Minneapolis police officers sometimes have to deal with miserable situations.
Around 2 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19, an officer was stopped at the Super America at the corner of Nicollet Ave and 35th Street, when a cabbie flagged him over. His fare was drunk, becoming verbally abusive, and refusing to pay, according to the officer's report.
The man's inebriated speech drooled from his lips, filled with epithets about the taxi driver's Somali heritage, accented English, and allegations that the man was "ripping him off."
He just wanted to find his glove, the 25-year old protested to the officer.
The driver pleaded with the officer to help get his passenger out of the cab. He didn't even want to collect the fare, he said.
Hearing this, the drunken man demanded a ride from the officer. His uncle was a sergeant in the Bloomington Police Department, the Rosemount resident claimed. The Minneapolis officer just had to give him a ride, now.
He waved his alleged relation's rank like a cudgel, threatening to file a complaint against the police officer and sic his "good lawyers" on the cop. The cop gave the man his badge number an instructions on how to file a complaint.
Evidently satisfied, the man stepped—or was it staggered?—across the gas station apron to the convenience store, evidently followed by the cop. Inside, he started to make "obnoxiously loud" telephone calls, according to the police report. Several times, the man said he "had blue blood in him" and the officer "wasn't living up to the code of conduct."
Perhaps getting desperate, the drunkard then offered anyone in line for the cash register $100 to take him home. One person took him up on his offer, but before they could get the man in their car, he started to peer into the police car.
Don't mess with the car, the officer warned.
At this, the man exploded, swearing and causing "a scene" that drew in other customers' eyes.
Police subsequently trespassed the man from the gas station. He will not be allowed to return for a year.
