I hate this side of the badge.

Cops admit the rules they think are totally wrong.

The cops in my town carry nickels and feed the meters instead of taking the time to write tickets.

The cops in my town hide behind the corners and wait for the meter to run out so they can sprint to your car and slam a ticket on it.

Before I was a police officer, I was put in a sort of catch-all

position, police service officer. duties included evidence, custodian, animal control, court bailiff,

code enforcement and part-time police work. This is 2012, 2013. Kansas had rather a wet season.

For about a month and a half straight, we had rain almost

every day. Nobody had the chance to mow their grass. The city manager saw it as a grand

opportunity for me to start writing people tickets for their grass being too high. I told him I didn't

feel comfortable doing that. When asked why, I told him I didn't think it was right for me to write

tickets for tall grass

when there were city-owned properties all over the city that had grass just as tall. We went back and

forth. He got my captain involved and threw a fit. Before he stomped out of the captain's office,

he made the comment, this is my city, you work for me and what I say is law. The captain agreed

that he was a but ultimately said I should just write the tickets. So I went back to the evidence locker, what everyone called my business because I was the only one who had access, and I did some research. An hour later, I walked over to the city manager's office, which happened to be right across the street from me, and I handed him about 14 tickets. He asked what those were for.

I told him I was doing exactly what he told me to do. I was writing tickets for grass being too

tall. The first 14 tickets were for the 14 city-owned properties that had grass over 12 inches high.

He said those weren't his responsibility. I calmly reminded him of his previous comment about him

owning the city, and he called the chief. He insists that I be fired for insubordination. A month

later, I was promoted to full-time patrol officer. This happened seven or eight years ago. I was

eventually fired for reasons I won't get into. All I will say is I obviously wasn't going to be

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