Slaughter's Beat
Above the Law/Capitol Hill/Fri Oct 25/noon: According to official documents written by the United States of America, for nearly five months Officer Steve Slaughter "managed" a small circle of Capitol Hill drug dealers and users, not so much for profit, it seems, but just to keep the peace. Though allegedly corrupt, Slaughter was not exactly a "Bad Lieutenant." For example, on the day he was arrested, he told the dealer (an undercover fed), whose drugs he had confiscated, that "he did not care if dope was sold in his area, [however] he would be upset if the [dealer] sold bad dope or beat or robbed people." At heart Slaughter was a moral person.
Coincidently, Officer Steve Slaughter has made a few appearances in Police Beat, my favorite one of which is this item from late last year:
Besieged/Capitol Hill/Mon Oct 29, 2001/6:57 pm: While standing outside of his house, a distressed Capitol Hill man told Officer Slaughter this story: Last night, he and his lover were drinking at a bar with three other unknown men. She was enjoying herself; he was not. He wanted to leave; she did not. "Fine," he said, after asking her to leave with him for the last time. "You're not welcome at my place, then." When he got home, he threw a sleeping bag out on the porch and put a toothpick in the door lock. "You see," he explained to all-ears Officer Slaughter, "I was tired of her coming home late and staying out with other guys. This is why I put the toothpick into the lock. I wanted her to stay out." She never came home that night.
The next day, he and his lover were supposed to meet at 3 pm at a pet shop to buy some fish for an aquarium they recently purchased. She never showed up. He got angry and went to where she worked to ask her about last night (where did she go?) and about the missed appointment at the pet store. She explained that after he left the bar, the three guys kidnapped her. As for the pet store, she simply forgot. The Capitol Hill man imploded; he was besieged by her army of indifference, her bullets of deceit (did she have sex with the men at the bar?). He ordered her to leave the ruins of his life at once.
Later at the apartment, as she was packing her possessions, the Capitol Hill man asked her if she was going to report the "kidnapping" to the police, and she said, "No. I'm not." At this point, he left the apartment and called the police himself.
Officer Slaughter then talked with the lover. "He is verbally abusive," she said wearily. "He's always accusing me of sleeping around, going out with other guys. He is on some power trip. He calls me lots of names, and he has a little penis. Short men [usually] have that problem." Officer Slaughter handed the lover a business card, and returned to the precinct to write up his police report.
