Attempting to Bridge the Gap Between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: The Coke Prank

Today morning, I stumbled upon this 6-million-views video and instantly recognised both cops from Venice Beach. Knowing that cops usually hate pranks and rarely have any sense of humour, I found their reaction pretty cool. Others could have made it much harder on the boys.

Then later in the day, I went to the Drum Circle and when the time was up and the police cars surrounded us, I recognised the young lady copper. So I headed towards her and asked if she had seen that ‘Coke’ YouTube video. As she nodded ‘yes’, I told her that I wanted to say that what they did was really cool. 

“We’re not all assholes,” she replied with a confident smile. [*and a fun comeback too]

“Thank God,” I said while smiling back.

I felt comfortable so I went on, “Honestly, when I arrived here last year, I didn’t particularly like how cops are all over the beach. I even wrote an Article about that ― I’m a writer. But now a year later, I’m actually happy that you guys are around. Lots of outsiders come here and ruin it for us, so again, thank you for what you do.”

We chatted for another 30 seconds, smiled again, then parted ways.

I thought that since most of the times I’m against what cops do and how they behave, when I see well-composed ones who are understanding, act responsible, and can take a joke, I have to let them, and you, know.

I salute you, officer. We sure need more of you.

The top YouTube comment on the video:
It’s a shame you had to prank the only cool cops ever, but it was still funny 😀.


EDIT (7 November 2018):

Before resharing the article I was making sure the YouTube link is still available, to find that the 6 million views became 23.5 million, in about three and a half years. Talk about a viral video. She must have been relocated as she hadn’t been around for the last couple of years or so.  



ALSO VIEW:

Attempting to Bridge the Gap Between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Officer Roberts

Attempting to Bridge the Gap Between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Sergeant Pepper

Attempting to Bridge the Gap Between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Evolution

A Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos

Another Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos 

One More Year at the Venice Beach Drum Circle in Photos & Videos (2017-’18)

Stop-n-Search That Hippy

Banged Up Abroad — My Few Days @ The Don Jail

The Intertwining of Music and Sexuality ― A Djembefola’s Tale

How Drumming Changed The Way My Brain Processes Music

Drum Circle Etiquette — The Do’s and Don’ts 

The Night We Turned ‘Beast Mode’ On