April 9, 2018:

The Sheriffs were very decent.

I've met all sorts, in my career as cop magnet. You never know who you'll get or how irrational their behavior will be. This lot were always cool. They seem to have been trained to de-escalate, rather than immediately unload with clubs or tasers or worse. Police responses to situations seem to depend on the policy of the department and the quality of training they've received. These guys behaved with decency and respect.

Would have been allkindsa different if we'd lived in Watsonville at that time. We'd both be dead. They'd have come with clubs swinging and guns blazing. They're like an occupying force there. The Santa Cruz dudes were far more sophisticated. Despite which, I was always extremely careful to display my empty hands whenever they arrived.

It's interesting in hindsight that she never once behaved confrontationally with police. She'd try to murder me night after night but in the blue presence she was immediately totally docile. She'd sometimes try to win sympathy with bullshit: "Officer I've just learned today that I'm pregnant." The dudes would completely ignore those attempts at manipulation. I had later manipulative exes who believed she'd been extremely clever with that line. The blue dudes were too experienced.

There was only one time I had any suspicion of impropriety. When they put her in the back of the car her clothes were clean. When I bailed her out in the morning the knees of her jeans were ripped and grass-stained. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

There were so many police encounters that the dudes knew her by first name. To my mind, that detail summarizes an entire epoch of my life.

She lives abroad now. I have no idea how the police treat violent alcoholics there. I know there certainly are plenty of them, in a culture famous for alcohol abuse. I've heard tell she's been in bar fights. I guess there's no way to predict what the end will be.