Living In Piketon, Ohio: The Bribe

One of the reasons I was so hostile towards officer Radcliffe that early morning when he violated my rights and stopped me for no good reason was because prior to that, I was told an interesting story about him from the employee - at the time - of the Duke and Duchess shoppe.

I had just walked up to the counter when a patrol car went through the parking lot. The employee saw this and commented. "Officer Radcliffe. Now there goes one of Piketon's finest." (I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but through my years, when someone uses the phrase "finest", they are mocking.)

"That bad, huh?" I responded.

"You haven't lived here long, have you?" She countered. I shrugged my head. "A couple months now."

She started ringing up my merchandise. "Give it a little time." she said. (It was less than a few weeks when I would discover this for myself.) She then went on to say, "My next door neighbor works at the plant. She and her husband, 'John'. John is already retired from the military and collects a nice check each month and he is a few years away from retiring from the plant and collecting another nice pension. This past summer, John was pulled over by Radcliffe and just about lost his license, his job, his second pension, and probably his wife."

"Why is that?" I wondered.

"Because John had been drinking and according to him, he reeked of alcohol. He said he was nervous as hell, and couldn't get the thought of losing everything out of his mind as he watched Radcliffe slowly walk up to the truck. The window was already rolled down and Radcliffe asked for his driver's license, registration and proof of insurance. He was pulled over for speeding. John started fumbling with his wallet and saw he had three one hundred dollar bills in it. According to him, he thought about offering Radcliffe one of them but feared it might not be enough. Seeing how he was going to go to jail anyway for the DWI charge, he took all three bills out, folded them, and placed it under the license when he handed it over ... then he sat there frozen and looking straight ahead."

"That's ballsy." I mentioned. She agreed. "Probably, but the way he put it, he had nothing to lose by doing that. He said he leaned over and got the papers out of the glove box to hand over but before he opened it, Radcliffe told him that wouldn't be necessary. He said Radcliffe handed him his license back and told him to go straight and home and don't let me see you again tonight. Old John was like, 'Yes sir!' and off he went. He said he couldn't believe what he had done. He also said that he had heard rumors that some of the Piketon cops would take bribes because they don't make a lot of money. Radcliffe is notorious for taking bribes. You might want to watch out for officer Blair, too. He's a real asshole."

"With my luck," I told her, "I would get the cop that doesn't take a bribe."

"That's what John said!" She fired back, laughing.

When our transaction was done, I started to walk towards the door when she offered up some friendly advice. "If you keep quiet and to yourself, you shouldn't have any problems with them."

"You mean the local police?" I asked, as I turned around real quick and used my back to open the door. "If they keep quiet and to themselves, they won't have any problem with me." And with that, I smiled and made my way back home.

So you see, when Radcliffe unlawfully stopped me that night, I already knew he was a bad cop. That may have played a part as to why I was extra rude to the punk.

I will see you next Wednesday with another story of the corruption of the Piketon police department and the Pike county sheriff's office.