when implementing nonsense fines. But on that day, this policeman retained some of his dignity. My friend is very impressed with his response.
