You know your a cop when...

Yes I know this have been done to death but hey I can contribute just like the rest of the herd.  So here is a brief list of and in no particular order....

YOU KNOW YOUR A COP WHEN:

• You get onto a crowded elevator and turn slightly so that every eye is on you and you can watch every eye.

• You are the last to get to the table at the restaurant but your the first to sit down because everyone had to get back up so that your seat is against the wall and views the exits.
• Memories of the Fourth of July are not of parades, picnics and fireworks but they are of stupid drivers that would not follow your directions and drunken idiots that just plain couldn't.
• Halloween see above and add little kids running into traffic.
• That at one point in your career the midnight shift guy at the local convenience store is your best friend and you can't quite figure out just what country he came from. 
•  Your regular friends ask you to stop calling at 2:00am to find out how they are because work is slow.
• Waving to your wife when you are going to bed as she is getting up to go to work.
• Having to say, "Ma'am please put your top back on and sit down!"
• The only natural materials to touch your body is when the prisoner wants another blanket.
• On one day you take a class on how to shoot to be deadlier, the next day you take a sensitivity class to be friendlier.
• In the early 90's you were still writing reports with a pen and white-out.
• Your cell phone had voice-mail before your department did.
• Your grandmother had email before your department did.
• That dumpster diving is not a sport but part of your profession
• When times are good no one wants your job, when times are bad everyone tries to take your job.

and finally...sometimes the blue and black of the uniform matches the blue and black on your body.

The Best Things in Life are...Dragonflies

I tend to go through periods of high activity followed by low activity.  I have been letting a lot of things slide lately  such as: Bible study, exercise, my piano/voice practice, this blog, my other writing projects, basic house maintenance and the like.  So I am getting back on board with everything again (I guess everything but sentence structure).

I was sitting with my daughter last Saturday watching my son's soccer game.  The temp was warm but not hot, there was a slight breeze and not a cloud in the sky (thats a rare event in the Midwest).  As I was watching the kids run from one side of the field to anther, I looked up and about two fields away there suddenly was a series of little sparkles, flashing about eight to ten feet up.  Suddenly all around us darting in and out of soccer players and spectators were easily a thousand dragonflies.  I have never seen anything like it.  There were at least two species maybe three buzzing around and then just as suddenly they were gone, only to return about five minutes later.

It became a moment, the time where you can just enjoy the warmth of the sun, the spectacle of soccer, the company of family and the wonderment of nature simultaneously.

It just readjusted my thinking and cheapened all my stresses.  The payments, the job, feuding families, stupid material arguments, all the things that we get caught up in that pull our heads down and stop of from seeing all the beauty and joy that God created for us.

It was a welcomed perspective shift.


I think I saw:  Black Saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) and Common Green Darner (Anax junius)

Luke 12:23-25

²³Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. ²⁴Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! ²⁵Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

Back From Canada

The family and I just got back from Canada in the area of Northlake, ON.  I went without shaving for about ten days, maybe eleven.  Looks like I will never be able to get that handlebar mustache that I always wanted...stupid genes.

It was much needed break with the family with no cellular telephone reception I could not be on call and it still took me three days before I stopped checking my phones.  I can't remember the last time that I was able to sit with my wife and kids and take three hours to put a puzzle together or sit in the lake till it came out of my pores.

The Evolution of American Policing

Law Enforcement is very sensitive to public opinion and even more so to civil lawsuits.  The restrictions placed on me in 2010 are triple what they were in 1997 when I started.  Here is a perfect example, the first video is of a fan running on the field at a Phillies game and getting tased.  (An aside, the second a fan touches the field he/she has committed a crime.  The longer you chase someone the higher the chance that the offender does something even more stupid than running on the field and more important the higher chance someone gets hurt.  I was chasing someone and wearing the extra 40 pounds of gear and that caused an injury that cost me 9 months in recovery).  The officer stopped the offender, got him off the field and no one got hurt.

The second video is an Orioles game about a month later. after the blow back from the public that the officer at the Phillies game was just too mean to the fan on the field, so they just let him go on and on till he got tired.

