10-8 Double A

Bruce St James

2014-05-06T09:58:00.002-07:00

Bruce St. James is a radio host on a local radio show in the Phoenix Metro Area. I understand he is a better movie reviewer than radio host. He comes across as the typical libertarianesque radio host. Less government, cops are too heavy handed “Its not a riot until the cops show up” (one of his quotes). For the most part he is pretty harmless until he opens his mouth and starts spewing misinformation. Well to be honest some of it is just his opinion but he is so wrong on every topic and it drives me nuts. I think the first time I heard him was when he was stating that guy who had his nephew dress up in a sheet and a very real looking replica RPG to simulate a Middle Eastern terrorist on a street corner in Phoenix had not broken any laws. Well the courts seemed to disagree and I am guessing Bruce never read the endangerment statute that he was charged with, but it was his opinion and he as an American is entitled to be ignorant to the laws and even entitled to spew his ignorance for everyone to hear (while getting paid to do it is pretty impressive).

The next time I heard him he was talking about some shenanigans at the City of Phoenix and pension spiking (which I agree that there is some abuse and much of the spiking practices need to stop) and he made some comment about it going on because police unions pay off the elected officials so they don’t put an end to it. No empirical data to support his position, just a statement. Never mind the fact that a police union can only contribute roughly $400 to any given candidate, even if the largest group of unions that are aligned for political donations got together for one candidate gave the full amount each candidate would get a maximum of $10,000. Now that is not to say a politician is not going to sell their soul for 400 bucks or even ten thousand dollars, but lets’ be realistic. The city was giving away millions, do you really think a few bucks that can be scrounged together is going to buy off millions of dollars a year of waste? But just blowing out your ass wild statements without empirical data to support them is much more fun and better for ratings in this market.

A while after that I heard him talking about the war on drugs and how President Obama commuted the sentences for a few people he felt were incarcerated too long for “minor” crimes and such. One of those was Stephanie George whom Mr. St James described as just getting caught up because her boyfriend stored some drugs and cash at her apartment. While it is true that her boyfriend claimed to be the owner of said drugs and cash, let’s look at this in a little more detail. She was not sentenced to a mandatory 25 years because of this single arrest. She had 3 previous crack cocaine related CONVCITIONS not just arrests. Keep in mind this was during a time when crack was ravaging US cities and murder rates were skyrocketing. In the early 90’s when I lived in New York City crack was destroying the city from within. You could not walk down the street outside of midtown without seeing empty crack vials all over the ground. In some places it was so bad you would lose your footing on the thousands of empty crack vials on the stairs of the subway and such. In the early 90’s the murder rate in NYC hovered around 2000 people a year. Now its closer to 400 a year, a massive reduction. Cities and states struggled to curb the violence that crack was bringing to our cities. Thus the mandatory minimums were developed to keep repeat offenders from continuing to dole out their poison and death. In Ms. Georges case she had the previous three convictions for dealing and using crack cocaine and was found with 1.2 pounds of cocaine ($15,000 value), the equipment to convert powder cocaine to crack. And $17,000 in cash. All of which belonged to her ex boyfriend who paid her to care for all of these items and contraband. So let’s be honest about her culpability, she was an active participant in wholesale distribution of crack cocaine. Bruce commented that it was not a violent offense which in itself is true and was excessive in sentence. What most non cops do not realize is that 95% of murders fall in to two categories. Drug rips and Domestic Violence. DV murders can be lovers, or any family relationship and drug rips are what the news calls “a drug deal gone bad” , more specifically an armed robbery over drugs or drug money gone bad. But I digress. The remaining 5% are for all of the other non drug and DV related, types like road rage, one neighbor kills the other over too much noise (it happens) and the ultra rare random murder. So yes, her drug crime was not violent per se but the violence that is a byproduct of said drugs is a very real component that Mr. St James left out of his blathering of dribble.

I really like KTAR but when he is on as soon as he starts talking about anything of merit I am forced to change back to the depths of NPR where I know its slanted because I cannot take the complete reckless disregard for the truth. There I was driving somewhere channel surfing and I hear them talk about “gang related” issues, well dealing with gang members regularly and having two gang members currently serving prison sentences for threatening to kill me with their gang, I became interested. It was an NFL member getting kicked out or something for gang activity. Bruce states that he has quite a bit of experience riding with the gang unit and states from his expert opinion that he was not a gang member but “gang related” or the correct term “a Gang Associate” someone who affiliates with known gang members but is not an actual member. He points out that one of the incidents drawing this attention was the subject making gang signs during a football game. What???? If Bruce were an expert on gangs he would realize that very bad things happen to “non gang members” flashing real gang signs (acting as if there were a member of the gang) and in fact it is reason for a serious beating. Anyone who hangs around gang members knows that until they earn the right to be a member (by whatever means is required for that gang) they are not allowed to say they are a member, flash signs or do any such thing without reprisal. But then again it was his opinion, but at least a few hundred people listen to him and think highly of his opinion.

Now it brings me to yesterday when I got in the car KTAR was on and I hear them talk about an incident in Chandler where 5 schools are locked down over an armed suspect. Well again without having all of the facts normally the co-hosts are voices of reason but this time they jumped on the tardwagon and jumped to conclusions with Bruce. They went on the assumption that Chandler PD locked down the area and five schools because an open carry guy or someone removing a hunting rifle from his car or something. Bruce drones on and on about how it’s legal get over it and how this is being blown way out of proportion. Well in their defense the news was vague, but when is the last time you heard the police locking down 5 schools for an open carry guy out trying to prove his point? Um………Um………Um……..I cant think of one can you? That is because they don’t! Hundreds of times a day retarded people call the police because someone is open carrying and how many of those turn into school lock downs and such? What really happened was a felon with a gun was running through a trailer park pointing the gun at people and later shooting at officers. Not your typical open carry situation is it? Should people get over calling the cops on that Bruce, was that an overreaction? Who overreacted over the situation? You jumping to conclusions or the people who called or the cops?

When you tell people to calm down over open carry rifles Just remember this, when it comes to open carry with a rifle Adam Lanza and James Holmes were both legally open carrying rifles right up to the moment they committed the atrocities.

At one point a while back I heard Bruce tell people not to take his word because he is a moron and we should look things up ourselves. I had to wonder was he a genius spewing misinformation in an effort to get people to educate themselves or was in fact a moron? I struggled with this because I did in fact learn more by getting frustrated with him, but then I drew the conclusion that he was right, he was in fact a moron, that thinks so much of his opinion he considers it fact. I suppose this comes from being a movie critic where his opinion is considered of above average value compared to other people. So maybe he is just a victim of his other profession. Regardless, I prefer less windbagedness in my libertarian radio host; I prefer Larry Elder. Larry makes his points with empirical data to support his position. And his voice is not as whiney and does not grate on my nerves. Check out Larry at www.larryelder.com

A little something I wrote for Memorial Day but just got around to posting.

2013-09-29T00:25:00.000-07:00

Several years ago while serving in the Navy Reserve I was in Hawaii for training. One Sunday morning I put on my dress white cracker jack uniform, I even wore my favorite dog dish hat that I had carefully rolled the edges just right to look like a salty sailor and headed across Pearl Harbor (the base) from Arizona Hall where I was staying to the USS Arizona Memorial. It was crowded being a Sunday morning, a few boats of visitors had been ferried across to the memorial. As I went across on the ferry I was the only person in uniform other than the two crew members a petty officer and a seaman. I waited to be last to exit the ferry. As I exited I looked down into the water and for the first time gained perspective of the size of the Arizona. I felt a somber peace come over me as I walked up the ramp to the memorial. It was nearly silent even though there were probably 60 people there. I walked across the memorial to the wall of names. There was a Pearl Harbor survivor there visiting staring at the names on the wall. I could tell he was a Pearl Harbor survivor by the Hawaiian shirt and the garrison cap (piss splitter) denoting him as a Pearl Harbor Survivor from BB-44 the USS California, The same ship that my mother’s uncle Kenny would later die on near the end of the war. As he stood watching I noticed it was just he and I and everyone else had moved back. Without thinking about it, I snapped to attention and rendered a ceremonious salute to the wall of service men that died that day. Standing just feet over the very watery grave of the 1102 sailors entombed in the USS Arizona BB-39. It was a powerful and emotional moment for me. Suddenly the Pearl Harbor Survivor standing just a few feet away snapped a tidy salute in a ceremonious tempo. I pulled my salute and did a tidy about face, but in a ceremonious tempo and started to walk back to the ferry with very foggy eyes. The Vet called out to me, “Shipmate” (In the Navy everyone is your shipmate young or old, it’s like calling someone brother) I stopped and turned around. He reached out to shake my hand. I reached back and he said “Thank you”. Feeling wholly inadequate I responded with a crackling voice “No, thank you… for your service... and... sacrifice” He smiled and embraced me. The conversation was rich and memorable as we talked. It was not the official Memorial Day we celebrate in May, but for me it was ever so memorial. Happy Memorial Day, and thank you to those that served, all gave some, some gave all.

Um…Utah….Hello??

2013-08-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

I am not from Utah and I do not live there. I have had occasion to visit there during my many travels. It is a majestically beautiful place in the spring and summer, winter it’s just too damn cold. The one thing most people think of when they hear Utah is "Mormons" and Utah has more than a few of those. By in large Mormons are considered to be mostly conservative folks which is why what is happening in Utah is so strange to me. Robert F. Kennedy once said “Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.” Citizens of Utah, keep that thought in mind as you watch the evil around you rise and the law enforcement become more and more ineffective. Not ineffective by choice but by appointed and elected officials forwarding their agenda and clipping the wings of law enforcement. What is going on seems so counter to the conservative mindset it’s hard to imagine its happening in Utah.

Before I dig in to the meat and potatoes of it I need to back up and tell a tale of two cities. Things will make more sense after I do so. I tried to think of the city most similar to Salt Lake City in the US and I came up with Mesa Arizona. Salt Lake City Utah and Mesa Arizona have a lot in common. Both cities were settled by Mormon settlers and both still have a mostly Mormon influence. Mesa AZ’s crime rate looks something like this 4.13 Violent crimes per 1000 (the national average is 3.9) residents, 34.00 Property Crimes per 1000 residents, for a total of 38.13 total crimes per 1000 residents. Compared to Salt Lake City’s crime rate of 6.46 violent crimes per 1000 residents (again the national average is 3.9), Property crimes 71.21 per 1000 Residents and a total 77.66 crimes per 1000 residents.

I know what you’re thinking, it has to be because Salt Lake is so much bigger than Mesa, right? Well, that is not exactly true, in fact it’s not even close to true. Mesa is the 38^th largest city in the nation and Salt Lake City is 124^th. Salt Lake has a population of about 190,000 residents and Mesa has nearly 460,000 residents, yup surprisingly Mesa has more than double the population of Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City comprises about 110 Square miles so that means it has about 1727 residents per square mile. Mesa comprises 133 square miles which makes the population density something like 3458 residents per square mile. Salt Lake has 391 sworn officers for a ratio of 485 residents per officer and Mesa has 773 sworn officers for a total of 595 residents per officer.

By now you are probably wondering what is going on? How can a city with more than double the population and pretty much worse ratios when it comes to population density and officers per citizens have such a better grasp on keeping crime in check? Culturally both cities are more similar than not. Both have Mormon influence and values associated with its rules and expectations. Both have a grip of Mormons living there. Being that Arizona is a border state Mesa is about two and a half hours from the border so it gets its fair share of border crime and Salt Lake is about 13 hours from the border. Another anomaly particular to Mesa is that Mesa has over 120 Halfway house and 65% of all of the prisoners that get paroled out of Department of Corrections Prisons come to Mesa. What does that mean? It means that it has an above average amount of known offenders in the city.

So why are there such dramatic differences in crime rates? Well first off, the Chiefs of both organizations are as different as can be. One seems to be focused on his next career (politics?) and the other on the task at hand. The chief of Mesa PD is Frank Milstead who is a career cop who pushes his officers to increase street level drug arrests and to actively make criminals lives harder. He has told his officers that he wants criminals to draw the conclusion that Mesa is a bad place to be a criminal. He is constantly tasking officers with more aggressive policing to reduce crime by actively working on maintenance issues like the homeless drinking and sleeping in public, loitering, panhandling and other quality of life related issues; and it has worked, apparently since Milstead has been chief the crime rate in Mesa is as low as it has been since 1963 for crimes per 1000 residents according to AZCentral.com.(Video) Salt Lake on the other hand is run by Chief Chris Burbank who looks more like a politician than a cop. In fact he met with Attorney General Eric Holder about Arizona’s Immigration laws. Wait, what? He met with the AG about Arizona’s immigration laws but Chief Milstead a Chief of a department twice the size of Burbanks from the state that is affected by the laws did not? Mesa is 179 miles about two and a half hours from the Mexican border and Salt Lake is nearly 900 miles and more than 13 hours from the border. Okay, you may also remember him being the face of the anti assault weapons Chiefs after Sandy Hook. I wonder how many of the 6-8 murders a year are committed with assault weapons? I think nationally only 323 murders were committed with all forms of rifle .22 to .50 cal (including all forms of assault weapons and hunting rifles too), the vast majority nearly 9000 were with handguns. But that did not stop him from jumping on the anti assault weapon bandwagon. It seems that he jumps on a lot of political band wagons outside of his state. But why not, Salt Lake City is well and truly under control crime wise right? Oops, that’s not really the case is it?

