Doing it right-Law Enforcement Appreciation Day

Very cool to see what Northwest Bible Baptist Church is doing.  With all the negative press our profession is getting its good to see people doing the Lord's work.

Love the Police...Kiss a Cop...Wait Don't

There are two, among many, unique aspects of the law enforcement profession.  The first is that police officers over time slowly withdraw all their socialization from any non-law enforcement source.  What that really means is that they only hang out with cops, drink at cop bars, golf with cops, work massive amounts of overtime with cops.  They even withdraw from their familial relationships.

The second aspect is that we are solely judged by the one percent that are crazy, incredibly stupid or both.  Think if any profession was judged this way.   A brilliant New York neurosurgeon made to take ethics classes because an toxicologist in Omaha felt his patients up in the examination room.  But guess what, this happens to us all the time.  I can not tell you how many trainings I had to sit through because some moron did something I would never do, have never seen, and my co-workers would never do.  Oh and then when that person gets caught, a bunch of breathless articles come out trying to find this unreported epidemic.

Put paragraph one and paragraph two together.  Think you may get tired of friends, family, acquaintances asking you about an idiot (and without doing this purposely) making you defend yourself and your profession all the time.

So just to drive myself nuts I just googled searched "police" and here is the three in depth article list below. I evidently lie, hate one of the three peoples of the book, and arrest kids for not cleaning up.  I have never lied at the stand, there is no reason to do so because if you want to keep your house you only arrest people that are so guilty its a dead bang.  No one in my state or area has placed a young man/woman into custody for not cleaning up and great... an idiot department in Florida did  something stupid in training.  There are 900,000 law enforcement personnel on the streets of the United States, they serve 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, we don't stop for weather, we don't stop for disaster, we miss our children birthday parties and Christmas.  So with millions of civilian contacts a year, 99% positive or trust me we would get raked over the coals over it...what, not one positive story?

Strange then why cops only seems to love cops.

Matthew 7:2
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

In-depth articles
1. 

   Why Police Officers Lie Under Oath - NYTimes.com

   THOUSANDS of people plead guilty to crimes every year in the United States because they know that the odds of a jury's believing their word over a police officer's are slim to ...

   New York Times
2. 

   The US schools with their own police - The Guardian

   More and more US schools have police patrolling the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor.

   Guardian
3. 

   How We Train Our Cops to Fear Islam - Meg Stalcup ...

   There aren't nearly enough counterterrorism experts to instruct all of America's police. ... n a bright January morning in 2010, at Broward College in Davie, Florida, about sixty police officers ...

   washingtonmonthly.com

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

   
   

Cool Squads

I had to clean up the side bars of the blog, since it was becoming a slow load.  As a result I had to let a couple of pictures float away from the side bar and into this one post.

Lotus Exige Squad Car

Hummer H2

1941 Plymouth Squad Car

Lamborghini

Porsche Concept Squad Car

1928 Ford Model A


And to balance out all the coolness...

Segway 

Good Police Work Nets Good Results

Police Work really is about keeping your mind open, observations sharp and your work ethic up.  I think its like any job in that the tasks become repetitive over time but a good Officer does not allow one incident to slip into the other and stays aware.  The big case or the treat to your life could come from your first traffic stop, the fiftieth, the hundredth and so on.  Here is a case of excellent police work by an officer that was aware and scored the big hit doing an mundane police task.

First the Link: http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/article_3b0ebd48-bec0-5b62-83d0-3cd13c6381fc.html

Indiana State Police find $1.6 million in cocaine hidden in car

By Sarah Tompkins sarah.tompkins@nwi.com, (219) 836-3780 | Posted: Saturday, October 23, 2010 12:00 am |(11) Comments

Two Chicago residents were charged Friday October 21, 2010 with dealing cocaine after an Indiana State Police drug bust the night before revealed more than a million dollars worth of cocaine in a hidden compartment of their car.

Driver Doris Reyes, 40, and passenger Carlos Lopez, 20, could face between 20 and 50 years in prison if convicted, authorities said.

Trooper Jerry George pulled over Reyes' vehicle about 9 p.m. Thursday for unsafe lane movement on the Indiana Toll Road in Portage and noticed some "indicators of criminal activity" that led to a search, authorities said.

Details of the indications were not released, though an officer said the individuals' stories did not match up. Police were told the car was heading to Maryland from Chicago for a family visit.