The Police will stop enforcing the laws when all the public cares about is the wellbeing of the criminals and turn into meter maids with guns.  Oh wait isn't the national trend for the last five years showing an ever increasing number of citations issued and an equal lowering of initiated arrests?  That must just be a hitch in the numbers.

It's a Flood! Well in my basement at least.

Had about 5 inches come into the basement last night.  Spent all day cleaning up.  Learned two things: 1) check the basement if its pouring outside and 2) we have too much clothes...time to give a bunch away once they are clean again.  I wonder if with a little tile I could pass the basement as my new indoor pool.



Jude 1:12
These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead.

Three Fallen Brothers

Three of our fallen Chicago Pd brothers, by the hands of others in the last two months. End of tour.  Please be safe out there, each and everyone of you, they are and will take our lives.  Our prayers are with the families they left behind and thoughts go to the promised day when peace is everlasting.



Michael R. Bailey, 62, a 20-year veteran weeks from retirement, was shot a little after 6 a.m. while cleaning his Buick -- a retirement gift to himself -- in the 7400 block of South Evans Avenue, police said.  He had just gotten home and was still in his uniform when as many as three men approached, a source said. Preliminary information indicates Bailey announced he was an officer, and there was an exchange of gunfire between Bailey and at least one of the men, a source said.  The officer's son, who was home at the time, grabbed one of his father's guns and ran outside after he saw his father on the ground, the source said. It was unclear if the son fired any shots at the attackers.  The men fled and were being sought this afternoon, the source said. Three handguns, including one belonging to Bailey and another believed to belong to the assailants, were found at the scene.

Thor Soderberg

Thor Soderberg, 43, a 11-year police veteran.-Before ripping away Chicago police officer Thor Soderberg's handgun and shooting him dead with it, Bryant Brewer, a felon with a long arrest record, inexplicably tried getting inside the last place anyone would expect him to go: a renovated police facility full of cops.  Moments before Soderbergh, an 11-year police veteran, was killed Wednesday, Brewer strolled down 61st Street, screaming and hollering at no one in particular before he tried opening a locked door to the oldEnglewood police station that now serves as a police deployment center, according to a witness.  After Brewer killed the officer, he fired shots at a stranger sitting across the street and then peppered the facade of the police building with gunshots before being shot by responding officers, prosecutors said Friday.

Tom Wortham, 30, 3-year veteran.-Late Wednesday, Wortham became the latest casualty, fatally gunned down in front of his family homejust steps from the basketball courts after four men tried to rob him of a brand-new motorcycle, Chicagopolice said. His father, a retired Chicago police sergeant, witnessed the attack from the front of his home and wielded his own weapon to try to defend his son.  One of the robbers was killed and a suspect was critically injured. A third suspect surrendered to police by late afternoon, and the last was picked up during a traffic stop Thursday evening, sources said.  Wortham was a three-year officer and a first lieutenant in the Army National Guard. He had returned from Iraq in March.

Tom Wortham

Going out of business-The Police Business that is

One of the reasons to go into law enforcement and not the private sector (and I promise you my roommates in college consistently called me in the 90's telling me what they were making and what they were buying and what a dumb ass I was to be a cop.  Further, they had an open offer that when I was done "playing around" I could get a real job through them...What a turn around a bad economy can make in people's thinking, their opinion about my stupid decision has changed 180 degrees but I digress) is the security of the job and the stability of the position, well until the automatons take over.

What I am seeing for the first time ever is towns giving up their police forces or cutting them down to nothing.  Its a good trend for those who survive the purging and go back to "just the facts ma'am" from "oh sweet old lady your lonely let me have a cup of coffee with you and draw up an action plan".  But a troubling trend nevertheless.

Here is a brief summary of towns that have given up their Police departments.

San Luis, Colorado.  Chief and five officers gone.  Sheriff to take over.  Link: http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_fe7833bc-8668-11df-afee-001cc4c03286.html

Maywood, California.  41 officers.  Sheriff to take over.  Link:  http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/29/news/economy/city_fires_employees/index.htm

Bethel, Maine.  Five officers, Sheriff to take over.  Link:  http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/penny-pinching-towns-put-police-out-to-pasture/19550879

Fallowfield, Pennsylvania.   Five gone, Sheriff to take over.  Link Same As above.


