"I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis upon the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement." ~Calvin Coolidge

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

And he will live to fight another day...

I really appreciate all of you stopping by to check out my blog! I am having a great time visiting new blogs and will be adding to my link list soon.

Now, on a very serious note.

Just a few days ago while on patrol, the alert tone sounded and the dispatcher had a different sound to her voice. We all knew that it wasn’t good. The numbers may be different from city to city but they all mean the same thing, OFFICER DOWN! I, along with the rest of the watches working, began a somber period of waiting.

The department I work for has 3,000 certified Police Officers, of course they don’t all work at the same time so it’s obvious that we all don’t know each other. The fact is, who cares, it’s a brother or sister officer and something is wrong.

A couple of officers on the Southside of town were working at a large shopping mall to make some extra money to take care of the extra bills that they took on since Christmas. A simple shoplifting call, should be pretty simple right? They were probably thinking, “We can knock it out, end our shift, maybe get home in time to hug and kiss our wife and if were lucky, see the kids before they go to bed.”

The officers arrive on scene, gather their information. In a hurry to get home, they decide they will split the paperwork and each do an arrest docket. The suspects are 18 and 19 years old. They have no real prior criminal history, so the tension is more lax than normal; that is until the 19 year old breaks from the young officer’s grasp and starts running. The diligent officer won’t let this suspect get away, so of course he gives chase never believing for a second that his life is fixing to change forever. The suspect is running at a pace that is untouchable for most, but not this officer, he’s one of the elite- a Swat Team Member. The suspect runs about a quarter of a mile with the officer right behind him yelling for him to stop. The suspect ignores his commands, that is until he falls down in a dried up retention pond. The officer sees an opportunity to end the chase so he tackles the suspect and a fight ensues that has him now on his back fighting for his life. The officer suddenly finds himself in a life or death battle because now the suspect has taken it to a whole new level. The suspect is pointing a 45. caliber handgun at the officer and shoots without hesitation point blank range 3 shots to the chest! The officer still with the presence of mind is able to draw his gun and returns fire striking the suspect several times in the chest, but that’s not stopping the threat. The suspect wildly continues firing the gun in an attempt to finish the job. Multiple rounds strike the officer in the leg, shoulder and chest. One round finds its mark tearing through his jaw. He now knows he may not make it home, but fight or flight kicks in. In our world flight is never an option in a situation like this. He then fires 7 rounds to the suspects head. The battle has ended.

A passerby calls 911 and directs the units running lights and siren to the downed officers location as well as rescue. The officer is life flighted to a trauma one hospital where he is rushed into surgery with 6 bullets holes that have riddled his body. He is alert and for now alive.

The surgery was a success and the officer, by Gods Grace will survive, but will need major reconstructive surgery on his face. The one thing that saved this young mans life was his vest that stopped 3, 45. caliber rounds and his will to live to fight another day. Now, the wife and child that he wanted to just go home to and love, sit in the intensive care unit watching dad with tubes down his throat only blinking to tell his family that he knows they are there and that he loves them.

We are never promised tomorrow, so please tell your family that you love them, kiss your wife or husband and children. Always wear your vest it will save your life as it did his! Please take a minute today to pray for our brother officer and his family. Be Safe!!!

I’m out and we’ll talk later!

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

A thank you! and operation "Redneck Refuse"

Wow! I have only been at this for a few days and I got a major shout out from The Roll Call Notebook! So I’d like to thank the Enforcer and welcome all of my new guests!

Well, here we go! I know all of you have family that you love and want to protect. Well obviously that’s no different for any police officer. I got a phone call from my peeps they basically told me that they were in need of my assistance. I learned that some folks were renting a house down the street and on a daily basis prostitutes (read: nasty hookers and hoe’s) had been visiting as well as their "Johns" and the local dope boys. Well you have to know that just can’t happen!

I called on a few favors from my brothers and sisters in blue. We did some surveillance and put a plan together. The big plan was that my buddy J would conduct close surveillance behind the house all decked out in his BDU's and hidden in the bushes. I along with some of my ninja brothers were all blacked out in our cars just waiting for the signal. At this point I’m all pumped up cause I just can’t wait to jump out as fast as my old ass body will let me, bust in and KICK SOME ASS!!! J walks up as the door opens, pops his head in, announces who he is and asks if he can come in. The resident's response? "Sure!" (Damn! That was easy!) So he gives the signal and here I come like John Wayne, baby! I’m in the door in a flash with my gun drawn, ready to defend my family and fellow officers! We shoved everybody down on the floor and started the whole process of checking for weapons etc… After the situation had calmed down I was hit with an overwhelming smell of Marijuana. I swear I thought I was right smack in the middle of a Cheech and Chong movie! I said "Dang! How in the world can you breath in here?" Keeping in mind we are not dealing with mental giants here, some knucklehead said "We haven’t been doing anything!" I said, "So where is all the smoke coming from?" Naturally amnesia struck everybody. The owner of the house who had been the focus of all the rants in the neighborhood spoke up and said, "Officer, I am disabled and I don’t know what’s going on in here!" I asked, "Do you have any illegal drugs in the house?", "Oh no!" she said. I just laughed. You don’t need my highly honed Spidey Senses to see in plain view at least 20 Grams of the wacky weed, some rolling papers and a pipe on the table. I asked her "What the hell is this, then?" The room went quiet. Here we go with the amnesia again!

