The Second Half of a Cops Working Life.

The defined benefit pension that most Law Enforcement Professionals enjoy is a two edged sword.  The positive side has it attracting higher caliber individuals that understand that the offset of the lower pay and limited promotional opportunities is a guarantee of a set payment at retirement that adds a huge net value to your personal wealth upon retirement that is independent of economic up/down turns and is free of most fees and taxes.  The negative is that once the maximum benefit package/requirement are reached (most by 30 years of service and 50 + years of age) continued employment in Law Enforcement accomplishes little financial gain.

So anyone in Law Enforcement has to consider, plan and execute a second twenty career before they can truely retire.  The following is a quick list, in no particular order, of some of the second careers my fellow Officers have chosen.

1.  Dennis Farina-Chicago Police Officer-Actor (Law and Order, Midnight Run, Snatch)

2.  Charles Fredrick "Chuck" Adamson-Producer/Writer (Created Crime Story, the movie Heat was based on one of his cases)

3.  James Byron Huggins-Huntsville Police Department-Author, Christian Activist

4.  Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett-sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico-Customs Agent, Saloon owner.

5.  William Potts-Detroit Police Department-Inventor (Traffic Light (3 way))

6.   Patrick G. Ryan Jr.-Chicago PD-CEO at First Look

7.  Robbie Roberson-Inventor of the SOG SEAL Revolver knife

8.  Phil Queller-World Record Holder-Most Holes of Golf in a 12 hour period.

9.  Bryan Hammond-UK Police Officer-Painter (Not the wall kind)

10. Daniel Rodríguez-NYPD-Opera Singer

11. Bernard Ching-HPD-Actor (Hawii Five-O)

12. Theodore Roosevelt-NY Police Commissioner-President

13. Riding in the Squad with Christ Blogger-Law Officer-Zombie Killer

Ecclesiastes 3:22
So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

Most of the time we go to them but sometimes they come to us...

911?  Can you please send someone over to please arrest me?  Thanks.

Article Link http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-self-reported-parking-violation,0,616750.story

Man notifies Conn. police that he parked illegally in handicapped space, gets arrested


By Associated Press

6:33 a.m. CDT, August 26, 2011

SHELTON, Conn. (AP) — Connecticut authorities say a 29-year-old man was so upset about the lack of parking enforcement in his town that he parked his car illegally in a handicapped space and called police more than a dozen times before officers arrived and arrested him.

Shelton police say they had to subdue Michael Andes with a stun gun Thursday morning after he screamed at officers that they weren't doing their job and became combative. He was charged with breach of peace and interfering with an officer and was given a parking ticket.


Authorities say Andes first called police at 2 a.m. and yelled at a dispatcher.

Andes posted $1,000 bail and is due in court Sept. 6. There's no phone listing for Andes and it's not clear if he has a lawyer.

______________________________________________________________

Job security

Little Big Planet Enters Real Life

Anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time soon realizes that I am a gamer.  Beginning with an Atari 2600 for my tenth birthday to my Playstation 3 that currently sits in my office, hours and hours of gaming has gone by.

That said, I just stumbled into Little Big Planet.  I came to this party so late that Little Big Planet 2 is already out. A friend of my son gave a copy of the game to him so that they could play together on-line.  So I reached out grabbed by ten year old self by the roots and pulled him out and played the game too.

Loved it, usually do not like "plat-formers" but this was so unique and so well done that I play it even though I have to stop myself from throwing my controller into a wall every ten minutes or so.

The game got me thinking if anyone had replicated this game in real life.  Its aesthetic of a sock puppet in a diorama world should be able to be reproduced in the real world.  Sadly this was as close as I could find but it's really cool.  My kind of minds.  Enjoy.

  

Product Review 5.11 XPRT Tactical Boot 8"

Police Boots, they mean business.  It's the first piece of equipment that you spend time on and it signifies the beginning of the shift or the beginning of the operation and a physical marker for the mental shift from off, to on duty.  Good boots are made to be quickly forgotten, while bad ones will spend all their time reminding you they're on your feet and your feet, well, they'll remind you about bad boots for the next week.

I have had to opportunity to try 5.11 XPRT Tactical Boot (Link) for about two months.  I have and continue to recommend them to any Law Enforcement Professional without any fear that they will come back with a negative report.

My current assignment offers a unique testing ground for swat boots, since we are a soup-to-nuts contained unit.  We set perimeters (long standing time), we make entries (dynamic impact, quick movement), we hold the scene (very long standing time), contain and process evidence (bending, flexing), searches (a lot of walking), we interview (long periods of sitting) and just about everything a boot can be put through, we put it through.  My current record is thirty six hours on a take down and we did everything without outside help (long long day).  But we also spend a lot of time in "soft clothes" and don't have our feet conditioned to our boots 24/7.

Here's the point.  Most "good" boots do one of the previously mentioned things well.  They are excellent to stand in and offer some modest protection but the second you have to run in them or quickly kneel on the ground for cover, they cut and chafe.  Other boots offer maximum protection, an angry upright bull could not make you notice him while he trampled your toes, but stand in place for thirty minutes you soon find your feet, ankle and calves cramping and trying to escape.  Finally, there are the boots that try to fill in all the gaps and end up doing most things fine but excel at none of them.