Oakland, California.  80 Officers 10% of force.  Link:   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/07/13/state/n172707D60.DTL

Etc Etc Etc.

Now I must acknowledge that there is an incredible duplication of services as each of these tiny cities throughout the Unites States fielded their own public services, fire and Police, that economies of scale would have produced better results.  But they have managed to keep their police and fire while cutting everything else.  Now it seems we are now on the block.  It can also be seen with the larger department pairing down their staffs in the hundreds, just look at Chicago Pd, 4,000 down and counting with no end in site.Your neighborhood watch better become armed.

Genesis 47:18
When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, "We cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

Discipline or rather the lack there of it

Discipline...I am in vast need of a lot more lately.  Since law enforcement is a 24 hour, 7 days a week gig, you can quickly get out of your rhythm with all the different work schedules this job necessitates.   As a result, you tend to stop exercising because you are not hitting the street or the weights at the same time everyday.  Or eating right when you are in your 16th hour and the only thing open is fast food.  Or sleep, one day its bed before ten, the next after two with the corresponding wake up time differentials.  Missing family functions and not being there when the kids get up or go to bed or hit the ballfields etc.  

The only thing I am maintaining is family and church (read attending services) time and that's important but wow am I letting two many other things go because I will not simply force myself to due what must be done regardless of the time of day or work load.

So I am now attempting to, in no particular order:

1.  began running again...5 times a week...right now hitting 3
2.  volunteering with my church or really doing more with what I am volunteering for.
3.  practicing my music
4.  staying in touch with my friends (Jason...Jason...I think I remember someone with that name...)
5.  getting the important chores around the home completed...have a porch to finish and a basketball hoop to put up.
6.  get writing again-to include getting to the blog much more often.
7.  loose 15 pounds...its just got to go
8.  getting my physical and dental checkups done...off by years
9.  get back to school.
10.  drink less beer

There is a reason that veteran cops get heavy, smoke and are divorced...when you let all these things and more go because of your work schedule and duties you turn around and they are not around to recover.

Proverbs 1:2-4

 ² for attaining wisdom and discipline;
       for understanding words of insight;
 ³ for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life,
       doing what is right and just and fair;
 ⁴ for giving prudence to the simple,
       knowledge and discretion to the young-

Sore

I have been in the field a bunch in the last two weeks in different surveillances. Its primarily spent hunkered down in my car, sitting still watching the target for hours at a time.  I did it again today.  I have not burned any calories or moved any major muscle groups but I am sore and tired as if I had one of the 16 hour days.  I always find it surprising that I am not flying off the walls with excess energy but rather just want to go to bed early.

A work Stopper

The work in the office ground to a halt the other day when one of our guys punched up the annoying orange video shorts.  I placed three here for your enjoyment and the rest can be found on their youtube channel...if it can attract and maintain the short attention span of multiple cops it has to be good...or well really stupid.

Some Brief Memorial Videos from DC

Wow been gone longer than I thought away from the blog...won’t happen again. Here are some brief cell phone videos I took while at the police memorial at Washington DC in 2010 for the candle light vigil. I know shaky –cam but it tells some of the story.  It quickly becomes sobering when you pass all our fallen brothers' and sisters' names chiseled into the stone.  Everyone please be safe out there.

Police Memorial-Washington DC

Was at the candle light service at the police memorial a better post on it very soon.  But for now hug your husband/wife/brother/sister/son or daughter and tell them you love them because some do not come home at the end of the shift.

At&T U-Verse slowing me down

Ok jumped into AT&T's U-verse pool last week and we have been having some problems.  With this system when it goes down, the TV, the telephone and the internet all stop working.  They worked on it today and so far so good.  Regular posting to follow.

Another excellent and needed charity-The Police Survivors

I just discovered this organization dedicated to assisting seriously injured or wounded Police officers. They have similarly wounded officers come to the home of a newly wounded officer for visitations, help them return to the incident location, provide counseling services and have a financial grants available.

