OFFBEAT
With Oxnard’s Finest
by
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Chapter Two
Hanna Banna Stanson
It was roll call in preparation for the midnight-to-eight shift. The blue suits of Oxnard’s Finest were standing tall and ready for their call to duty. Field Sergeant Mel Stevens, a former Kentucky State Trooper, was addressing the shift after the watch commander, Lieutenant Ken Molden, had finished his briefing.
“Okay, men. Let’s pick up the pace on filing those FIR cards,” Sergeant Stevens admonished. “I know, I know it’s just more paperwork. But it does serve a purpose. We need to know who is out and about in strange places so when we get the reports of break-ins the next morning we just might be able to find a witness in those little three-by-five cards.”
There was a rolling of eyes by the seasoned patrol officers who had filled out card after card and didn’t see any urgency to up the collection. After all, they instinctively knew when a Field Interview Report (FIR) was appropriate. At Christmastime the records section had to weed out the ones for Kris Kringle, aka Santa Claus, and at Easter the ones for Peter Rabbit, but usually the officers understood when an FIR card was needed and the value of them when used appropriately.
Danny Howard didn’t know. He was brand-new to police work and his head was still spinning from the fast-paced merry-go-round he found himself on. He was still reeling from the night before when he and his senior partner couldn’t seem to keep up with events that unfolded for these crime busters.
Danny’s senior partner for the evening was Gus Vazquez, a no-nonsense patrol officer whose spit-shined image should have been on a recruitment poster. Vazquez gave Danny the once over before they left the squad room.
“Hey, kid. Let me see your driver’s license,” Vazquez ordered.
Holy Shit, what’s this all about? Danny probably wondered as he pulled his wallet from his pocket, removed his license, and handed it to Vazquez.
Vazquez held the license for a moment, glanced at Danny, then handed it back.
“Just checking to make sure you’re twenty-one,” Vazquez smiled. “We don’t want you getting busted for being in a bar illegally, you know.”
“Thank you, sir.” Danny didn’t know what else to say.
“Okay, kid, let’s go fight crime and see how many FIR cards we can give the good sergeant.”
Leaving the police station, they rounded Plaza Park, looked it over, and pulled into an alley off C Street to check out a rag picker whose shopping cart was full of empty bottles, cans, old clothes, and folded-up cardboard boxes.
Vazquez and Danny exited their black-and-white and approached the subject who shielded his eyes from the police car’s headlights.
“Evening, sir, how you doing?” Officer Vazquez asked.
“Mighty fine, sir, mighty fine,” the subject responded.
“What’s your name, sir?”
“Hanna Banna Stanson,” the man answered.
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About the Book
Cops everywhere have their stories.
The retired police officers of the Oxnard Police Department are no exception.
Like the stories told by officers anywhere, Oxnard PD's stories, too, seem to grow each time they are retold until few can offer an iron-clad guarantee that they are today the way the stories actually unfolded then. Some officers, however, offer an iron-clad guarantee that these stories reflect their current memory.
Offbeat is a collection of their stories. In another sense, they represent the stories of all police departments everywhere for it is these stories that provide the perspective necessary for sanity in, at times, an insane world.
Offbeat is the humor behind the badge.
About the Author
Micheal T. Hurley, a retired Supervisory Special Agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), served as a full-time law enforcement officer for over thirty-two years, six and a half with the Oxnard, California Police Department as a patrol officer and detective. While with DEA his foreign assignments were in outposts such as Ankara, Turkey, and Kabul, Afghanistan. Along with his wife Carol, Hurley served six years in Cyprus with area responsibility for Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Israel as well. His domestic assignments included Los Angeles, Washington DC, Little Rock, New York, and Seattle. His association with law enforcement organizations now spans more than 50 years.
His current law enforcement affiliations include, being a life member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the board chairman for the Law Enforcement Association of Southwest Washington, the 2nd vice president of the International Police Association’s Region 24, a member of The International Narcotics Officers Association, a member of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Association of Former Federal Narcotics Agents, and a charter member of the Oxnard Police Alumni Association commonly known as The Fuzz That Wuzz.
Kenton Smith has spent most of his adult life teaching English at a small high school near Mt Rainier in Washington State. Smith, semi-retired, chooses to teach today at Centralia College East, a small satellite college also near Mt. Rainier. Smith was the co-author with Micheal Hurley of I Solemnly Swear: Conmen, DEA, the Media and Pan AM 103 and has since authored The Pipsqueak Kid, with Micheal and his brother Jerry Hurley’s assistance. Kent has received three Teachers of the Year Awards --- one from students, one from his fellow teachers, and one from the community which he serves --- and he treasures them as some of his highest achievements, although it is as a writer that Kent feels most comfortable. He has written several plays, one non-fiction work about the actual teaching of writing, and numerous short stories.
At the college level Kent usually teaches English 101, English Fundamentals, American Drama, Film, or Creative Writing.