Chief Burbank tells his officers to avoid stirring the pot on immigration and doesn’t put enough emphases on hassling the drug market down in the Pioneer Park area. He even asked officers to stop citing transients for sleeping in public for a while to simply appease a small group who protested about it. In SLC they rarely book criminals on misdemeanor warrants (Mesa books on all warrants unless they have a medical reason that the jail won't take them) and only utilize these smaller warrants as a last resort basis. Not all of the blame for this fiasco goes to Chief Burbank though, But I still blame him for not standing up and leading to fix it. Judge Baxter allegedly throws most of the charges out for the same things that Chief Milstead in Mesa has his officers do in an effort to reduce crime. Chief Milstead works with the prosecutor’s office to get integrate them into its maintenance projects including one similar to Pioneer Park in Salt Lake. In Mesa there were problems with hundreds of homeless who were wreaking havoc at Gurrero Rotary Park. A zero tolerance approach for a 1 mile radius was adopted and the prosecutor assigned got every case and worked closely with the street officers to help mitigate the issues. Guess what? Crime went down in that area. People could let their kids play in the park again and didn’t have to worry about stepping in human waste or drug paraphernalia. In Salt Lake City Chief Burbank lets the prosecutors further their liberal agenda any way they chose without so much as a peep. Are you starting to see why the crime rates are so different? The difference is SLC says “criminals, you are welcome to do business here as long as you do not cause too big of problems” and Mesa says “Criminals, you are not welcome to do business here and we will do everything constitutionally and morally possible to make you want to leave and take your crime elsewhere”.

I should probably explain something here that most law enforcement officers know and if they do not it's because they are an administrator and not a cop. You rarely arrest a drug dealer for dealing drugs or a burglar for burglary. Drug dealers try to shield themselves from the dope so they have a different person hold the money and yet another hold the stash and so on. Burglars and sneaky bastards, which is they have taken your stuff when you didn’t want them to. Most burglars get arrested for drug possession or drug paraphernalia possession because they are sneaky bastards, but they are dope fiends, but still sneaky. Drug dealers get arrested for loitering since they are not holding the dope. The deal is you arrest them for whatever chicken shit charges whenever you can arrest them and on the rare occasion that you get to arrest them for the actual crimes it’s a good day. But locking them up on lesser charges makes the street safer if only temporarly. Think about this, as the prison population has grown in the US the crime rate has dropped. So the effective model for reducing crime is to incarcerate the 10% that commit 90% of the crime. Salt Lake Officers want to do this but they are not allowed to. Chief Burbank was named Utahn of the year in 2011 by the SLC Tribune. “Every society gets the kind of criminal it deserves. What is equally true is that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on”. So it looks like you have the Law Enforcement you insist on and let’s take a look at the criminals you deserve. How about Curtis Allgier. Read here

I have to make something clear, I am not saying Salt Lake PD is assed up and Mesa PD isn’t. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and both are great agencies filled with great officers. It’s just that they have very different types of leadership running them, which yield very different results. I think the point I am trying to make is, Utah, you are getting the law enforcement you insist on, but is that what you really want? It is clear that the issues do not lay squarely at the feet of Chief Burbank. Its woven into the elected and appointed culture and I don’t know why. It really does not make sense to me. But the District Attorney Sam Gill tries with every possible opportunity to prosecute officers on nearly every officer involved shooting. Even ones that seem so cut and dry, its hard to comprehend. Again, you Utahns are getting what you insist on. Don’t think of the Robert Kennedy quote as the rank and file officers but the institution of law enforcement in general. Is this really what you want?

To compound this issue you have other activist judges in Utah like Justice Nehring who in a recent ruling surmised that although its never happened before but he thinks officer should be responsible for the welfare of a fleeing suspect. That means if a suspect tries to run and gets hurt it’s the officers responsibility and the officer should be allowed to be sued. Um…Utah…Hello? What officer is going to chase any suspect ever again? They could run right into your home and the liability is too high to chase them. It used to be that they would try to stop them from getting into your home now, if they get injured in the process, it’s on the officer. Utah, you may want to start treating criminals like criminals and soccer moms like soccer moms. When you start putting the welfare of criminals at the same level as soccer moms you are sure to end up upside down. Good luck with this one Utah, can you see how this is going to turn out?

Memorial Day

2013-05-25T15:04:00.001-07:00

It is on days like this where a fellow officer is buried that my emotions are full. Though I did not personally know Officer Daryl Raetz, He was a brother officer, a shipmate who served in the Navy and husband and father. Forever bonded as brothers wearing the badge and shipmates serving the country we love in the Navy, together we stood the line between good and evil. For Daryl Raetz his watch ended May 19, 2013 when he was murdered by a hit and run driver. A tragic end to a bright and productive life who sought to do go in the world, but more than seeking to do good, He did good and died doing so.

The Friday before his death I was at the Phoenix Police Academy helping out with the FBI Negotiator School. I was assigned to help with the students going through the evaluation over in the “Tac Village”. I have been there several times on different training events and I always stop to take pause before I enter the village. You see after getting searched and any live weapons removed (it's strictly a simunitions training environment) you walk around the corner and on the wall leading into the village is the names of every Phoenix PD Officer killed in the line of duty. As I was stopped reading each name a fellow officer noticed what I was doing and walked up and joined me in reading the names and quietly whispered “Too many names on that damn wall”. I quietly responded “Agreed”. Neither of us knew it would be less than 48 hours before another name would be added. We both knew and all who wear the badge know that it’s only a matter of time before another name gets added. There are thousands of similar walls around the US and the world. Each and every name has a family that misses them.

In his case the suspect was apprehended. He was an undocumented immigrant. I was chastised by a friend for using the term illegal alien. The suspect had been previously deported for criminal activity such as DUI and furnishing alcohol to minors among other offenses. When he was arrested with the blood of Officer Raetz still covering his vehicle he was arrested for cocaine possession. My friend that chastised me for using the term Illegal alien and said itshould be reserved for criminals who do more than enter the country illegally. Well if the shoe fits…. Immigration reform is something we hear about in Arizona but nearly half of our officers are killed by them. Yet they represent a much smaller segment of the population. Those who live in other states just do not know what it is that we deal with in Arizona. Questions will be asked, answers to difficult questions will need to be answered. Borders need to be secured like they are in Texas and California. (you may think they are not, but look at the seizures in those states compared to AZ)

A tragic week for those of us in the valley of the sun, In addition to the loss of Officer Raetz, Phoenix Fire lost Firefighter Brad Harper in a tragic accident. The FBI lost two HRT members in a training event, the week before Arizona DPS lost a state trooper and in London a member of the 2nd Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Lee Rigby a veteran of Afghanistan. In last few weeks dozens of officers and servicemen serving around the world have lost their lives. This is nothing new. But this memorial day, enjoy your family and friends. Enjoy your barbeques and get togethers. Just take a quiet moment and think of the get togethers and barbeques that are subdued by the absence of a family member or friend who lost their life standing watch on that line between good and evil.

Earnest Hemingway was right

2013-03-05T13:41:00.001-07:00

I am often commented to by people that find out I am a police officer “OMG I can’t imagine doing your job”. Little do they know I think the same thing about theirs. Most think it’s too dangerous or scary; some too gross or can’t imagine having to fight for your life in a lethal force encounter. Some just don’t want the responsibility of the world on their shoulders. Personally I can’t imagine doing anything else. I have done lots of other jobs but this is without a doubt my calling in life.

When I tell people about near death experiences on the job or arresting genuine doers of evil, people are aghast that I enjoy it. Little do they know I crave it. I find so much joy and peace in seeking out those that do evil and bringing them to justice, that it’s hard to imagine that I get paid to do it. Hemingway once said “There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.” When I read that the first time I knew right away that he got it. I posted this quote on my Facebook page and the response from some that don’t get it was “Yikes” from a few and those that get it and do it were like, “Hell Yeah”. Those that say “Hell yeah” do so because it rings like a cord of truth to our soul.

It’s not that I don’t care for anything else thereafter but, it ranks pretty high on the list. Like if I was in a foot pursuit chasing a guy and you threw a medium rare rib eye and mashed potatoes in front of me (my favorite meal) I wouldn’t stop chasing the suspect. Well unless you threw it Uncle Rico style like in Napoleon Dynamite, then I would probably stop and punch you in the gullet for wasting a good steak, then continue chasing the suspect.

Now understand that I don’t think there is anything wrong with the “Yikes” and the “Hell yeah” people. I think that some people are predisposed to being a cop and some are not. Certainly anyone can be trained to do the job; we have all seen that first hand. But those that excel at it genuinely love hunting bad guys; I think that comes from within. We have millions who have served in uniform who get it and understand it. You don’t need to be a cop to get it and understand it.

In my case I have three older brothers who either served in law enforcement or the military, so they got it. I suppose we got it from my dad. He was in the Korean War and after worked at many things including seeking bad men. On the up side he worked as a bounty hunter seeking those that needed to be brought back to justice. I remember him picking me up from kindergarten one day with a bad guy handcuffed to the handle on the dash (we called them chicken bars growing up because you were chicken if you grabbed it) My dad warned the guy to not to look at me. The guy did in fact look at me and my dad backhanded him with a flashlight and split his face as blood splashed on the passenger side window. I crawled into the back of the 1969 VW bug, and the guy did not look at me again. On top of that my dad worked in a covert capacity for the US government seeking evil doers and dealing them death. That’s all I will say about that.

One of my favorite movies is Act of Valor and in that there were many good quotes but this one rings true to me. “War is a county or will; there is no room for sympathy. If you’re not willing to give up everything you have already lost”. Those that put on the badge or the uniform are at war with evil. We will all battle in that war. From it we will bring home scars and injuries. Some physical and some emotional, we will all feel pain and loss. We will all win battles and lose battles. Unfortunately some will lose their life in those battles. Some will lose their soul. Deep down those of us that gets it, keep pushing on to hunt and catch that murder suspect. And when we narrowly escape death or injury doing so, we will be glad, and those that do not feel the same ring of truth from Hemingway’s quote hear our stories, they will not understand why we do what we do.

So on the days where I wrestling some mostly or completely naked bloody suspect, I have to wonder if I should blame my dad for passing along the bug.

H.B. 2204

2013-02-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

In the morning I head to California to attend the funeral for Detective Jeremiah MacKay of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office EOW 02/12/13. He was the final tragic death in the murderous rampage of a crazed ex LAPD officer bent on revenge on innocent people to right his perceived wrongs. The tragic actions of the suspect (I do not write his name because to me his victims are more important to me) will never make sense. His final Victim was Detective MacKay. I did not know him but I go to stand and be counted as one who stood up for a fellow officer.

A video of some of the funeral. It was an honor to be a part of honoring a fallen hero.
Detective Jeremiah MacKay Funeral

Just as in the military when it comes to public safety service the saying all gave some and some gave all is just as true. A political debate on this topic has been brewing in the great state of Arizona. A bill put forth by Rep. Bob Robson makes it so the family of officers killed in the line of duty will have the city keep the families able to purchase medical insurance at the normal employee rate until surviving spouse is remarried, eligible for Medicare or the children are all adults. It doesn’t give them free medical insurance for life just that they get to purchase insurance at the same rate as employees (in my case the employee rate is about $700 a month). It does require the agency to pay the employee portion or in this case the portion for the officer killed in the line of duty after his death.

Most people would think this is a no brainer and may even expect that it happens that way anyway. Believe it or not 5 Republican Representatives voted against it.

Rep. Carl Seel

Rep. Steve Smith

Rep. Adam Kwasman

Rep. Darin Mitchell

Rep. Steve Montenegro

These are the five that felt that organizations should not have to allow the widow of officers killed in the line of duty to be allowed to PURCHASE medical coverage at the same rate as employees. Why? I would be speculating but I assume like most Tea Party folks they think my benefits are too good as it is and I should not get any more, especially if I am dead. If I am dead the far right wing of the republican party think that my family deserves no more bennifit. I mean if I get killed by some felon that the judicial branch failed to keep their oath and let them back out, why should my wife get to buy insurance at the same rate as when I was alive? That seems like a waste of precious tax payer dollars.

I guess it goes back to the Tea Party right that changed our pensions a few years back from 20 to 25 years. Funny thing is in New Mexico an officer can retire at 20 years with 70% of his pay as pension and at 22.8 years 80%. In Arizona under the old system you could retire at 20 years with 50% as a pension and to get to 80% you had to do 32 years. Now you have to give 25 years just to get 50%. I guess cops are worth more in New Mexico to the legislature than in Arizona. Or maybe in Arizona they like to pay a couple hundred thousand dollars to train officers then lose them to other things and stats and have to pay to train up the replacements sooner.

I know police work isn’t that dangerous right? Only like 130 officers get killed each year. But that doesn’t take into account the 60,000 officer assaulted and thankfully not all officers shot die due to better equipment and technology. To those five, I say shame on you. Shame on you for spitting in the face of the family of those officers that gave all, that ran to the sound of the gunshots , that fought a violent subject in a to the death fight and didn’t make it. To you five, I cannot put into words how much disappointment I feel. For decades conservatives enjoyed the benefit of Law Enforcement endorsements. You five will be driving one of the final nails in that coffin. How sad is it that you have squandered the support of Law Enforcement and Public Safety in general. When the public safety pension was ravaged by mismanagement for god sakes Kyrsten Sinema was the only elected official to publicly express outrage. What was the tea party republican response? Extend the time from 20 years to 25 to get a pension and make us pay more each month. Thank you for showing your true colors. Since your spit in the face was metaphorical, I dare you to contact the families of officers killed in the line of duty and tell them personally that you don’t think they deserve to be able to buy insurance at the same rate as employees because their family member that was an employee was murdered. I doubt you will like the response you get.