Portage police brought a drug-sniffing dog to the scene that identified narcotics were present.

"A vehicle search located an odd piece of metal at the rear of the vehicle with what appeared to be hinges," Trooper Jason Carmin said. "Further examination under the vehicle showed aftermarket work that appeared to be a hidden compartment. "

Two mechanical arms lifted the rear floor of the 2004 Ford Expedition, revealing about 14 kilograms of cocaine. Fourteen kilograms of cocaine equates to about a $1.6 million resale value on the street.

Rigid Morality

One of the constant knocks against Christians in the media and in our society in general is our perceived rigid morality.  Since the standard is a sinless Christ and our guidebook is the Bible, rather than a standard we make up ourselves, our morality and thus, ideally (we all are still sinful creatures and fall down a lot), our ethical behavior by necessity is rigid.  The world can not understand how a Christian can condemn the action but still love and support the actor.  The goal is salvation not condemnation, that is the role of a righteous God at the end of time.  Christian moral absolutes force any Christian to abstain from and prevent violence against another regardless of their proclivities, politics and belief systems.  Evil is still evil if an action is carried out against another and creates a victim.  If the action is evil and the attempt to justify is a bastardization of the Bible's verses, that person is not a Christian but rather evil trying to hide behind a cheap justification.  The New Testament is the blueprint for a Christians proper moral conduct, set in time and place and without regard to the whims of society.


The world wants a sliding ethical system without judgement or the impediment of action of others.  The best current example of this is the reaction to the recent Roman Polanski arrest.  Here are some quotes "As a Swiss filmmaker, I feel deeply ashamed," Christian Frei said.  "He's a brilliant guy, and he made a little mistake 32 years ago. What a shame for Switzerland," said photographer Otto Weisser, a friend of Polanski.  "The list of supporters giving Polanski their impassioned support read like a Who's Who of the cream of the movie-making world. It included, among many others, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Harvey Weinstein, Pedro Almodóvar and Ethan Coen".  The cream of the movie world throwing their support to a self admitted child rapist.  


Here is a brief description of what happened from wikipedia.

Sex crime conviction

In 1977, Polanski, then aged 44, became embroiled in a scandal involving 13-year-old Samantha Gailey (now Samantha Geimer). It ultimately led to Polanski's guilty plea to the charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

According to Geimer, Polanski asked Geimer's mother if he could photograph the girl for the French edition of Vogue, which Polanski had been invited to guest-edit. Her mother allowed a private photo shoot. According to Geimer in a 2003 interview, "Everything was going fine; then he asked me to change, well, in front of him." She added, "It didn't feel right, and I didn't want to go back to the second shoot."

Geimer later agreed to a second session, which took place on March 10, 1977 at the home of actor Jack Nicholson in the Mulholland area of Los Angeles. "We did photos with me drinking champagne," Geimer says. "Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn't quite know how to get myself out of there." She recalled in a 2003 interview that she began to feel uncomfortable after he asked her to lie down on a bed, and how she attempted to resist. "I said, 'No, no. I don't want to go in there. No, I don't want to do this. No!', and then I didn't know what else to do," she stated, adding: "We were alone and I didn’t know what else would happen if I made a scene. So I was just scared, and after giving some resistance, I figured well, I guess I’ll get to come home after this".

Geimer testified that Polanski gave her a combination of champagne and quaaludes, a sedative drug, and "despite her protests, he performed oral sex, intercourse and sodomy on her", each time after being told 'no' and being asked to stop.

Charges and guilty plea

Polanski was initially charged with rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance (methaqualone) to a minor. These charges were dismissed under the terms of his plea bargain, and he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, according to the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, the court ordered Polanski to report to a state prison for a 90-day psychiatric evaluation, but granted a stay of ninety days to allow him to complete his current project. Under the terms set by the court, he was permitted to travel abroad. Polanski returned to California and reported to Chino State Prison for the evaluation period, and was released after 42 days. All parties expected Polanski to get only probation at the subsequent sentencing hearing, but after an alleged conversation with LA Deputy District Attorney David Wells, the judge "suggested to Polanski's attorneys that he would send the director to prison and order him deported". In response to the threat of imprisonment, Polanski fled the United States.


Bottom line-some of reasoning I have heard to support him are: the victim does not want him jailed (she now admits he paid her), the crime was a long time ago, there were procedural errors in the case (did not keep him from seeking a plea agreement and then fleeing) and he is great artist and director.

