I was sitting in a bus terminal in Los Angeles, eating breakfast there, during the summer of 1970. 2 policemen were watching me. I didn't realize it then. I got up and went to a nearby newspaper stand to buy a copy of the Los Angeles Times. When I turned around, there were two 8 foot cops looking at me, with my long hair, tie dyed tee shirt, jeans and moccasins. One of them told me, "You're going to have to come with us." Being a dumb 20 year old, I didn't think much of it at the time.
Their squad car was parked behind the terminal. Since I knew I was going downtown, I thought I'd better comb my hair. I reached in my pants to get my comb, & one of the 8 foot cops grabbed my arm. He said, "What have you got there, a knife?" I said, "No, it's a comb! Did they think that I was going to stab them with my comb? They put handcuffs on me, and told me to get in the back seat. When we arrived at the precinct, I had mug shot taken of me. I can't remember when they took off the cuffs. I sat there in a room of about 50 cops. One came up to me and said, "Okay, tell us all about it." I was thinking, "Well I got out of bed, went to the terminal to have a bowl of bran flakes. to eat, not to smoke." I just shrugged since I didn't know what this was all about.
I was actually enjoying this. While I was handcuffed in the car, it seemed like I was in an episode of Adam-12. If I was a mature adult, I would have been so embarrassed, that I would have sued them. Being a dumb kid, I didn't realize that I could have ended up in jail.
It turned out that the night before, someone in Hollywood, robbed a book store, and I matched the description of the thief. One of the Adam-12 cops, turned on his brain, and called the book store, and described me to the owner over the phone. Turns out, the book store thief was clean shaven, and I had a goatee. Officers Reed and McCoy realized that more than likely, I couldn't have grown the goatee over night, even though I'm from New York. That was probably when they took the cuffs off.
They drove me back to the Hotel Cecil where I was staying. They even returned my copy of the L.A Times, which I thought was very nice of them. One of them said, "I hope you understand that we had to pick you up to be sure." I understood. It was a nice way to pass some time, I thought. That thought came from the mind of a dumb 20 year old.