Oaths

2013-02-03T09:00:00.001-07:00

The other day I was having a conversation with an attorney discussing what is wrong with society. At one point of the contestation I was expressing displeasure with the fact that the district attorney picks and chooses chases to push forward. I had just described the details of a horrible neglect case that resulted in an infant death. I pointed out that the district attorney never charges these because they say, “The death of the child is punishment enough”. The attorneys response was, “At a certain point don’t you think it’s a waste of tax payer’s money to go forward with a case?” I have to admit I was stunned but my response was “Nope”. Conversation was quickly changed by another party and I have to leave before we could debate the topic further.

Now you could argue politics in this matter and certainly the law school she went to could make one draw a conclusion as to the politics taught at that school but I am apolitical. Partly because I have served in the military with both a republican and democrat Commander in Chief. I have worked on Presidential protection details for both a democrat and republican President and I would have taken a bullet for either of them, and I didn’t vote for either. Why because that is the role I chose. I chose to take the oath of police officer to protect others and execute the laws of my jurisdiction.

Now I want to point out first and foremost that I harbor no animus towards the attorney. She is way smarter than I am and a brilliant attorney by all accounts. My problem is not with her at all and certainly not her specifically. My problem is with the mindset we in society have fostered that at a certain point the consequences of our actions are redundant and not necessary. My problem is the prosecutors deciding based on their belief system on what cases get prosecuted. This conversation with this attorney merely triggered this response after festering inside me for a week.

Myself and all prosecutors have taken oaths, both to protect and defend the constitution and to carry out our jobs without malice and prejudice to the best of our abilities. The wordings may be different but its clear the intent is more similar than not.

I have taken several oaths in my life. First the scout oath on my way up to Eagle Scout. Next I took an oath in the Navy and the National Guard. Both of those I effectively swore to defend the constitution and freedom with a means up to and including my life. My oath as a police officer was similar except that I also pledge to uphold and enforce the laws of the state and to project the citizens within my jurisdiction (the entire state I am sworn in).

If I was able to use the logic of wasting tax dollars to make decisions I would make very different decisions on the street. I think back to many situations where I knew that saving the life of a person was going to cause more crime and cost taxpayers more money, but I still did everything in my power to save their lives. Why? Because I took an oath to do my job to the best of my ability! I know there have been situations where I had my gun pointed at an armed suspect and was just about to serve them a dinner of hot lead biscuits when they dropped the weapon. Wouldn’t it be better for taxpayers if I just dispatched criminals the very second I was legally able to rather than trying to peacefully resolve the situation? Well, allowing me to deicide based on taxpayers needs who lives and who dies about as ridiculous as prosecutors deciding which cases are cost effective. I am sorry but if society expects me to risk my life and potentially get killed doing their work, then I expect that my work not be in vein and exercise in futility.

Why do I have to keep my oath to the letter by prosecutors get to dance around the requirements. The simple answer is I don’t. I chose to because my ethos is what drives me. Every man (and woman) has an ethos that drives them to do what they do. My ethos is a personification of the oaths I have taken. I think Tecumseh said it best and this is the ethos that guides my life.

“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life.

Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people.
Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend,
even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and grovel to none.

When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself.

Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled
with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep
and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way.
Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”

So yes both the prosecution and I, and all attorneys for that matter have taken the oath. This is what guides me. What guides you?

RIP John Noveske

2013-01-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

Fans of black guns know the name John Noveske. His company Noveske Rifleworks produces some of the finest rifles to be had. In fact I paid nearly twice as much for a Noveske barreled upper for my patrol rifle than I would have for nearly any other brand. The reason is the quality of Noveske barrels in the combat rifle realm is nearly unmatched.

It’s a sad time in the black gun industry as John was killed in a car collision on January 4, 2013. To John I say rest in peace brother and thank you for making products that I on a daily basis use to defend my life and I do so with full confidence in his product. Gods speed brother, you are and were a true American Badass.

Noveske Rifleworks

Top 50 Law Enforcement Blogs

2013-01-23T17:11:00.002-07:00

My blog is going to be added to “Top 50 Law Enforcement Blogs” Look for it and other interesting blogs and tidbits of stuff over here. Click on the link below and check out my other links to the side as well.
Top 50 Law Enforcement Blogs

Feeling guilty

2013-01-23T14:04:00.001-07:00

(I know I promised more funny stories and I will work on some, but I needed to get this off my chest so to speak)

I know I am outing myself on this but, I’ve been a fan of Les Miserable’s for years. I have seen the musical on Broadway at least 4 times. The Story is great, the music is fantastic. I even have the music to the play in my IPod. So I had the fortune of seeing the new Movie recently and WOW! Amazing. I have never been an Ann Hathaway fan but, her performance was nothing short of amazing. I felt her pain as she sang and acted out the part of Fantine AMAZING! Hugh Jackman was amazing too, don’t get me wrong he owned it but all in all it was an amazing representation of the story and musical. I aint gonna lie I always get emotional when Eponine dies and when Fantine sings Jean Valjean home.

What has me feeling guilty is not the movie or musical. It was event last week that I worked. I have worked all manner of heinous crimes. But like any cop will tell you, when kids are involved it’s exponentially more challenging. The call I went to was an infant death. These are always hard as the parents struggle grasp at the reality of what is happening. Sometimes like in this case you have to use physical force to protect the crime scene. I will not get into too much detail on this case because it needs to be adjudicated first. In general, imagine the deplorable living conditions of a “shooting gallery” (shooting gallery is a place or flop house where heroin users go to inject their drugs and pass out while high) truly a scene right out of the movie Trainspotting. The conditions alone, knowing an infant lived there pulls at the heart strings with titan force. Knowing the circumstances that the infant died in make it nearly unbearable to comprehend.

In cases like this there are many details that get investigated and you have to conduct a thorough and complete investigation. As in any death investigation, you must detach and objectively look at the facts and evidence as presented and avoid jumping to conclusions. However this detachment comes at a price. You become accustomed to death and even immune to much of the emotion that would normally be present until the emotion is triggered later. I suppose all of the death investigations and sad and tragic things we see are what comes out at funerals for fallen officers or close friends. For me in this case, I was tremendously bothered by the circumstances. However, what troubled me more is how little emotionally it affected me. Honestly I felt more emotion watching Les Miserable’s. This bothers me. In a way the metaphorical scar tissue on my soul from the emotional wounds of doing the job have precluded me from feeling the full dose of pain from that incident. But the sad reality is that the pain is like a virus or flu bug and it sits inside us until it makes us sick when the emotional scar tissue that acts like our immune system is weakened. At some point, I will feel the full weight of sadness over this incident. I am certain tears will accompany that sadness, but I will still feel guilty for not feeling more than I do right now. Now understand that we look after each other and several other officer including sergeants and lieutenants checked in on me to make sure I was “okay” and I was fully okay to do the job, I just hate the fact that I am so numb to such a tragic situation. But, like all of the other wounds that built that scar tissue, this too will heal and it will make me better prepared to handle heinous, disgusting, tragic things down the road. So, I guess that is the upside of the job.

Jingle Bells

2013-01-22T13:15:00.001-07:00

So besides being a beat cop, I have a couple collateral duties. I am part time on the SWAT team and part time in our aviation unit. When I fly I am an observer or what we call TFO Tactical Flight Officer. Basically I do the law enforcement function so the pilot can focus on flying. We Fly MD500E helicopters and we have an awesome surveillance plane as well. Most of the time I fly in one of our helicopters and the basic duty is to monitor in a scan mode our normal 4 district channels to listen for stuff to go to as well as two other PD channels for highway patrol and other agencies as well as two aviation channels so I know when my pilot is talking on his channels so I don’t try to talk to him at the same time when he is talking to tower or other aircraft. I run the same computer we have in a patrol car, a spotlight and a FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) camera which is thermal imaging which is operated with an Xbox like controller. So you hands are full so to key the mic to talk you have two buttons on floor one to talk to the pilot and the other to talk on which ever of the 7 channels I am listening to I select. It gets busy to say the least. Now you fly around a have to be able to know where you are, where “they” are and describe in a clear enough manner that the bad guy gets caught. Its serious multi tasking. Now factor in leaning out the cockpit to look for things find flying in circles and not getting sick, it gets pretty tricky.

One night a couple years ago shortly before Christmas I was flying as TFO and we had a passenger in the back. It’s always neat to fly around Christmas time because its fun to see all of the Christmas lights. But since its cold we fly with the doors on, which looking through the curved Plexiglas makes things look funny so I don’t dig doors on very much. It was my first time flying with NVG Night Vision Goggles and they were not set up for me (which I would learn later in NVG School at the local Air Force Base is a bad idea) Within moments of taking off my inner ears let me know they were not happy to be flying. Looking though the curved glass and flying in circles did not help the nauseous feeling in my gut.

A few calls into it were flying circles around a house and I am keeping the spot lot on the target while officers search in side for a suspect. My job is to notices any squirters (people who come squirting out of the building running) and start calling out their description and direction of travel and talk the ground units in to apprehend them. My pilot asks me on the intercom (ICS) “Hey, you ok?” My response was something similar to Ving Rhames line from Pulp Fiction when Bruce Willis comes down to the basement of the pawn shop to free him. “Nah, I’m pretty freaking far from okay” He could tell I was struggling to not puke. I must have looked pretty green even in the darkness. He says “Okay I will level out a bit, fly a wider orbit and when we are done head back to the hangar” and when we are done we start to head back to the hanger and another priority call came out and he does an banking S turn to change direction to head toward the call.

For 68 minutes I had been doing everything in my power to not barf but that was too much. I put my hand up to my mouth, moved my mic out of the way and up it came. I didn’t want to clean it up so like a champ I swallowed down the first batch, which pretty much guaranteed a second batch which was now blocked by my hand so it took the path of least resistance, out my nose. Yup, peas carrots and Raman noodles shooting out my nose. I moved my mic back down and shouted “barf bag” and reached back to the lady in the back, who promptly threw a barf bag at me. I’m retching my guts out and my pilot gets on ICS “No, no, no I’m a sympathetic puker” he looks left away from me pulls collective, shoves the cyclic forward and starts singing jingle bells to distract himself between radio transmissions to the tower. “Jingle Bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way….Falcon five are we clear for direct approach…negative on gecko approach….request direct approach…Jingle bells, jingle bell” We came skidding in and I pulled my mic cord and jumped out to finish my business.

After when I was done cleaning up myself and the helicopter the lady in the back and pilot were both laughing at me and she said I heard you ask for a barf bag and wave your hand like “Look bitch, hand me a barf bag now! So I threw it at you as soon as I could”. We all laughed. I haven’t barfed again since. I now have my NVG set up correctly and my pilot still sings jingle bells from time to time to make me laugh. The rest of the guys made me special barf bags with my name on it and a happy little picture of me. I still get grief about it every time I fly. Good times to be had by all. But I won’t eat Raman.

Officers Newton and Pauli

2013-01-19T22:52:00.001-07:00

I read through my posts and it seems like it’s been a while since I posted any funny stories. I will lay off the hard stuff and write about something a little lighter, so here goes. For the most part these days I pretty much forget about what happened at work the night before then some time down the road someone says something that causes you to chuckle, and people think your coo coo for coco puffs. Someone said something the other day and it reminded me of this funny story.

A few years back I was working as an FTO (Field Training Officer). That’s when you train a newbie the ropes, teach them how to apply what they have learned in the academy in kind of a walk before running environment so rookies don’t go out and get killed their first week. In this case my OIT (Officer In Training) was a veteran officer that had been terminated but had been rehired by the agency. I avoided getting involved in the why he got terminated however, I assume that since he was hired back and given back pay for the time he was separated from the agency it was one of those wrongful termination situations. Regardless he was a vet so it was more like we were partners and I just had to write evaluations about his performance and since he was a good cop it was easy.

One of our first nights we were out trolling around midnight in a high crime area and a car flagged us down to tell us there was an extremely drunk guy stumbling around nearly waking into the street. So we pull around the corner and just as described is an intoxicated male subject. He looks back at us as we approach then he takes off running, Or stumble/running. My OIT had already checked off on the radio that we were going to be out with the guy but we didn’t feel a need to report he was running yet and get a bunch of cops flying our way lights and sirens and since his motor skills were impaired, I was pretty sure we could catch him. My OIT speeds the car alongside then in front of him then up a drive way to pinch off his path. I open the door and miss hitting him with the door by inches. Suspect turns and runs the opposite direction; I jump out and take off running after him back towards the rear of the car. The car was still moving when I jumped out so the car was nearly halfway passed me by the time I started running. On about the third or second and half step I failed to take into account the elevation change between the sidewalk and the curb down the street. Being more top heavy than normal with my vest and equipment I feel myself falling forward. Picture Velma from Scooby Doo running with that forward lean she had, but when she needed to her legs would speed up to that blurry speed and she went faster. I desperately try to peddle my legs faster to try to compensate, but no blurry speed for me, I was already at a full sprint, at least for the two and half steps. No love, I feel it coming so rather than do the superman slide I do the TJ Hooker tuck and roll, we call it the SWAT roll too (vintage swat videos). My roll was pretty successful, for the most part. With the exception of thumping my melon mid way through, causing a flash of white in my vision and possibly concussing myself it wasn’t too bad. I was back up and running without even missing a step. My OIT was next to me by now looking at me like Whisky Tango Foxtrot. He had no idea why I chose to do a sweet tuck and roll in the middle of the street for no apparent (to him) reason.