This is what situational ethics gives you.  Christian-child rape is always wrong-whether it is done by the dirty homeless man under the bridge or the greatest man who ever lived (not to soil the reputation of that Dos Equis man).  Situational ethics-well it was a long time ago and he is a great artist lets look the other way.

The reason that Polanski's victim can not call off the case is all victims are represented by either the state of the federal government.  The thought behind this is once a victim is created all of us in society are likewise victimized.

Christian's want justice done, the world wants Roman to escape justice because its not that bad and it wasn't my daughter.  The world does not get sick to their stomach like they should when they consider his actions.

Rigidity looks a lot better doesn't it.

James 1:21

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

More and More Job Security

Strangely, this store hit me rather viscerally.

Cops: Wife, three other women torture husband

August 3, 2009 12:13 PM | 67 Comments

STOCKBRIDGE, Wis. -- Three women who had affairs with a married man are accused of luring him to a motel where, joined by the man's wife, they tied him up and applied Krazy Glue to his private parts.

Therese Ziemann invited the man to a motel on Thursday, tied him up, promised a massage and then sent text messages to the other women, according to Calumet County prosecutors.

Once all the women were there, they confronted him about his infidelity, police say. Ziemann punched him in the face and glued his penis to his stomach with Krazy Glue, according to the criminal complaint.

The women fled the motel when the man started screaming, officials said.

Charged with false imprisonment are Ziemann, 48, of Menasha, Wis.; Michelle Belliveau, 43, of Neenah, Wis.; Wendy L. Sewell, 43, of Kaukauna; and the man's wife. The Associated Press was not naming the wife to protect the man's identity. 

Authorities say Ziemann punched the man in the face and glued his penis to his stomach.

The women are free on $200 cash bails.

-- Associated Press

The Sinners and Me

Anyone who interacts regularly with the criminal mind quickly discoverers two quirky mental processes that they pretty much all exhibit.

The first is that they will always ask you not judge them by the act that has brought them into your temporary sphere of influence. They all will insist that they are basically good people except for, the car they stole, the drugs they sold, the wife they hit...etc.

The second is that criminals see the world through their criminal actions. For example, higher end illicit drug dealing is not really about the drugs but much more about a lazy short cut to achieve wealth. This person views everyone through the lens of greed. A well dressed investigator will walk through the room and the drug dealer will always tell you that, while they do not know that officer they can tell they are on the take. Or the drug dealer will suggest that if you had been in his or her shoes you would do the same things that they did. It simply does not compute to them that you may have chose to suffer in poverty than sell cocaine/heroin etc. I have seen this for the rapist (world view-restrained lust), abuser (world view- powerlessness) and a multitude of other major crimes. One of the primary reasons recidivism is so pervasive is due to the inability of the person to shift their decision making from a egocentric self serving paradigm to an altruistic one.

I always make a point of telling the person that I am being forced to work with that it is their actions that are the true indication of what type of person they really are. A "good person" does not sell drugs, strike their wife, steal from their job etc. If they want to be considered a "good person" he or she needs to start doing positive things now and if they show a consistent pattern of positive behavior then I will shift them from the category of "bad person" to "good person". I have had many people who have no remorse for what they have done get visibly upset and cry because the police officers have decided the are a "bad person".

As for the other quirk of lack of the ability to consider an alternate perspective, I long ago gave up trying to convince them that I or anyone else would have proceeded with a different series of decisions then the ones that they choose that led to their capture. It only leads to an endless series of unprovable scenarios for both parties.

What a hypocrite I am. If another person observed me going through my day would they view my actions as the actions of a follower of Jesus? Or would they take the totality of my day and then place me in the "bad" category. This stance of mine is really developed from the prospective that I am better then the person that I am dealing with...that I am not a drug dealer so I am not only better than they thus I am "good". How does that stand when the standard Jesus set is perfection? What I should have been saying is because of the love that Christ has for me, I have been given the honor of making less negative decisions than you. We are all sinners, we are all "bad people" but I can hang my sins on the only one that is blameless and perfect that can take the sins away from me, rather then you who keeps then wrapped around you like a cloak of evil ready at any moment to pull you down to the pit.

We are all "bad people". The only split category is "saved" and "unsaved".

Matthew 5:27-29

27"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'[a] 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.