I directed my attention to an old guy that was all gimped up and told him to stand up. I started the ol’ pat down for weapons and asked him "Do you have any drugs, guns, knives or anything in your pockets that will stick me?" He said "No" (yeah, of course not!) That’s when I saw 2 massive Doobies (No, not the brothers, Marijuana joints) rolled up all nice and neat behind both ears. I didn’t say anything and kept on digging in his pockets pulling out a knife that he said he didn’t have (Now all of you know that a knife is a requirement of every redneck to have right?) I started to laugh and asked him "I thought you didn’t have any drugs on you?" He responded casually, "I don’t! I just rolled those for him [gesturing at redneck #2] and was keeping them for him." Are you starting to get the picture of the level of brilliance we’re dealing with here? Yeah, one "Oops, I got too drunk and messed around with my first cousin" gene away from total mental retardation.

The legal resident believe it or not signed a consent to search form and after recovering just less than 20 Grams of Marijuana, a bag full of Ecstasy and some other illegal drugs our project was over. The result: 3 arrests and drugs seized!

The best part for me was when I took the mother of clan "Not So Bright", who also happens to be a crackhead over to the side and ripped her up one side and down the other basically putting the fear of God in her for bringing John’s and crack into my family’s neighborhood- so much so that she "wee-weed" in her pants. Now that’s what I call justice baby!!!

So I guess the moral of the story is- Don’t muck with the PoPo’s family or the street they live on! Really though we would do it for you, too!

I’m out and we’ll talk later!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Hello Blogland!

Well I guess I'll start my first blog entry with a vent/rant about this whole divorce issue.. I married my soon to be ex-wife in 2000. I guess I should have seen the writing on the wall when she told me that she had been married 5 times, but of course like most males I wasn't thinking with the right head. I saw a very attractive woman and being of average looks myself I thought "Wow she digs me." We had a very happy relationship in the beginning, however, over time I started getting that gut feeling that most policeman get that this chick might have some serious trust issues. The first thing that happened came straight out of the blue. We were laying in the bed one morning and she asks, "When was the last time you talked to your ex-girlfriend?" I answered with a truthful answer because she asked from the start to always be honest and I didn't have anything to hide. So I said, "About a month ago when she called me to tell me that she had paid off the Master Card account that I let her use to put some furniture on." I got no response so I thought WOW she's cool about it and understands that the conversation with the ex had nothing to do with old times it was just over the stupid credit card. I could not have been more wrong!!!!! She gets up, goes to work and I get a phone call about an hour later. She absolutely ripped me up one side and down the other. I was told that I was deceitful and a liar and she was leaving! I was speechless! Okay, so I'm thinking this bitch told me to be honest, I have absolutely nothing to be dishonest over and now she is calling me every nasty word in the English language (not to mention a few others). Now I know those of you reading this are thinking "Man, that's a pretty damn big clue". Yeah, I know, it should have been the light that came on and the bell that went off in my thick ass brain that goes "DING DING DING this chick just isn't right!!" Well, it wasn't and I have been paying for it for 8 years now.

I have spent thousands of dollars helping her and every member of her family because they are all three toed inbreds (another post for another time) but I thought, well it's her family. I bought the daughter her first car, the oldest son all of his tools to start his business and kept all of the hoodlums in the family out of jail, including her crackhead brother. Now I am the one getting the massive green weenie in court because I have provided for her all these years. Here's where it gets even better, now she's told her attorney that she can't work because she has "Fibromyalgia". ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?!?!?!. The bitch is still working 3 days a week, but I have to pay all this money?...Ohhhhhhh get this, she showed up at court wearing no making up and dressed like she was 90! I just had to laugh, because this is a woman that would NEVER walk out of the house without makeup on looking like anything less than a Barbie doll. Heh, it must have worked because the judge wannabe told me that I had to pay her $3,300.00 dollars (yep, you read that right!) by 5 pm on January 25th. Honestly, I’m still in a state of shock. I paid the blood money and had a whopping $300.00 dollars left in my account to last 2 weeks. Oh, and the best part? On top of me making the $600.00+ dollar car payment that she's driving AND the insurance payment, they will be taking an additional $923.00 dollars out of my pay check every 2 weeks until my mediation Feb 29th. She walks out of court with a grin high-fiving her daughter saying “I told you I’d f*** him!” and I walk out trying to figure out how the hell I’m supposed to survive on $150.00 dollars a week. So you can say "DUMBASS!!!!!" now. No really, it's okay go ahead..

So, there's my first vent/rant! As you can tell I’m pretty pissed about the whole situation. Maybe not nearly as funny as most of the stuff you read but stick around, I promise to provide you with some very funny stories throughout my 27 years as the "PO PO". I can certainly assure you, there are plenty of vents about this damn divorce yet to come too.

I'm out and we will talk later!

Friday, January 25, 2008