We round the corner together and apparently suspect failed the TJ Hooker tuck and roll of his own and was getting up and we didn’t have enough time to slow since the train was a movin, me at 250Lbs and my OIT at least that it probably felt like freight train hit him. We start cuffing him up as a car is approaching us. They roll down the window and my OIT says “Keep moving, nothing to see here” Which is the typical cop line and it’s fun to say just to say. The man in the car says “I just want to make sure that Officer that fell is OK”. I felt like I left my dignity back in the street where I did my SWAT roll, but this confirmed it. I assure them I am fine as we pick suspect up off the ground. He is spitting out dirt and grass as we walk.

This was at the height of the “Four Locos” fiasco where someone had a bright idea of mixing malt liquor and energy drinks. Normally they would pass out from being drunk but now they were full of energy and ready to fight or do other stupid things. So we are trying to ID this kid. My OIT asks him his name but as he is saying it he keeps spitting out dirt and grass making a “Spitzth” sound. My OIT asks jokingly “Is that spelled one Spitzth or two”. The OIT asks his height with a heavy slur “I’m nine feet six inches” the suspect says. I laugh and respond “Dude your are not nine feet tall, you’re a Hispanic male and historically you are probably going to be five feet four inches to five feet six inches tall” in the same slurred speech “Fu#$ you, I’m nine feet six inches tall” After a few minutes of mumbling he comes to the realization he is in fact five feet six inches tall.

He starts complaining “You mother fu#$ers kicked my ass” I laugh and tell him, “I am sorry but you got your ass kicked by Physics, Primarily Newton’s first law and that a body in motion tends to stay in motion and Pauli’s exclusion principal that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time” He pauses, “well those mother fu$#ers Officer Newton and Pauli kicked my ass then.” He is so drunk in fact he has no idea what I am telling him and the fact that he was arrested for being drunk on campus and assaulting a teacher at high school leads me to believe he may not be the best student. In fact this little gem turned out to be a genuine menace to society. He later (all while still being a juvenile committed a string of armed robberies including one where he forced the victim into the trunk of her own car and kidnapped her then stole her belongings at knife point). We took him home to his mother with a coupon to return to court at a later day for being a minor consuming alcohol.

Later we both laughed about my tuck and roll and how awesome it wasn’t. But in reality as lame as I looked, I would have looked way more lame if I just slid into home plate right there in the street.

The Rules

2013-01-17T14:21:00.000-07:00

Last night I respond to a disturbance call. I find one of the parties involved away from the scene. The guy is huge so as I am talking to him I put on my carbon fiber knuckled gloves. The poker match had started, and me by putting on my gloves it was like I threw a big ass bet down after looking at my cards. I did not know at the time but he was an old school criminal and he knows the rules of the street. He metaphorically looks at his cards and folds. He knows respect gets respect and static gets static. He politely tells me he has served five different prison sentences for nearly 20 years and knows the rules and does not want trouble. This means he has at least once, been at the crossroads of “The easy way and the hard way” with the cops before, so he knows the pain that comes with the hard way. He knew the cops had been called so he was smart enough to not have any weapons or contraband on him since he was expecting to get contacted by the police and being a seasoned professional in the justice system knew the situation would likely not lead to his arrest.

Now just because we are using please and thank you’s and I am not kneeling on his head with him spitting out blood does not mean I am not aware that this is a person to keep my guard up and never turn my back too. History has shown it could pop off at any time and just because he is being cool now, doesn’t mean that he isn’t in his head, planning to hurt or kill me. I know that as I am talking to him I am envisioning scenarios of things he might do to attack me and what my response will be. Our interaction is congenial and in the end he is released because the disturbance has not risen to a criminal level. As he is starting to leave (me still watching him until I am safe to stop) he asks “So what do you think of all of these new gun laws” Earlier in the day President Obama presented his first 23 steps to reduce gun violence. I responded “well I like the fact that they are looking to tie the mental health to background checks and stiffer penalties for lying on the application and such, but banning high caps and assault weapons is not going to be terribly effective. In the end I’m still gonna have mine and your still gonna have yours” and I chuckle. Understand that this is a person who has been prohibited from firearm possession since his first felony conviction in 1990. Him having a single bullet is a crime. He chuckled “well…you know how it is” I quipped “so will you start obeying the new and improved laws” he laughed “You know the laws don’t make no difference to me” My response “tru dat”. Then we went our separate ways.

So later the same night around 2300 hours and I am finally getting a chance to eat my Double Double with grilled onions. I hear a shooting call come out. I cram into my gullet as much as I can and run out to my car. I respond to the scene which ultimately ends up being a murder scene. I am tasked with certain tasks which I complete and report back to the scene supervisor so he can brief the homicide detectives when they arrive. Not to toot my own horn but beep beep, I’m kind of an intel expert and have access to more databases than the average officers from my time as a criminal intelligence detective and the scene supervisor recognized this so I get those tasks. The last few hours on the call I am stuck freezing my nuggets off in the uncharacteristically cold weather on the outer perimeter. Since its 0200 in an industrial area there isn’t much traffic to move along so my duty is pretty much raise the crime scene tape when the detectives arrive and let them into the crime scene.

It’s during this mindless time that my mind wanders to try and comprehend how the new gun laws announced earlier today will impact this crime that I am standing at right now. The gun used here was not an assault weapon and it didn’t appear to be a high capacity gun either. It was a small caliber, pistol most likely based on the spent casings found. The victim was a lifelong criminal with a longtime addiction to illegal drugs. Statistics will ultimately bear out that he knew the suspect and they too were a criminal and probably a 90% chance that this was a “drug deal gone bad” and the suspect was a prohibited possessor of firearms. So what has changed?

It got me thinking, so banning high caps from law abiding citizens that haven’t done anything wrong yet is kind of nutty. I hear the common phrase that normal people don’t need them so they shouldn’t have them. It seems to be a common belief that only Military and Law Enforcement should have high capacity mags and assault weapons. Okay, so let’s dissect this. It’s likely that there are people bad enough in the world that cops and military need to be armed up to deal with them. But the average citizen that hasn’t done anything wrong shouldn’t. For demonstrative purposes I will use hyperbole to illustrate this.

When I am at work in uniform or when I was in the military I am fully capable of possessing these tools to defend others, but when I want to defend myself at home in my jeans and T shirt I should be limited to low capacity mags and no assault weapons. So when I am willing to die to keep others safe it’s okay but not when I am off duty at home. Well guess what I am still willing to die to protect myself and family. And if my NFA registered SBR with a 30 round magazine is the first weapon I grab, I will use that tool off duty as well. So when I am not at work I am now not worthy or capable of buying or possessing these weapons because what? I may go on a shooting spree in my civilian clothes? Or I may go in a shooting spree because I have 30 round mags and I won’t if I have 10 round mags? I can’t be trusted when I am off duty but I can when I am on duty. So we will take away the ability of those that don’t commit the crimes to posses these tools because we don’t want criminals to commit crimes. Right?

Look, I am more motivated than the average person to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and nut jobs but this makes no sense to me. I am all for linking mental health to the background checks and actually prosecuting those that lie on the applications. What is tragic is that it took a tragedy like Sandy Hook to make this happen. I just don’t see how restricting those that don’t commit crimes will solve the problem. In fact I am going out on a limb and going to call it now. The ban will go into effect and there will be another tragic school shooting. There I said it. Does anyone besides me find it ridiculous that David Gregory committed a crime by showing a high capacity magazine on TV? That makes sense to someone? How about making it legal for David Gregory to show the magazine on TV (as long as he doesn’t use it to commit a crime, he is sane and not a felon) and lock Mr. 5 trips to prison up forever instead. What is the likely hood that David Gregory is going to feloniously kill people or steal from them or assault them? Just guessing not very high. How about Mr. 5 trips to prison? What are his chances to commit those crimes? Based on his violent history, I’m going to say pretty good. You, Mr. Gregory and everyone else including Mr. 5 trips to prison is not going to be allowed to posses high cap mags, which in the group do you think will obey this? Who is going to follow the rules of society and who is going to follow the rules of the street?

So standing there in the cold I had to wonder how any of the proposed gun legislation would have kept my dead dude from getting dead.

Lasting change

2012-12-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

I truly believe we all want to make lasting change in reducing violence. Trust me, as a cop on the street you will not find someone more motivated than me to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and mentally ill persons. As a street cop and negotiator on the SWAT team, its a good chance I will be dealing with them at the worst of times. However I think there are many layers to the issue but the easy path is to ban weapons used in tragedies. Will that have an impact? I assume it will have about as much impact as it did the last time they were banned. Yes, assault weapons and high capacity magazines were not able to be produced or sold to the public in the US from 1994-2004 and murder rate average for this 10 years was 7.3 per 100,000 people with a high of 9 and a low of 5.5 per 100,000. From 2005-2011 with no ban and people being able to buy any assault weapon and high capacity magazine they wanted the murder rate averaged 5.5 per 100,000 people with a high 5.7 and a low of 4.7. As you might imagine when you look at just firearm related deaths it mirrors murder in general stats according to the CDC stats. So what is the impact of banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines? It is my opinion that it has little or no effect on crime.

Does this mean more guns, assault weapons, and high cap mags means less crime? Not necessarily. In my opinion, the reason crime rate, especially violent crime is down is due to mandatory stiffer sentences and three strikes laws and such. If you notice, as prison populations have increased, crime certainly violent crime has gone down. Why, because as we all know there is a certain segment in the population that we in law enforcement refer to as the "10%" which are the 10% that commit the crimes while 90% of the population are good law abiding people. Of that 10% 1% of those are the true criminals where nearly all they do is commit crime. They steal or rob nearly every day if not more than once a day. They are predators and they prey on the rest of the population. Keeping the 10% and more importantly the 1% locked up is the key to reducing gun violence among the criminal element.

Let’s look at bans success in general. Alcohol, how successful was prohibition? There are currently many counties in the southern states and Alaska that ban alcohol, where does the term moonshiner come from? How should success be judged? How about drugs, as most of you know illegal drugs like methamphetamine and heroin are banned here in the US, but for some reason I still keep finding them on people when I arrest them. I think it’s safe to say bans have had a lack luster success in the US.

Think of it like this. If I were looking to reduce speed related traffic fatalities should we ban cars? No of course not that is ridiculous. Should we impose speed governors that restrict the speed that vehicles can go? No, that too would be ridiculous. But what about steeper fines for speeders and more traffic enforcement? Do you think that when a person gets a big fat ticket they may slow them down, at least for a while?

The vast majority of murders of victims by an unknown suspect are committed by persons on parole or probation. That means they have been convicted of a crime and are subject to court supervision in lieu of incarceration. Parole being for a prison sentence (felony crimes) and probation being for a jail sentence (Misdemeanor crimes). As much as we would like to believe otherwise there is a certain section of society that is just bad and are going to do bad things to people. For example, of the last five law enforcement officers murdered in the state of Arizona, 4 were by subjects with a violent past and were on parole or probation at the time of the murder. All four should have been incarcerated at the time of the murder but were out on a plea deal or overcrowding issues. One was just plain crazy. He talked to aliens and feared the world was ending and went on a murderous rampage. Now this is reflective of society when it comes to murders by unknown subjects. The vast majority have been and should be incarcerated at the time of the violent act. Some are just seriously mentally ill. Now obviously not all mentally ill persons are violent, we all know that.

So how can we make lasting change? First of all we need to stop treating mental illness like an STD. We NEED to treat mental illness like medical illness so by removing the stigma so that parents feel comfortable getting their kids that need treatment the treatment they need without fear of the social stigma that is currently attached to mental illness. It’s no different for adults either. The vast majority of people who find out someone has mental illness seek to stay away. I once took some training with the state mental health provider and one exercise we had to wear a headband with a diagnosis on it and see how people treated us. It was astonishing to see even when people in the class that knew it was an exercise saw your diagnosis still responded with a facial expression. People until this changes, we might as well buy guns and bullets for the mentally ill persons with violent tendencies. What needs to happen is a link to firearms background checks that those that have been petitioned against their will or institutionalized for mental health have a flag pop up on a background check just like a criminal or domestic violence history does. Now In addition I think that the address mentally ill persons live at needs to be flagged as well so no guns are sold to the rest of the household unless it has been petitioned and approved by the court. And down the road the person who has been institutionalized as well can apply to get his rights restored if he chooses to, and if approved by a court order can again purchase guns. Until we do this, there will be no lasting change.

As far as the most violent among us. I firmly believe that there are two parts wrong with the judicial system. First, County/District Attorneys are elected and not appointed. This makes a scenario where in order to get re-elected, they push for a high “conviction rate” by offering sweetheart plea deals to get a “win”. When they go looking for votes they can tout their high conviction rate. Now the second part I think would cure that problem as well as the rest of what I consider the problem. If Judges, Prosecutors, Department of corrections and parole boards were able to be held civilly liable for going outside of the sentencing guidelines, they may second guess putting violent people back on the street.