I have seen many organizations dedicated to the honorable and critical need of serving the families of fallen officers but this is the first that I have discovered dedicated to a much higher population, the critically wounded officer. I believe they are a cause worth supporting. The following is the link to their web site and some material from it.
The Police Survivors

Mission Statement

The Police Survivors was established to assist in the recovery of any Police Officer who was seriously and traumatically injured in the Line of Duty in the State of Illinois. This will be accomplished through one on one visitations with similarly wounded police officers, return to the scene visitations, private independent counseling services, and financial grants. We are here to assist with the recovery process in any way possible. With your help, we can continue to “Take Care of Our Own".


Donations & Merchandise Our organization relies on your donations; any size donation is greatly appreciated.
You can use the PayPal link below to pay by credit card.
If you would like to pay by check, please make it payable to "Police Survivors" and send it to:

Police Survivors
5215 S Archer Ave
Chicago, IL 6063


How We Came To Be

In 1995, a group of seriously injured police officers decided that an organization should be founded to assist in the recovery process of any police officer injured in the line of duty within the state of Illinois. The process took over a year to put together and the following officers formally established The Police Survivors in the spring of 1996. They are Steven Tyler, Joseph Sosnowski, Michael Lappe, Sol Karadjias, Henry Davis Sr. (who has since passed away), Terry Baney, Talmitch Jackson, Jacqueline Healy and Dennis Dobson.

Three Floyds-Dark Lord Day

I made my first pilgrimage with three friends to Munster Indiana for the Three Floyds Brewery’s Dark Lord Day. Their Dark Lord is an imperial Russian stout that is only sold one day a year and to be guaranteed a bottle you have to buy a $10 ticket on line on Saint Patrick’s Day. It was nuts and fun because everyone comes with rare beer from all parts of the United States and the World to trade. So I was able to sample a lot of excellent and not so excellent brews. Our novice status has been successfully terminated and we now know what we need to do to make it even better.  I up loaded these three quick videos I took from different parts of the line to you tube.

Fishing Bloopers

Something about how Bill Dance takes it all in stride makes it even better.  Life is too short to be serious all the time, enjoy.


Ecclesiastes 10:19
A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.

Moral Quandary

I am really not sure how to address this issue from a believers standpoint.  I already know how to feel as an officer.

On August 23, 2003, while in protective custody at the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts, ordained Priest and suspected multiple-child molester John J Geoghan was strangled and stomped to death in his cell by Joseph Druce, a self admitted white supremacist and murderer. 

How do you treat, both intellectually and emotionally, incidents where evil preys on evil? I know how I want to feel, but is it right? The fallen are fallen and the lost are lost and once their life is extinguished a man’s chance for redemption through Christ is lost.  But then both their actions/decisions brought them to this place.  The following is the feed of the outside of the cell during this incident.




Psalm 7:13-15  13 He has prepared his deadly weapons;  he makes ready his flaming arrows.   14 He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment. 15 He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made.

A brief look into a mind

I spend a lot of quality time walking around downtown areas and as such receive many interesting missives from the unrealized mentally ill or in some rare cases well wishing individuals.  I was handed this flyer from a homeless man when I realized that most of the people in America do not get to interact with the marginalized mentally ill people we as officers see every day.  In person and in real time is the best way to educate yourself about them, but at least with the ones that are creative, their output at least give you some sense of understanding.  PLEASE NOTE...I not only do not endorse his ideas I am pretty sure I disagree and am trouble by all of them.

1 Samuel 21:13
So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

Fallen and injured police officers-Matt Crosby

First and foremost

Donations
Heartland Bank
c/o “Officer Matt Crosby Charitable Fund.”
9877 Manchester
Road, Rock Hill, MO 63119

I have been feeling that I can make a more positive use of my blog, so along with my regular posts I will be helping to get the word out about various fund raisers for our fallen and injuried brother and sisters in uniform.  I ran across this article for Officer Matt Crosby who was shot and gravely injured.  He is very worthy of our support.


Upcoming fundraisers:
Saturday, April 17, a lemonade stand operated by a local young lady that will include Matt Crosby’s sons, Saturday at the Market at McKnight Center located at the southwest corner of Manchester and McKnight roads in Rock Hill.

At 7:30 p.m., April 30 the St. Louis Police Officer’s Association will host a fundraiser at the SLPOA Hall, 3710 Hampton Ave. Tickets will be available at the door or from the Rock Hill Police Dept. 320b W. Thornton Ave., or through Shannon Dandridge at (314) 703-3111.