However I have found that the 5.11 XPRT excelled for my every need.  I got the protection I needed, I got the flexibility and wear-ability I needed and I did go home raw and bleeding because I only put my boots on twice a week (calluses go quickly once you get out of day-to-day wear).

A couple of things I really liked.  They're Bloodborne pathogen resistant.  I was third in the stack, our entry teammate put the ram through the glass harder than he wanted.  Glass broke, cut up his arms and I crunched through the door on glass and his blood,  Great guy, but knowing his lifestyle I really, really, didn't want any to make permanent contact, if you know what I mean.

Second, the reinforced non-metallic toe.  We made entry and were greeted with a house full of steel entry doors, each had to be popped open.  Hit the door, door hit's the wall, hits my feet, feet fine.  I stopped wearing steel toed boots because of all the reports of accidental amputation once the force of the blow was great enough to curve the steel back into the foot. It was very nice to get that protection back without that worry.

Finally they were comfortable.  They fit, they stayed in place, they did not rub and they still held everything in place and tight.

They only thing I can not speak to is their durability.  I have had great boots and other equipment that I loved for the first couple of months but as the wear and tear built up they began to fail faster than they should have and became the same as substandard new equipment.  I do not see this in these boots but I will be writing a update to these boots six months from now followed by a third and final a year later to see how they fared in the long run.

Bottom line?  Pay the money get the boots. 

Police Resource

I was recently emailed by Chris who writes for Criminal Justice Degree (Site Link)and he has written an article called 40 Informative Forums for Law Enforcement Professionals (Link) that has a bunch of good links that any P.O. could use.  I think its worth a look.  There is never such a think as too little information.

I'm Back...wet and a little poorer, but still back.

Well its been interesting.  The hole in the roof, followed by the flood in the basement and the passing of my wife's Great Aunt have made for an interesting time.  My house looks like its owned by a hoarder with a split personality, one side as nothing the other side is stacked to the ceiling.

But I have managed to dig my computer out and posting will resume as things normalize around here.

We have kept a few things of my wife's great aunt to remember her by.  I have a large glass lamp (3' 2") sitting on my desk as I write this, that was in her home (pictured).

We are not defined by our things but sometimes, for others, our things can be signposts of places we have been and people we had once driven by together and one day will again.


Joshua 4:6-8

6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

8 So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down.

Lick my...history or Why I love history.

I have a love of eccentric history because it usually is better and more unique than any fiction out there.  I have not had many converts that have learned to love history as I do but here is just a sample of what they/you are missing.

From Wired Magazine...  Wired Link

FYI one of the Mozart Cannons is Leck mich im Arsch and Difficile lectu

Prototype: Gotz of the Iron Hand—Fierce Knight, Fearsome Prosthetic

• By Chris Baker  
• June 28, 2011  |  
• 12:00 pm  |  
• Wired July 2011

Photo: Gemeinde Jagsthausen

The Six Million Dollar Man, Darth Vader, Robocop—we have a passion for badasses who restore their mortal bodies with machinery. One of the earliest and most badassy cyborg action heroes was born 500 years ago in Württemberg, Germany. Gottfried “Götz” von Berlichingen grew up to become a knight of the Holy Roman Empire who robbed nobles and merchants in his free time. In 1504, he was struck by a cannonball during the Siege of Landshut. The impact ripped off his right hand and blew shrapnel from his sword and armor clean through his arm. It’s a miracle he survived. A normal man would’ve retired to a farmhouse on the Danube. Not Götz. He had an armorer fashion an iron limb with articulated fingers controlled by gears inside the prosthetic. With the appendage, he was able to grip anything from a sword to a quill pen. The handicapable warrior went on to cut an unholy swath across the continent for another 40 years, pillaging, murdering, and basically flipping the metal bird to authority. Götz became a Robin Hood-like figure in Germany, and his pioneering prosthetic was a symbol of the nation’s mechanical ingenuity. Goethe wrote a play about his exploits, and his famous battle cry, “Leck mich im Arsch!” (Lick my ass!), was celebrated by Mozart in not one but two canons. (True fact, look it up.)

PS:Wired magazine a great magazine...was reading it in the wire room between calls.

Status Update

Okay, things are normalizing at the homestead and hopefully regular blog posts to follow.  Threw more than 40 35-gallon trash bags into the alley, along with two play-school slides, a play-school wagon, a treadmill, an exercise bicycle, financial documents from 1991, a baby bounce up seat and well stuff to damaged to identify.

Further climbed on the roof with a buddy to tarp up the hole to keep water from rolling in, which went a little longer then projected when I made light of his weight problem and the ability of the roof to withstand it .  The work stoppage was cancelled when negations reached the correct ratio of apologies to free beer.  Meanwhile we are in a waiting pattern because of a conflict between the roofers and the insurance company.

So all that to say a couple of quick hits and a review of a great pair of tactical boots that I just tried from 5.11.  And by Friday hopefully normalcy and posting.

And as I am typing a storm just came in and what to do know?  Water is coming into the second floor playroom...yeah, home ownership, embrace it.

James 1:2
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,