I think back to a public sexual indecency case I had where a subject would expose his genitals to women and children. In this case the child was five years old. When it went to trial I testified as well as other witnesses but the case was heard by a judge not a jury. And in the end the judge said, “I’m pretty sure you did what you are accused of, but you are a young man and I don’t want to ruin your life so I am going to find you not guilty and hopefully this is a learning experience for you”. WHAT??? How would you feel if when he progresses his sexual perversion molests your child? I also had an armed robbery suspect that was caught on video robbing a pizza store; the video was so good that I recognized him by name. A photo lineup was shown to the victims and they all picked out the suspect. He was caught the next day with the gun, the money and the pizza box. Now understand that the state legislature and passed law in sentencing guidelines that the presumptive minimum for this type of offence is 3.5 years in prison for a first offense and 7.5 years with previous felony history. This suspect had multiple felony burglary and drug charges in his recent past. He pleads guilty to armed robbery a class 2 felony. His sentence??? 3 years probation. He gets to live out in the free world check in with his PO once a month and promise not to commit any crime or do drugs. Well, even after 4 drug arrests later do you think he stayed incarcerated? Nope. If you were the three victims he robbed after this, wouldn’t you have some words for the court personnel who let him back out?

If we remove the immunity from the judges and prosecutors whenever they go outside the statutory minimums set forth by the legislature, the streets would be safer. That’s not saying they don’t have discretion, they can still go outside for persons they feel deserve the discretionary relief. But they can just be liable just like the rest of us are when we do stupid stuff. Now I fully understand that not all persons that commit crimes are evil people and don’t deserve a chance. I think in those situations the judge can offer a reduced sentence. It’s just if that guy goes out and rapes or kills someone, the family is allowed to seek civil remedy. That’s what happens when I go outside of the laws and policies of my agency. It’s not like I’m asking for anything that we as police officers don’t live with every day.

I truly believe that this would have a significant impact on keeping the most violent among us, behind bars longer and keeping less of us from becoming victims. I think this would have a lasting impact. Let’s face it, when I pull a car full of gangsters over, can I assume that they A) are abiding by the law that they are prohibited from possessing firearms and B) are not going to have a high capacity magazine or assault weapon? No, because my experience and history has shown the only people affected by bans on weapons are those that obey the law. Criminals for some reason don’t seem to share the same concern for obedience to firearms laws or any laws for that matter. But in prison it’s next to impossible to get a firearm and certainly harder to store in your “prison wallet” than a shank. But prisoners still violently assault each other on a daily basis. Why would you expect them to not do this on the outside?

So keep those that seek to do evil locked away longer. In a pre Donaldson v. O’Conner world that is what we did with our mentally ill. Surprisingly mass acts of violence are on the rise after we stopped doing this and cut funding for the mentally ill among us. If we take better care of our mentally ill and lock those away that have proven themselves unworthy to live among us. Now understand, there are good people who make bad choices and end up in prison. Those are the ones that deserve the exception on sentencing, not the violent career criminal.

HTG Eureka (Black Rain Ordnance)

2012-10-31T11:34:00.003-07:00

(It should be noted that Black Rain Ordnance purchased HTG recently so if you have questions about suppressors contact Black Rain Ordnance in Neosho Missouri directly 888-836-2620. I do not know if they plan to make the Eureka still, personally I think it has a very strong place in the LE market but contact BRO if you have questions or are looking to buy one of these suppressors. Black Rain Ordance)

A patrol rifle is in my opinion a critical tool in the modern police officers tool box. It gives officers much greater range to deliver accurate and controlled fire when needed. This gives officers much greater opportunity to find adequate cover for the situation. In the environment that I work (suburban) most distances are a house or two away so the typical distance is 30-50 yards. With and handgun under perfect conditions and what not, could I make a head shot if needed? I have done it on targets at the range but they were not shooting back and such so, would I be willing to bet my life or a fellow officers life on a handgun shot at that distance. Not unless it was my only option. Now with a rifle, that’s a much easier shot. At that range you can even select which portion of the head you want to target.

My personal patrol rifle has evolved from a department issued Colt 6920 (a great weapon) to a Noveske 10.5 Short Barreled Rifle with Aimpoint micro and not too many other gadgets. I do have a weapon light. Currently I have been on a massive weight loss kick for my rifle. With weapon light and optics I have it down to 6.5 lbs. Now this is after having it a nearly 9 lbs. with Trijcon optics massive weapon light, forend grip hydration pack, just kidding no hydration pack. But after having it strapped to my chest for hours at a time on SWAT callouts I decided to lighten it up. I spent lots of money buying fitting and replacing with even lighter items to get my weapon as light as possible.

However I recently took a major departure from my weight loss kick on my rifle. During basic SWAT school and more so in HRT (Hostage Rescue Tactics) school we did lots and lots of live fire in different shoot houses. It was there that I really felt the teeth loosening, bone shattering blast of a 10” rifle. I remember in one scenario I was slicing a door way on a “Slow and deliberate” search and had to engage a threat into the room. As I shot into the room my team that was stacked up to my right was getting blasted by the concussion. Now it’s not quite as bad but it’s close to a DD (Diversionary Device) going off in their face. Now I’m not looking to upset their OODA loop but the reality is with a blast that prominent you may be jacking up your team and momentarily putting them in a reboot or flinch.

So with this I decided to acquire a suppressor for my weapon. The choices are abundant. I was looking for the best performance in the smallest package I could find. Weight was not my first priority but length and noise reduction were. I settled on The HTG Eureka. Its 4.5 in in overall length and that is noticeably shorter than most of the competition in the 28db reduction range. I found a dealer SEDNAtek and placed my order. If any of you have any class III needs Rob at SEDNAtek is who you should contact. He is knowledgeable and very helpful and has a keen understanding of LE needs. He contacted the ATF on my behalf and explained the LE use this was for and the ATF expedited my form and I got my tax stamp in an exceptionally short time.

I have to be honest, I was blown away at how much it cut the noise and flash down. With a standard A2 flash hider my rifle is a fire belching boom stick. To say its LOUD is an understatement. I cannot even imagine how much pain my ears would feel firing it with unprotected ears. However with the Eureka attached I can shoot it without any hearing protection without any discomfort. I do not have any empirical scientific data to support how much reduction there is, I will use my favorite Napoleon Dynamite unit of measure, it’s a butt load of sound reduction. The massive fire ball that is even visible during the day time is gone. It’s pretty amazing. Now factor in that when it’s threaded on it only adds about 2.5 inches of length to the weapon over an existing flash hider. AMAZING!!

I put it on my 18” barreled SPR precession rifle and with hearing protection on I could hear the bullet hitting a steel plate at 300 yards louder than the report of the weapon. And suddenly I have this nasty thwangy spring sound I have never heard before that is louder than the report of the weapon. I guess the boom is normally so loud you can’t hear the recoil spring and buffer moving. Now I can. I guess the longer the barrel the better the results. But even with my shorty it’s fantastic.

I put about 300 rounds through it and was surprised how much change there was to my zero. I’m a firm believer in rechecking zero after ANY changes to the weapon. Just because you never know.

Do suppressors have a place on a patrol rifle or entry weapon? In my opinion unequivocally yes. The weight penalty well worth the reward.

Vets

2012-01-26T08:21:00.010-07:00

Having worn the uniform of two branches of this great nations military I feel a keen bond with our nations veterans. Over the years I have met a few veterans that stand out and touched my heart. The one that comes to mind is Sal (not his real name). I had known Sal for a few years an alcoholic transient (Bum, homeless guy, hobo, vagabond or choose your preferred label) for years. He was friends with Steve (not his real name either). Both of them were always respectful and cooperative with me over the years. I made it a point to check in on them every so often. Sometimes I was dispatched to calls requesting they be moved along and other times I just stopped to check on them. I would check them for warrants and ask if they wanted to go to jail. In the hot summers and cold winters sometimes they actually wanted to go to jail for a cool or warm and safe place to sleep. When they said they didn’t want to go to jail I left them about their business of drinking themselves to death. I make them pour their “Steel Reserve” out if they had an open container rather than giving them a ticket. I have never been a “stats” driven officer. I tried to focus on doing what was right. I figured life was hard enough for them living on the street, I didn’t need to make it harder than it had to be.

I ran into Sal one day in a stinky alley in my area. I was asking him about how his friend Steve died in the park a few days earlier. He was telling me the story and the prosecutor who was riding along with me was truly devastated by the circumstances. He said Steve had been having alcohol seizures and when he came back to the park he saw him non responsive. Then he said “being a former repertory therapist I started CPR and sent someone to call 911”. I said "are you freaking kidding me Sal you’re a repertory therapist?” He said “yeah, for several years, but I couldn’t save him he was too far gone when I got to him”. We talked some more as I had him pour out his beer. He told me he had been in the Navy, he said he worked his way up to chief warrant officer. Being a former Navy man I know how big of a deal this was. He said he got busted down to E6 when he got his first DUI then worked his way back up to E7 (Chief) now for those of you that don’t know but advancing in the Navy isn’t as easy as some branches. We talked about how he lost his home and family and now lives as a bum in a stinky dirty alley in the crapiest part of town.

It was remarkable to see that Sal was in fact a contributing member of society and had served his country honorably but now was looked down upon by all that drove by and passed judgment. I know for certain the prosecutor riding with me had a polar shift in his opinion on who the homeless population could be. Before leaving I extended my hand to shake his hand and said “Shipmate, is today the day?” In the Navy calling someone shipmate is like calling them brother. He looked at me and said “the day for what?” I responded “the day I take you to rehab to start the first day of the rest of your life getting back what you have lost.” At first he chuckled then he saw in my eyes that my offer was genuine. I could see that his eyes started to tear up as he contemplated what was happening. He laughed it off like it was a joke and pulled his hand away and said with a chuckle in his voice “and give up all this? No, today is not the day”. I responded “That’s fine, but when the day comes that you are ready, will you let me take you there?” He smiled and said “Sure”. We parted ways that day. When we drove away the prosecutor said “I had no idea that people like that lived on the street”. At one point Sal had been the salt of the earth. He was still a great guy. But something in his life had triggered pain that he felt an intense need to numb with alcohol.

Every time I saw Sal after that I called him shipmate he would smile and before I even asked it for the millionth time he would say “Sorry shipmate, today is not the day”. At times I could see just how much it pained him to refuse my help. The problem was like Steve, by the time I got to Sal it was too late. He was too far gone, and even though he had a pulse he was too far down his path to death to turn back. I brought him dinner one thanksgiving and he thanked me but his body didn’t process food anymore as he only consumed alcohol. He was too far into the depths of dying the death of an alcoholic. A few months later the seizures started and not long after that he was found dead, in that same stinky, dirty alley in the crapiest part of town. A g** damned Navy veteran that served his country dying a miserable death in a disgusting place with not even a glimmer of the honor he deserved. It pains my soul to think about it. It pains my soul that I did not get him the help he needed sooner. I often wonder if I had pushed a little harder if I could have saved him. I will never know for sure because it’s too late. I will forever wish that I was able to find out what caused him the pain he felt so I could help him. But that is a wish that will not come true.

Yes he made choices to get where he was but clearly he had a need for help. I recently saw a statistic that 18 vets a day commit suicide. That’s a vet every hour and twenty minutes killing themselves. Vets are 4 times more likely than the population to commit suicide and 8 times more likely to abuse substances. PTSD and TBI’s are real and we as a nation have not done enough to help our vets that need help. I know that it is too late to help Sal, but I can take what I learned from him and when I am on a call, slow down and ask the questions that need to be asked to see if I can get this person the help they need especially if they are a vet. As first responders we will deal with this issue more and more, we need to train and be prepared to help those in need. In the end, we can either be the vets best friend or worst enemy depending on how we handle things.

No gloves, no love!

2012-01-21T17:59:00.001-07:00

A while back I assisted in taking a violent criminal into custody that ended up throwing a wrench onto my personal life. I won’t get into any specifics about the case because has not been adjudicated and will likely end up being a death penalty case. Regardless, when I went hands on with the suspect I experienced a signifigant blood exposure. The suspect was very bloody from the way he was taken into custody (he lost a fight with the land shark that sniffed him out). Now the call up to that point was pretty tense and because we had been preparing for an ambush, when I exited my car I didn’t glove up and grabbed my rifle.

Let’s face it, if I can choose which tool to take to an ambush, my 10.5" barreled AR-15 with Aimpoint Micro optics and light and more importantly multiple 30 round mags (loaded to 28 rounds of course to stay within department policy) is going to be pretty high on the list, much higher than gloves. I was already wearing my vest but as far as other PPE (personal protective equipment) I could have done better. Sure my ballistic helmet would have been a good idea but even the basics would have been a good idea. I had two pair of black nitril gloves in my vest and another pair in the my pants pockets, but waited too long to get them on.

Once the tempo of the call slowed down I should have gloved up before touching anyone. But this time I didn’t and really wish I had. I am a pretty serious germ-a-phobe and really prefer to glove up before touching people regardless. But like I said I didn’t this time. And when I looked down I had his blood covering my hand and running down the back my hand over some scabs from working on my car and down my arm. As soon as I could I cleaned it off and went through three bottles of hand sanitizer to clean up.

Later when the suspect was receiving medical treatment it was determined that he had MRSA, this combined with the fact the he was a little guy and had been in prison for several years, I assumed he got passed around like a playboy so who knows what else he had. So I completed the appropriate blood exposure paperwork and went through the processes prescribed. I went to the doctor several times and they drew my blood several times for testing and gave me some guidelines. Because they had not analyzed the suspects blood yet they put me on the worst case scenario precautions. Among them was no unprotected sex with my wife for six months. There were some other even more intrusive personal limitations given to me that I will spare you the details of. To confirm, I asked, “Okay so no unprotected sex with my wife but unprotected sex with hookers is still good right?” He had a stunned look on his face so I let him off the hook and told him, “I’m joking you know, right?”