At 5: 10 p.m., May 27, the Webster Groves Police Department is hosting a Tex Mex dinner/auction at Lattitude 26, 6407 Clayton Road.
His story-Link to Globe Democrat New Story


George Issac Jones, 36, of Tennessee, is charged in the shooting that left a Rock Hill police officer paralyzed.
According to the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's office, Jones is charged with five counts, including assault, armed criminal action and resisting arrest. Jones' bond is set at $150,000 cash only. He remains hospitalized Friday.
According to the Tennessee Department of Corrections, Jones was on parole for a facilitation to aggravated robbery conviction. His prior convictions were robbery and aggravated assault.
Friday's charges stem from what police said started as a domestic dispute Thursday night.
Domestic disputes are some of the most dangerous assignments a police officer can face, and two Rock Hill Police officers stared danger directly in the eye Thursday night.
Matthew Crosby, 30, a three-year veteran of the department, now lays in a hospital bed, paralyzed from the waist down after being shot April 8 in the shoulder during just such an incident at the Stanford Place Apartment Homes in the 1100 block of Raritan Drive, near the 9400 block of Manchester Road.
The bullet came to rest on his spine and he remains in stable condition at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, according to police.
St. Louis County police are now handling the investigation. At a news conference Friday afternoon County police Lt. Tom Larkin said the officers were called to the multi-level apartment by a woman who said her live-in boyfriend had assaulted her. They were told that the boyfriend, identified as Jones, was armed and dangerous.
Officers say Jones walked up the stairs to an apartment on the second floor through a glass window. They entered the building and knocked on the door, identifying themselves.
Larkin said the officers then took cover down one level because they didn’t want to stand in front of a door with an armed suspect inside.
“He (Jones) came out the door, walked a few steps, I understand there is a railing there, and shot down at the officers,” Larkin said.
The suspect fired two shots from a small caliber handgun he was holding, striking Crosby. Officers returned fire, striking Jones who then tumbled down a flight of stairs to the first level.
Larkin said the woman and her child were not in the building. The two may have been beaten earlier, he said.
Both Crosby and Jones were taken to St. John’s Mercy Medical Center and both remain in critical condition Friday, Larkin said. Jones may have been struck in the torso, he said.
Rock Hill Police Lt. Galen Cox said everyone in the department is praying for Crosby’s recovery, and added Crosby’s wife, Stephanie, and his three sons are at his bedside.
“He’s a good man who knows the business,” Cox said. “He knows how to handle himself. He’s a member of our special weapons and response unit and has got a lot of experience.”
Lewis was placed on administrative leave, which is standard procedure when an officer is involved in a shooting, Cox said.
A St. John’s Mercy Medical Center spokeswoman said the family did not wish to speak to the media about the incident.
Cox said he spoke to Crosby’s wife, a nurse by profession, and said she “seems in pretty good spirits, considering.”
Cox called domestic dispute calls the “worst calls we have, or any department, can have.”
“You just don’t know what you’re going to encounter,” Cox said. “You already have two people who are in a combative state most of the time, and if there’s any drugs or alcohol added to the situation that certainly doesn’t help.”  “You don’t want to go to them (domestic disputes) but we go to them all the time,” Cox said. “It’s just that these things happen, unfortunately. It was just a disturbance between boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Cox said he did not know if drugs or alcohol were involved in Thursday night’s shooting.
“You have to be on alert and on your toes and pay attention to your surroundings as best you can,” Cox said of responding to a domestic dispute. “It’s probably one of the worst calls, besides one involving a child.”
According to Rock Hill officials, Jones is believed to have moved here three months ago from Tennessee. Larkin said there were several outstanding warrants for Jones in Memphis involving aggravated assault and kidnapping in a domestic violence case.

Vacation ending-Auction Stuff

Well the end of the Arizona vacation is here and we are about to fly back to the midwest.  I have an arrow head collection that takes up one wall of my office.  I have limited time to search for arrowheads so my total personal arrowhead find count is one.  As a result I do what bad hobbyist all over the world do, I purchase preexisting  collections from auctions when I can.  Here are the ones that I picked up yesterday.  Back to regular posts after today.