Ran into an old 'frenemy'

A friend and I went to the S&S Diner for lunch yesterday, he likes it there and is concerned about it closing down due to gentrification, so we went for the history of it all more than the lunch. He wanted to see how he could help the owner, Simon, in any way. A City of Miami police officer walked by inside the diner and my friend said hello to him, they knew each other. My friend then turns toward me and says to the cop, "And you know Tom Falco?" And the cop mumbled something and shook my hand.

When I looked at him, I realized it was that cop that had been terrorizing the Grove for years, remember this story? 

Well, I told my friend that he was that cop. My friend said, "Well he was just doing his job." And I said, "Yes, but the way he went about it, he didn't belong in the Village." I went on, "I received my last speeding ticket from him!"

My friend asked, "Well, were you speeding?"

Me: "Yes, but that's besides the point. I had many altercations with him over the years. And many people took that article to court and used it to defend themselves."

I went on to tell my friend that I didn't hold a anything against the guy personally, but I was glad to see him far away from the Grove and apparently his superiors felt the need to move his beat out of the Grove. 

So anyway, we are at the diner eating and the cop is sitting across from us and he and my friend are making small talk every once in awhile. My friend tells me not to hold a grudge and I told him I am not, I said I was just embarrassed to see the cop face-to-face after the article in the Grapevine ran. But he was pleasant at the diner, very nice, seemed like a regular there, knew the staff and a few customers. He knew that Tuesday was "Turkey Day." So he was a member of that neighborhood now.

So this went on for a bit, maybe half an hour - the back and forth between my friend and I, and after the whole thing, when we are leaving, my friend leans over to me and says to me so matter-of-factly, "He's the one who gave me the jaywalking ticket that time!" I started cracking up and nearly fell on the floor.

My friend had been given a jaywalking ticket in 2009, we wrote about it here at the time, for asking this cop a question - but the ticket really was not for jaywalking. My friend had seen the copy hiding around the bend with his radar gun, as he does, and how he got me that time; and my friend asked him how much longer he would be doing that. Well, this cop didn't like the question, so since you cannot give tickets for asking questions, he gave my friend a ticket for jaywalking, because when he left his car to ask the question he apparently jaywalked.

I think my friend is the only person ever in Coconut Grove to get a jaywalking ticket and apparently he bonded with the cop over it all those years ago.