Suffice it to say, this momentary of lapse of not putting PPE gloves on had complicated my life comprehensively. Because of no gloves, I was forced into the scenario of no glove no love. I learned now that no matter what when it comes time to touch people, take the time to glove up. Not just for the six months of probation, but just to avoid the stuff you can bring home to the rest of the family.

The choice is yours of which side you support, I made my choice

2012-01-19T12:05:00.001-07:00

On December 9, 1981 at approximately 0351 hours Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner pulled over a vehicle. Before he exited his car he radioed for back up. It seems apparent that Officer Faulkner recognized the subject as someone he knew to have an active warrant for his arrest. Along with requesting back up he requested a paddy wagon for transporting prisoners. While attempting to handcuff a subject that did in fact have a warrant (William Cook) a struggle ensued to get handcuffs on the suspect according to witnesses.

According to four eyewitnesses the brother of William Cook, Wesley Cook aka (Mumia Abu-Jamal) ran from a parking lot across from the traffic stop and witnesses observed Mumia shoot Officer Faulkner in the back. Officer Faulkner fell to the ground on his back and witness said he fired into the chest of his attacker while he lay wounded on his back. The attacker fired four more shots into the officer while he literally stood over him finally shooting officer Faulkner in the head killing him. The attacker tried to flee but collapsed at the front of William Cooks car. Just after 0352 hours approximately 90 seconds after Faulkner requested back up, officer Shoemaker arrived on scene to find Faulkner dead and Mumia slumped over the curb. Mumia was wearing a shoulder holster but his .38 revolver (purchased by Mumia himself) was on the sidewalk next to him. Officer Shoemaker gave him commands to “freeze” but Mumia reached for the gun and attempted to raise it to shoot at Shoemaker. But the chest wound from Faulkner’s gun had sapped most of the strength out of Mumia so as he was struggling to bring his gun back up Officer Shoemaker, rather than shoot and kill the subject uses less force than he was authorized to and kicked the Mumia causing him to drop the gun. Shoemaker kicked the gun away and struggled with the suspect to take him into custody.

Three witnesses on scene confirmed that Mumia was the shooter as he was placed in the paddy wagon. While at the hospital he made a spontainous utterance to the hospital staff treating him “I shot the mother f***** and I hope the mother f***** dies”. So let’s review the facts. Officer Faulkner was shot and killed at a traffic stop. The shooting was witnessed by several people. The shooter of Officer Faulkner was observed by witnesses being shot in the chest as he was shooting the officer in the face. Mumia Abu-Jamal was found at the front of the car driven by his brother at the traffic stop with a gunshot wound from (Faulkner’s gun) in his chest. Next to him was a revolver with 5 spent casings and one unfired round. Mumia was wearing a shoulder holster for the same gun that was laying next to him that he was found to have purchased. Seems like pretty overwhelming evidence right? Well a jury of ten whites and 2 blacks convicted him after two hours of deliberation. He was sentenced to death after three hours of deliberation. His case made it all the way up to the wise nine (US Supreme Court) and his conviction and death sentence was upheld.

Mumia never once said he didn’t shoot and kill Officer Faulkner at trial. His bother never once testified that his brother didn’t shoot Officer Faulkner. He merely stated he was innocent of the charges. He said this because he felt killing an officer was justified. His radicalist Black Panther roots assured this. There are people who feel Mumia is a political prisoner. I am not kidding look it up. Paul Newman, Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream and a host of other intellectuals argue that he is a political prisoner. 16 cities have included him as an honorary member of their city even though he sits on death row. Paris France named a street after him to show their support for this political prisoner. Why, Because its sounds good to them. Somehow the supporters of Mumia seem to be blind to the fact that Mumia’s bullets were found in the back and brain of Officer Faulkner. How does that happen? I will tell you how. In typical radical movements like the Black Panthers they were documented to set up ambushes on police officers (the government oppression) Am I the only person who finds it beyond coincidental that Mumia “happened” to be across from his brothers traffic stop at 3:50AM with a gun waiting? But to the radical left Mumia is a hero and even today you have people posting “Free Mumia” on Facebook and other places every day. What is it in society that makes people think that he is a hero? I cannot answer that. Those that consider him a political prisoner point to the fact that he was denied the right to defend himself. Well at first he wasn’t, but after he repeatedly did not follow the rules and could not contain his outbursts. From the onset, Mumia felt the rules did not apply to him. He should be able to kill whomever he wants to and the court should not be allowed to tell him when he can and cannot talk. He was empowered by the supporters who felt he had been “set up”.

You will need to choose for yourself which side you fall on. But know this. There are groups out there today that are even more radical than the Black Panthers were back then. They not only feel it’s acceptable to kill police officers, they delight in it. Look no further than Youtube and see the comments on officers murdered. I saw one video showing the cold blooded murder of an officer. The officer pulled a truck over and as soon as it came to a stop the driver jumped out and opened fire on the officer as he was getting out of his patrol car. The dash cam captured the whole thing. The video was titled “Making Bacon” and praised the shooter for just “doing what needed to be done”.

One thing I have learned is that wackjobs come in all shapes and sizes. It does not discriminate and encompasses all races and classes. You can never be too prepared or vigilant. I just hope that if I get killed on duty that worthless souls do not delight in my death and praise my killer. I am afraid that not even gods power would be enough to keep me from haunting them deeper into their own misery.

http://www.danielfaulkner.com/bio.html

I was fine, right up to the last call

2012-01-15T21:38:00.001-07:00

“PRESENT… ARMS” the command was shouted to the cordon. Ceremoniously slow (on a four count), I raised my right hand in perfect unison with the group to salute. A few moments later the casket of a slain officer moved passed me. Behind the fallen officer, walked his widow and 7 year old son and 3 year old daughter. The widow clearly grief stricken by the untimely slaughter of her husband, the children not fully grasping the finality of what was happening.

As the family passed me, I moved my 1000 yard stare down to the little children who surely were deeply missing their father. I notice that both children with crystal blue eyes were looking back at me, smiling. I assume that they were raised to like police officers just like their father and not fully understanding what was going on and were happy to see so many police officers with shiny shoes and badges and colorful ribbons. I don’t know for certain why they smiled at me but they did. Without thinking I broke bearing and gave them a slight smile back. At the same time both of their smiles grew and their eyes got even brighter. I would be lying if I told you I saw what happened next because instantly my vision became too blurry to see as tears welled up. The rest of the family passed by and I wasn’t about to break bearing again. The command was given, “ORDER...ARMS”. Again ceremoniously I lowered my salute on a four count and as had been previously arranged, we were given to command “Honor Guard..Post” the cordon in perfect unison made a right and left face respectively to face the funeral and fell into a pre arranged ranks.

The rest of the funeral went on with full honors. There were stories shared of lives that had been edified by the fallen officer. How simple tasks he had done with courage, conviction and honor had impacted people’s lives in a positive manner. To the officer it was just another day at work of serving others. He died on a call that every officer has been on. He was in circumstances that every officer has been in. It was by most accounts a routine situation right up to the moment that the murderous suspect ended the officers life. Except for being murdered, it was just like any other day as an officer. Exactly what we all face every day. It was a touching ceremony and I felt honored to be a part of it.

I was able to maintain my composure right up to the last call. For those of you that have not attended a police officer’s funeral there is a tradition called the “Last Call”. It is something that I can’t talk about without getting choked up. Even as I write this my eyes are blurry. At the graveside the police radios are tuned to a certain frequency and in the silence, a dispatcher gets on and calls for the fallen officer by their call sign. The silence of no reply by the officer is as piercing as a dagger to the heart. Generally three times they call for the officer and three times there is no reply. Then the dispatcher says something to the effect, calling the officer by their call sign, that they have arrived on their final call and are 10-7 (end of shift) forever. At this funeral it sounded something like this. “Mary four thirty one…………Mary four thirty one………..Mary four thirty one……………….. Mary four thirty one is 97 on his final assignment in Heaven and will be 10-7 forever. Mary four thirty one…. you will be missed by all, we will take it from here.”

It is the last call that will make the hardest, salty police officer weep like a baby. It’s not uncommon to here the widow or mother wail and cry during the last call. Its during the last call that the occasional inhale sounds like sobbing blubber. You struggle to regain your composure as your eyes fill up and you hear the officer to your left and right, behind and in front of you sniffle struggling themselves to hold back the flow of emotion. On this day, I was fine right up to the last call. This year is starting off with tragic statistics, 5 officers murdered in the first two weeks. Stay safe, be vigilant and do all that you can do to love your family and let those that you love, know that you love them. Every officer killed in the line of duty, started thier shift just like any other day, not knowing if today was going to be the day. I feel like I leave a little bit of my soul at each funeral, this one more than most.

My two cents, and it may not be worth that

2011-12-26T09:50:00.008-07:00

Top Gear is a car show from Britain on the BBC and is in my opinion the best imported TV show from jolly old England ever. My mother would have argued Rosemary and Thyme was better, but I wouldn’t agree. Top Gear is for car lovers pure car porn. Some of the most amazing and exotic cars in the world driven on some of the most amazing roads in the world. I have enjoyed the show for years and over the years I chose to over look the blatant pejorative political and cultural jabs at Americans. I still maintained my fanship with Top Gear because the show is so sensory and pleasing to me. With the jabs at politics and culture we Americans spawn came the complete and total castigation of American Cars. Let’s face it, we Americans at times give them some of fodder for ridicule. And when it comes to cars, for the most part I have to agree with them, I have only owned a few American cars since my driving career stared in the mid 1980’s, a 1968 Cadillac Coupe Deville, given to me any my brothers by our grandparents. This was a truly fantastic car a 1989 Chevy S-10 and a 1992 Ford Ranger pickup truck. I prefer European and Japanese cars to American cars, what can I say.

Where my sensibilities got offended by the Top Gear clan was when Jeremy Clarkson one of the three hosts said the following regarding public sector workers striking in Great Brittain. “I’d have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they have got these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?” Now this was specific to those public sector workers in Great Britain but I feel a need to stand Lockstep with my brothers and sisters across the pond in public works. I take offense that he says we should have to work for a living like the rest of us. Rest of us? Driving around in exotic sports cars and blowing hard in absurd levels of douchebagary (see the urban dictionary for definition) is work? I want that job and what he makes for doing it. Oh wait, that’s what everyone else is saying to us. They think we don’t work and we make too much for doing what we do? A bit of the pot calling the kettle black, I would say.

Now this attack on the public workers is just a mirror of what is taking place across the Atlantic here in America. Here the Jeremy Clarkson figure head is captured in those that call themselves “Tea Party” (I know it’s ironic right) and they use the Gadsden flag as their moniker. As a former Navy man who served on the USS Constitution which bore this flag in anger many years ago, I take offense to their using this flag, but that’s just my own opinion. Most people have no idea what it represents or its history. I am certain many would be shocked that the don't tread on me motto and flag was used by the south when the north was trying to infringe on their rights to slavery. (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/georgia-to-u-s-dont-tread-on-me/) Anyway, the attack on the so called “Gilt edged pensions” has been going full swing here in America and spear headed by the "Tea Party"(not to the same kind of tea party I had with my daughter and her dolls and miniature tea cup set). I often hear that I am over paid and over compensated for my job. I am told I do not deserve such a “generous pension”. Most times I bite my tongue and hold my opinion to myself. But Now, I will not hold my opinion back.

First off, if you have not been a police officer (or any public safety personnel) you have no idea what I do or deserve for what I do. I do not know how to be a plumber and I would not try to assume that I do. I do know it costs over $100K to train me to do what I do (you can go to law or medical school cheaper). Most days I would do the job for free if I could afford it, because I love doing it so much. Some days you could not pay me enough to do over. Many people try to compare what we do to any other job. It’s not any other job. I was having a conversation with a fellow officer about how our job gets treated like it’s any other job. He told me, “I had a guy who was shooting at me, the first few shots I fired into his torso didn’t stop him. I finally shot him in the face. I walked over and watched part of his brain oozing out like pulp into the street. Another time I had to step over big chunks of human brain and skull of a parent who had just murdered their two children with head shots from a shotgun before turning the gun on themselves. Do people have any idea of the images that go through my mind when I am falling asleep. Horrible things I have had to see and do. Putting myself at risk, to make others safe, then they bitch and moan that my benefits are too good.”

Back when everyone was fat and happy making dot com gobs of money nobody gave two craps about those of us in public sector work making less than them for long term stability and a pension. However, now that those that made obscene amounts of money in real estate and technology and other fields aren’t making as they used to; I am now the bad guy. I get “too much”. Now common sense would tell you it a clear case of sour grapes. But now factor in elected officials getting on the Tea Party Band wagon like the infamous Russell Pearce, Kirk Adams and now Andy Biggs who bow to the wishes of the Tea Party and Goldwater agenda. They recently changed police officer retirements in Arizona from 20 years to 25 years and the contribution from my check to my pension is going up from $400 a month can go up to $800 a month. Senator Biggs is authoring anti police union legislation. That crackling sounds you hear is the sound of the republican party burning the bridges with police and fire unions that have supported them in the past. You will see a shift of police organizations that have for decades supported republicans switching parties. Why? Because these elected officials try to treat police and fire like any other job. Its not!

