Equality from Two Feet Below.

So, in Rory O'Shea was Here, there's a couple of deleted scenes having to with Rory, who has MD, getting busted taking a car for a joyride. When the popo catch up to him, and see he's in a wheelchair, they want to let him off with a warning, and send him on his way. Indignantly, Rory asks if they were even going to arrest him. They say no, and Rory complains that's discrimination.

In the next scene, he's in jail, and the guard tries to relate to him, "My sister broke her leg and was in a wheelchair..." Rory's like, “WTF does that have to do with me? Then, the guard offers him tea, which Rory asks if he offers the other inmates tea all the time. The guard sheepishly says no, so he leaves, but leaves the door open saying something to the affect that he doesn’t think Rory’s going anywhere, to which, Rory yells after him, incredulous...SMH.

Now, I’m gonna tell you two stories about occurrences that happened in school I personally saw that ties into the above:

This reminded me of a time in high school when we were on the bus heading home. Across the street from the school, a bust was going down. The thing was it was a crip getting busted. I don't remember his name…it really doesn’t matter.  Anyhoo, someone on the bus said they couldn't arrest him, because he was a crip. I said that they could, and they did. They lifted his ass in the car, threw his chair beside him, and drove off. A bit before that, I'd read an article about a crip getting a DUI in Tennessee for driving his chair drunk.

The reason I knew the popo had no qualms about arresting a crip is because a couple years earlier in 9th, I was that crip.  You see, after Noe died, I became really rebellious, going so far as to try to swipe a softcore video from Musicland.  My friend and I got busted by the chick minding the shop through the one-way window in the “Personnel Only” room.  Because of that pesky honest streak I have when I’m busted, I fessed up.  We were taken to said room, taken mugs, and were given the ultimatum of either having our folks pick us up, or going to juvie, in which case, the folks would have to pick us up anyway.  Either way, the folks found out, which was the question I asked the manager, “Is there a way my folks don’t have to find out?”

Long story short: I got banned from Musicland until I was 18, had to go to Teen Court and tell everybody and God what I did with emphasis on what I tried to swipe, had to spend my spring break cleaning at Terrace West, one of the old folks’ homes, and had to do several nights of Teen Court jury duty…oh yeah, I was grounded for a month…nothing, but school, home, school, home…you get the picture.

Talk about equality.

Be good to each other.

-J-