Posted by TDI_2 on July 30, 2002 at 15:34:39:
In Reply to: As promised: Iron Eagle Trip Report (long) posted by NapaDiver on July 30, 2002 at 15:00:21:
cop 1 [kop ] noun (plural cops)
police officer: a police officer (slang)
transitive verb (past copped, past participle copped, present participle cop·ping, 3rd person present singular cops)
1. grab: to seize or grab something (informal)
2. steal: to steal something (informal) Those kids copped candy bars from the store.
3. DRUGS obtain drugs: to obtain illegal drugs (slang)
[Early 18th century. "Police officer": related to copper2, literally "grabber." Verb senses from a variant of cap "to catch," which came via French caper from Latin capere "to seize, take."]
Cop is a very powerful word in our American language. There are segments of our society that revere cops, as well as other segments that abhor cops.
I suppose that if you were mixing methamphetamine sulfate in your bathtub, you would probably view police officers suspiciously. And if your main lifeline to rescue is dialing 9-1-1 then a police officer probably seems like a messenger sent from God.
I normally try to stay out of the way of police officers who are doing their duty. And I am always careful not to violate the California CHP's 5 mph standing policy on speed limit enforcement, realizing also that the most dangerous part of scuba diving is driving to or from a scuba dive, and the most likely animal to kill you in scuba diving is a deer.
Once, while driving home from work, I ended up as the #2 person in a four-car crash that would have been a 5 car crash had I not had good enough brakes and luck to stop in time. Unfortunately the 3 motorists behind me did not have such good brakes nor luck to stop at all.
Their cars got totalled, my jeep got rear ended and scratched up on the steel bumper, and the guy that illegally stopped in the middle of the roadway took off and fled the scene from the accident he had just caused.
That was the one and only time I have ever dialed 9-1-1 and heard myself saying "we need a cop at XX road near XX intersection because we have a 4 car crash with injuries."
"Oh and by the way, the guy who caused the crash has just fled the scene."
The cops grabbed him a few miles down the road. As the old saying goes, you might outrun a cop, but you cant outrun a cops radio. :)