This is all happening at a time where the agency I work for is charging me $504 a month for medical coverage $114 for dental and $20 for vision plus another $40 in disability and life insurance since the Cities “Gilt Edged” benefits include one year’s salary paid to my family for life insurance if I get killed. So let’s do the math. For these awesome benefits I actually have to pay $1076.00 a month then, I have to pay taxes (just like everyone else that claims that they are a tax payer and pay my salary) about $450 month and you get a grand total of $1473 that I am paying each and every month for my “gilt edge pension” and “Golden benefits”. Most people assume that “they” the tax payer are paying for my benefits. Spare me a little more math, so after deductions, I risk my life as a police officer for $3301 a month take home. With this I am to raise a family, make a mortgage and car payment. Not to mention the several thousands of dollars I have spent on my own equipment for the job (averages between 2-4k a year of my own money I spend on equipment).

I know many may ask why I would do this job for that amount of money. The reality is because I love it, but part of me does it for the stability. Even though the pay is not terribly good especially for the risk, in the end after 20 years I will get a pension as a retirement. Clearly they don’t pay me enough to put millions away by the time I retire, but they promise me that If I will do my job, Save lives when needed, take bad guys lives when needed, deal with all of the filth that society does not want to; after 20 years we will give you a pension.

Let’s take a look at what many propose, doing away with pensions all together for public safety. Is it possible? Sure. But you will have to pay significantly more money up front for the employees to fund their own retirements. Fine. Instead starting cops out at $50K you will need to start them more like $70K and then keep jacking it up to keep them. So you can attract good people who are going to be a) good at it b) willing to do it and c) willing to do it for a long time. At about 3-5 years all officers take a look in the mirror and decide if the scars on their soul and the damage that has been done to them is worth it and if they should keep going. I can tell you that the money is not worth it, not even close. Having to step over brain and skull and hair on the ground over a parent who used a shotgun to commit suicide then going in and finding the two children who are now practically headless due to the 12 gauge shotgun wounds to the head, not even $10,000 dollars pay for just that day is enough. Not to have those images or the images of a brutal child abuse that you had to in vivid detail investigate and document. No the money is not even close to worth it. But knowing that at 20 years I can retire and still make a modest income and care for my family is why I and other continue to stay for the 20 years.

Soon cities will be hiring people who are only there for the money and getting the problems that brings. Then when money is the only benefit, at 3-5 years most will look in the mirror and leave for better options elsewhere or they are just sick of doing it. Now the $150K you spent training them to be cop and years of experience are gone and what are you left with? A force of 3 year officers who are in it for the money. Don’t get me wrong you will still have some good cops who do it for the love of the job and they will stick it out but cities will pay millions more for the mistakes of money hungry cops with little street experience. There is nothing that makes you a good cop except years of doing it. Nothing can but doing it can fully prepare you for this job. So turnover will be overwhelming, lack of experience will create a decay in the system. All the while the Bible thumping Tea Party will watch the Biblical prophecies that of continued wickedness and destruction of society as the world gets more evil. I wonder if they will ever draw the conclusion that their personal attack and destruction of public safeties benefits and thusly the public safety system is part of the evil? I doubt it.

November 12th 1913

2011-11-11T20:50:00.002-07:00

November 12^th 1913 Started like any other day for Marshal Hyrum Peterson. He was the first law enforcement officer in the dusty western town of Mesa Arizona. At the time Mesa was a small suburb of Phoenix with just a few hundred people. The state of Arizona was merely a year old at this time, and Arizona was still very much the “wild west” with towns such as Bisbee and Tombstone and Arizona Lawmen such as Virgil and Wyatt Earp to bolster its legend. At 53 years of age Peterson had spent most of his years working as a farmer on ranches. But for the last five years he was the person tasked with enforcing law and order. He went on about his daily duty of patrolling the town on his bicycle. But this day, November 12, 1913 would end very different for Marshal Peterson.

On this day he witnessed two subjects attempting to steal a bicycle. He pursued them on his own bicycle and when they got to what was then the edge of town near Broadway and Country Club, the subjects fired upon him striking Marshal Peterson five times. Twice in the arm, twice in the leg and a fatal chest wound that struck him in the heart. He died moments later. Marshal Hyrum Smith Peterson was the first Mesa Law Enforcement officer to die in the line of duty. While not the official Mesa Police Department of today, Marshal Peterson was still a Mesa Arizona law enforcement officer, and all of the Mesa officers since regard him as a brother.

It would be another 81 years almost to the day when Mesa would lose the next officer killed in the line of duty. I will get into the tragedy of Officer Steven Pollard at a later time. Today I choose to focus on Marshal Peterson. His murderers were caught and tired in a court of law. They were sentenced to death by hanging, but justice never came for Marshal Peterson. Seven years later both killers were pardoned by then Governor Thomas Edward Campbell. Apparently he felt that the murder of a police officer was not a crime worthy of death and seven years of incarceration was enough and they were set free. Some speculate the Governors decision was based in religious bias, others a political stunt, but nobody really knows for sure. One thing is true, thousands of worthy souls have stepped up to the cause and carried the torch that metaphorically dropped to the ground when Marshal Peterson fell dead. Tens of thousands of times since then men and women all around this country have stepped up and taken on the risk of dying an inglorious death to carry that torch. One hundred and forty times this year so far men and women have stepped up to carry on where their fallen brothers fell. I challenge you to attend the funeral of the next officer in your area that gets killed in the line of duty. You will be welcomed, room will be made for you. Watch their brothers and sisters grieve as the last radio call is put out and the fallen officer never responds back. Watch the family members shutter as the tears roll down their face during the twenty one gun salute. That my friends is the price that some pay to keep you safe.

Senna

2011-10-05T15:06:00.002-07:00

I am often asked by people who know that I am a police officer how I deal with the danger and the horrid things the real world has to bring. It’s hard to explain how you can watch a stranger die in pain and anguish or deal first hand with the ills of society that nobody else wants to. You just do it, partly because, it needs to be done and partly because you have become used to it. Somehow, you learn to switch off concern for danger and get on with the task at hand.

One of the best examples I have ever seen of this was displayed on September 28, 1990. Martin Donnelly was driving the Louts 102 Formula 1 car at the racetrack in Jerez, Spain. As he approached turn 11 (Curva Alex Crivalli) at nearly 170 miles per hour his car left the track and in a violent manner collided with the wall causing the car to disintegrate. Car parts and debris were strewn around the track. At first it was hard to make out, but in the middle of the track was Martin’s limp body, still strapped to the seat portion of the car. His legs were clearly broken and twisted in grotesque angles. The track marshals kept their distance at first because he appeared obviously dead. Fortunately, he wasn’t dead. His legs were however mangled and he never raced Formula 1 again, but he was alive, barely.

The famous Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna who was in the pits getting ready to go out on track ran to the crash location. They were not great friends, however Senna felt a need to go provide whatever help was needed. When he arrived, he helped Dr. Sid Walkins and the rest of the medical staff attend to Martin. Senna was seen kneeling talking to the medical staff holding Martins helmet as they performed an emergency tracheotomy right there in the middle of the track. As soon as Martin was stabilized he was flown by helicopter in Seville, Spain for further evaluation and treatment. Ahead of him was the painfully long road of rehabilitation.

As Senna returned to the pits, ahead of him was the qualifying session for the race. Barely an hour after Martin’s crash Senna was putting his helmet back on, disregarding his own questions of mortality and pressed on. Not only pressing on, but on that day, an hour after helping medical staff rescue Martin Donnelly, Senna set the track record for the fastest lap ever recorded on that track. At the very point where Donnelly had his horrific crash, Senna at 170+ MPH was in a four wheel drift making multiple steering corrections per second over the very spot Donnelly laid apparently lifeless in the track. If you ever choose to look up the video of that lap on YouTube, its, well, I can’t think of any words to accurately describe how amazing that lap is. But it is worth seeing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK6RZdb-Ooo

However, whenever I think of Senna, I think of mind boggling feats of driving at places like Monaco, or Suzuka. But I can’t help but think back to May 1, 1994. For those that don’t know who Ayrton Senna was. He was by most accounts the most naturally talented racing driver of all time. To the people of Brazil who lived in the depths of poverty he was the symbol of hope he was nothing short of a national hero. To the racing world he was a three time world drivers champion who raced with a veracity and passion like nobody else. On that day in May so long ago, he was the penultimate blow to the most devastating race weekend in Formula 1 History. The San Marino Grand Prix held at the Imola racetrack in Italy was the darkest day in F1 history. A horrific crash in practice left fellow Brazilian Rubens Barichello, alive, but too bruised up to race. The next day in qualifying Austrian Driver Roland Ratenberger crashed at nearly 200 miles per hour and was killed. Looking death in the face once again, Senna wrestled what was considered by all an inferior car onto pole position.

For the race Senna was deeply troubled by the loss of fellow driver the day before. He questioned if he should even race. His own team manager didn’t expect him to start the race. The Williams FW16 he was driving was very difficult to drive. He struggled with learning to tame the 1500 pound car with 800 horsepower that had challenging handling characteristics. But, even though he was concerned, he got into the car that day and on lap 7 entered the turn known as Tamburello, a high speed curve. Suddenly his car darted off track and crashed at nearly 190 miles per hour into a concrete wall killing the legend Ayrton Senna. In his cockpit they found a furled up Austrian flag that he apparently intended to fly out of his cockpit in memory of the fallen driver Roland Ratenberger. You see it was customary for Senna to fly a Brazilin flag when he won. That is one thing that really connected him to the people of Brazil. In the poorest Favalas of Brazil they felt connected with Senna when he flew the Brazilian flag on a victory. It’s hard to imagine but it’s rumored that dozens of Senna fans committed suicide when he was killed s because they could not imagine a world without Senna. His body was laid in state for three days in his home town of Sao Palo where millions of mourners came to pay respects.

But this day, even after all of the drama of the weekend, Senna put aside his concerns and not only went out to race, but went out to win. I know I can never have the driving skills that Senna had. But, I hope that I can do my job as a police officer with the same focus and dedication as Senna. Looking the risks in the face and continuing on regardless of said risk, is heroic. I am in awe of people like Senna and a personal friend I work with. Senna did it on the track, But my friend was shot and injured by a suspect. After two years of painful rehabilitation he returned to the mean streets that once tried to take his life. It’s hard to comprehend the level of dedication it takes to keep coming back after such circumstances. I don’t care to be a hero by anyone’s definition. But I do hope to be counted as brave and committed as those that I have written about.

Stranger than Fiction

2011-08-09T13:23:00.004-07:00

It’s an old cliché that truth is stranger than fiction. No place is this truer than law enforcement. Even after 5 years, I still get amazed by things I see, things people say and do. I suppose it’s because we get called to handle the strange and unique situations that most people do not want to deal with. I remember one situation in particular that was in fact strange.

I was called to investigate a guy pooping in the backyard of a vacant home that transients frequented. I was actually quite interested to find the guy, not just because it would be funny or entertaining; but it’s a serious degradation of the quality of life to look out the window and see someone planting sewer pickles in the backyard of the house next to you or in the alley behind your house. I mean really, nobody wants to see that. I check the backyard, of the vacant home. I am careful to avoid lawn sausages. I was there a while back and one of the other officers stepped in a sewer pickle and it was a major hassle to get it off his boots, so I am looking to avoid that inconvenience. The backyard was negative so I check the alley.

I find a guy hiding in an old sofa. It was one of the pull out sleeper kind but, it was just the frame with nothing inside except a partly nude guy. I will call him Sammy (not his real name) is ducked down inside the sofa laying down. I see a tube of lotion next to him and can’t see his hands. I advise him that if he is rubbing one out we are going to have a significant problem. I get him out as my back up is arriving. I ask “are you the one droppin a duce in the vacant house yard?” he denies any felony or misdemeanor pooping. At this point I am not inclined to use more probative investigative techniques to determine if he is in fact the pooper I am looking for. I am more concerned with him reaching his hand down his pants and touching himself as he talks to me. I advise him that it is offending my sensibilities that he is touching himself as he talks to me and I explain how it’s in his best interest to cease this activity. (It didn’t really sound like that, it may have had some colorful adjectives and metaphors and possibly some veiled and not so veiled threats about what might happen to him if he didn’t stop, but that was the point I got across.) My problem at this point is that his activity is public sexual indecency, but in this state I need a victim. I as an officer am not allowed to be a victim of disorderly conduct and such. It has to be an active crime against me like someone assaulting me or something like this. So I am looking around to see if someone, anyone has seen him roughing up the suspect. I contact the caller who called about his pooping and she didn’t actually see him she assumed what he was doing. I don’t blame her, I would not watch for the gritty details either, but it doesn’t help my quest to put him in jail.

So with no luck on taking him to jail we document the contact and the suspicious nature of his behavior; his outfit should have been the tell tale sign of things to come. A white guy, (besides me, the only one in a mile any direction) wearing a derby hat, a vest from a three piece suit no shirt, snake skin vinyl pants and cowboy boots. (rule of thumb, never trust a guy in snakeskin pants and a derby hat) We release him because he has denied us a consent search for drugs and I have no probable cause to search him and to be truthful I am not willing to find any evidence that may link him to the sewer pickle planting incident. So after he is warned about trespassing and loitering and public sexual indecency, on his way he goes.

The next day I was checking the ally much later in the shift to see if Sammy is back. I stop and talk to the original caller and she tells me his is hiding in an irrigation junction box. In this alley is a concrete bunker of sorts. It’s like a giant T to send water in different direction, it’s about 4 feet deep, 3 feet wide and shapped like a giant T. I leave my car on the street and quietly make my way back to this concrete box. I shine my light inside and sure enough, Sammy is in there, surrounded by porn on ever side of the inside of this concrete junction box. But now there is the fact that he is wearing woman’s yoga pants with the crotch cut out so the twig and berries are out and about and he is taking care of business. I ask him what the hell he is doing. His left hand shoots into one of the pipes that makes this den of iniquity a T. Not knowing what he is reaching for, I draw my gun and tell him not to move. I advise him that if his hand comes out of the pipe and into visibility with a weapon, I will in fact shoot him. He slowly pulls his hand out with and drops a baggy of what looks like meth. I keep him at gunpoint until I have the units I requested to meet me in the back are with me. I get him out and realize that his tight whites are around his neck, yep, neck through one of the leg holes and the waistband and yes, his junk is in fact out and about for the world to see. This because he chose to cut the crotch out of these woman’s pants. I cuff him up and the female officer that was backing me up asks him why his underwear was around his neck and not covering his goodies. His response “Pffft” with a look like “duh, why wouldn’t you”.

The bad part of this incident, I know your thinking, what? The other stuff wasn’t the bad part. Nope, I had to climb down into his den of iniquity to retrieve his meth bag and meth pipe. I asked him to tell me where his “DNA” would be found in this little pit so that I could avoid it. I assured him that he would be rather displeased with my reaction to getting his DNA on me down there. I took off my vest and shimmied my not so slender frame down into this hell hole and got the evidence I needed. I will leave it at that. I took him to jail for the drug possession. He admitted that he was in fact the sewer pickle planter so the caper was solved and ended well. And really, how strange is it to take a guy to jail wearing women’s yoga pants with the crotch cut out exposing his junk, wearing a derby hat with tightie whities around his neck. Not quite as strange as the double horse rape report I took, or when the guy jumped out of the house wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and nothing else but it was a still something I could never have made up.

Where the blame belongs?

2011-08-05T10:39:00.003-07:00

I have not been one to jump on an blog about political or social issues. A recent event near where I grew up in Southern California had brought me out of the wood work so to speak. On July 5^th a subject that was apparently being arrested ended up in a physical struggle with members of the Fullerton Police Department and subsequently died. I don’t have very many of the details, only what I have read in the media and in comments of blogs. The only videos I have seen show very little if any of the actual incident but rather all of the spectators reactions. I know many of you that know me will assume that since I am a cop I will side with the cops. Well the simple fact is I have not seen enough information, I have not interviewed any witnesses, I have not reviewed the evidence, i.e. video, and audio recordings; to side with anyone about anything. Do I have concerns with what I have seen (only part of the picture)? Yes I do. Do I think it warrants an investigation? Yes I do. It’s hard to tell what is fluff and what is fact in this case because there is so much emotion attached to it.

The subject that died was a local homeless transient named Kelly Thomas. I did not know him and I am not a mental health professional. Most say he suffered from sczchophreina. Most say he was homeless because of his SMI (serious mental illness) for nearly 20 years. I have read just about everywhere that he was a kind and gentle person. I have also read that his mother had a restraining order against him because he had choked her and stripped naked then urinated on her front porch. Again, I don’t know exactly what happened that night, I wasn’t there, I haven’t reviewed all of the facts so it would be irresponsible for me to comment as to guilt or innocence. Like I said before, there are concerns that should be investigated.

Just about everything I have read has morally convicted the officers. And let’s face it that is the easy path. Our proxy guilt seeps in on situations like this and takes over. We are outraged that a mentally ill homeless person gets beat up by cops and dies. The second easiest place to assign blame is on the family. Why let their child live on the street to be cared for by nobody? That’s an easy place to point the finger too. I am of the opinion that the real blame resides with all of us, you me and everyone we know. I will get to the specific reasons for that claim in a bit. But first I need to explain a few things.

We as society have assigned police officers to deal with the things and people that we don’t want to. We have them deal with the problems that we don’t want to take care of deal with ourselves. If the neighbor is playing his music too loud, we call the police and want them to tell the neighbor to turn down their music. We have the police deal with the criminal element of society because again, we don’t want to. We have officers deal with suicidal persons because we don’t want to. We want officers to take bad guys to jail when they break the rules we make. We also have them deal with our mentally ill. Law enforcement is the gateway to the mental health industry more often than not. You may not like this or agree with it, but it is a fact and you have tasked officers to deal with your mentally ill. Many of you have even called to have them moved along from the bus bench or from the park. You get offended when they pull down their pants in public and defecate behind the 7-11 and want them “dealt with”. You, me and everyone else does not want to deal with them. We want them out of sight. We don’t want to smell them as we walk into a convenience store and they ask us for money. In essence we have asked police officers to be our garbage men. To deal with the refuse of society is the task we all have given them. Yet we harbor utter distain when officers acting as garbage men smell (figuratively) like garbage men.

In the 80’s the US Supreme Court decided that we could not keep people locked away in mental institutions against their will any longer. In order for a person to be seized against their will taken to a mental institution they must present a danger to self (DTS) or danger to others (DTO) and be mentally ill and refusing treatment. Well, they can only be kept there for a limited time without a court order to do so.

So why is this all of our faults. Because you, me and everyone else has turned our back on the mentally ill, we chose to pay our CEO’s Billions of dollars a year. We chose to pay our sports stars billions of dollars a year all the while our mental health system is underfunded by millions. We as a society have placed more value on our entertainment than treating our mentally ill. Look at our country compared to other countries. In Japan, CEO’s make 11 times what the average worker makes compared to the US were the Average CEO pay is 200 times what the average worker makes. How much do professional athletes in other countries make compared to the US? How many mentally ill live on the streets compared to the US? Yet we all sleep just fine in blissful denial of our massive problem of how we have turned our back on the mentally ill in this country. We as US citizens have decided that we want the state (government) to care for our mentally ill. We have also decided to cut funding to the programs that help treat these people. You can point your finger at the officers involved for this incident, but the root cause for this happening is our collective denial of taking care of our mentally ill. The officers will be held accountable for their actions here. But it is your guilt for how you have treated the mentally ill that fuels the fire of outrage over this incident. And if the officers are found guilty of a crime, what will change? You will still be sitting on your ass watching your flat screen TV super duper NFL game day package and expect police officers “deal” with the homeless mentally ill. So it will happen again, and you will shove the dirty secret into a corner until your guilt overcomes you again and you will voice your outrage, but we will still be standing in the same place asking the same questions. So if you want someone to blame for this incident and the thousands just like them. Look in the mirror.

As with all in death incidents, it would have been investigated. With in custody deaths they are treated like a homicide from the onset. The important thing to look for with an in custody death is cause and manner, which in this case the medical examiner was not able to determine. The most common “cause” of in custody deaths is MI (Myocardial Infarction or heart attack) this would be indicative of a subject struggling so intensely that his heart gives out. The second you would expect in a case like this is BFT (Blunt Force Trauma) from intrusive impacts delivered by the officers. Once the cause is determined they can move to the manner. Which is Homicide (death caused by another) suicide, natural or other. So until the professionals can definitively determine what caused his death everyone is just speculating.

I have seen many comments about how people can’t understand why they just couldn’t restrain him. When I see that I see a comment from a person who has never attempted to restrain a person in a full blown psychosis (SMI or drug induced). As with most things it’s not as easy as it seems. In fact the last person in a psychosis I was restraining was a 105 pound female. I weight 215 and with 33 lbs of equipment on makes 248 lbs. And she threw me off of her (and two paramedics) like we were rag dolls. She literally sent me flying. All the while she was biting big chunks meat out of her cheeks and spitting the bloody chunks out. You see she was in a psychosis and thought we were devils and were trying to destroy her. She thought by destroying her mouth she could keep us from defeating her. When dealing with SMI people in crisis or worse a full blown psychosis it is not as easy as people make it seem. Have you ever seen the orderlies at a mental facility? The look like pro football linemen. So when I hear people say how they can’t understand how it takes so many officers and tasers and such, I think the person is ignorant to the facts of life. Not ignorant as in not smart, just no experience in dealing with mentally ill persons in crisis.

As to if the officers or Kelly Thomas were right or wrong in this situation, I do not have enough information to make an educated statement. I think it needs to be investigated. I think the video needs to be reviewed as well as audio recordings and witnesses interviewed. What bothers me about the whole situation is many of the people outraged and protesting are the same people that have called the police to move along smelly SMI transients from in front of their business or from the park. I hope the guilt that drives their rage is not misplaced and they look into the root cause of this situation. I hope they have the courage to make the hard choice to finally look at how we treat our mentally ill in this country.

My Friday

2011-07-29T10:56:00.005-07:00

A few months back I opened my mouth and made a suggestion on some new technology I stumbled into on a traffic stop. I was asked by my commander to write a proposal about my suggestion. Like a sucker I did in fact write a proposal. I expected that my boss would present the idea. Nope, six months later first thing in the morning I am standing in front of the chief of operations and all of the division commanders “pitching” my idea. The idea was well received and the meeting went well but caused me to rearrange my normal work schedule. Because of said schedule rearrangement I was home much earlier than expected. To celebrate my being home early I was sittin on the sofa chilling watching “The Wire”. The Wire is not for everyone, but it’s without a doubt the closest look into the game (Cops and robbers) that I have ever seen. My wife cannot stand even five minutes of it because the language and content is so offensive and she is right, it is; but so is life and the word I work in.

Anyway, Chillin I was, getting my Wire on, then I heard some racing motors and skidding tires and the ghetto bird on a very low orbit. At first I thought to myself, screw it. “I’m done with work for the day, it was my Friday, I’m going to ignore it” But then I heard some more cars zoom by my house and realize the air unit is on a very tight low orbit right above me. In the event any bad guys had run into my yard, I put my Rottweiler Zoe into the backyard. (she likes watching The Wire with me even if my wife doesn’t) I figure, if bad guy does have the misfortune of running into my yard it would be much better to let her enjoy a new chew toy. In reality it would make it much less likely for bad guy to stay in my yard. He would most likely will jump right back out as soon as he sees the dog. So after sending Zoe out back I grab my radio and switch it to “hot” but it’s not the radio traffic I am looking for.

I peak out of the blinds and see a patrol car in front of my house and from experience I can tell it’s the south end of a perimeter. I head out my front door and walk north as I see my neighbor two houses up being escorted (not in cuffs) out of his back yard in swim trunks and a towel. I recognize the officer by name and he recognizes me. (I know most of you are wondering why I wouldn’t recognize the officer since we work for the same agency, but with nearly 800 officers, the truth is I don’t know them all.) he tells me they chased a suspect into his yard and asks if I can stand by with the neighbor at a safe distance so they can search for the bad guy. He tells me the radio channel it’s on (the gang units own channel) so I switch over, turns out my neighbor was cleaning his pool while swimming in it. A suspect had run from a traffic stop and ran into his yard but he was underwater and didn’t see him. He did see the cops with guns. Since his back door was open and he was certain it was closed when he got into the pool, it needs to be treated like he is in the house. I see the sergeant on scene is a bro of mine and was my last sergeant when I left patrol. Over the radio he asks me for information about the house to ask my neighbor. Bing! I’m on the clock for overtime now! I ask and relay the info. Back and forth several times with info and if he is willing to press charges for trespassing and such, I relay that he is just fine with the landshark (K9) being let loose and finding said chew toy (suspect) in his house or yard. A few of the SWAT guys arrive and they recognize me and we engage in some playful verbal banter about how they are bringing down my property value and such. The SWAT guys ask me to take my neighbor and the crowd of neighbors from in front of my house to across the street since we would be within the field of fire if the suspect came out shooting.

So we saunter across the street. At this point I know who the suspect is and why they are looking for him. As the intel officer I put his name on our target list of criminals to track down since he had a felony warrant and was wanted for questioning on multiple vehicle and residential burglaries in my work area. So I start calling the detective that needs to interview him to let him know the a-hole he is looking for is barricaded up in MY NEIGHBORS HOUSE!!. As I am on the phone, I have to answer some questions over the radio and my personal cell starts ringing. It’s my wife who is out of state but is getting calls from all over the neighborhood about whisky tango foxtrot (WTF) is going on in our neighborhood. I give her a brief run down and tell her I will call back. I get back onto the mix. I hear over the radio they are going to deploy a “DD” (Diversionary Devise otherwise known as a “flash bang”). I tell my neighbors to plug their ears. I should point out that I have the crowd of neighbors positioned behind my neighbors car in the event anything goes bad. But this teenage couple did not heed my warning when I said they probably shouldn’t stand so close to the police perimeter. So they were as close as you could get. And when I told my neighbors to plug their ears they looked at me like I was insane. So when I hear “Stand By for a report” over the radio, experience tells me in about 2 seconds a very loud BOOOOM will go off. So instead of watching the flash bang go off I watch the teenage couple nearly jump out of their skin. The girl was so scared she started crying and sobbing instantly. I chuckled, I know I am twisted but that is funny.

In the end, they found the bad guy and dragged him out to cart him off to jail. I chit chatted with some of my cop buddies and neighbors before they left. Before going back into my house one of my neighbors was telling me how crazy this whole thing was to her. I told her this is everyday stuff for me and she was just puzzled when I said. Isn’t it fun? She didn’t think so. I must say, this Friday ended better than it started.