A View from the Street/River City Policing

Shortly after I joined the Police in “River City” I was riding with one of the old Veteran officers. We were talking and the conversation was somehow turned to the topic of who were the worst drivers. He postulated that Asians were worst old people were second and women were third.

That’s when I bit. I asked the Question. What do you do when you see an old Asian woman driving in front of you? His answer came quickly. TURN LEFT!

Don’t let your personal feelings about people, affect your judgment about anything, in this job. I had been set up, but the lesson was clear. I have never forgotten the lesson. …..

…….One summer evening in the mid-1980s I was patrolling the two Robert nine area. At the Intersection of Northeast 12th and The Boulevard I drove in behind the 711 store when I observed an orange VW with two subjects and it parked in front of the store. When the driver saw me he backed up slowly. He began to slowly drive away…….

After a while when you are a police officer, you begin to develop what we called our” Spidey sense”. That's when the hair raises on the back of your neck and you get the feeling that something just is not right. …….

…..The DDS Folks Can’t stand political heat from the old ladies .It is a good idea for all police detectives to keep this fact in mind and to recruit a hoard of pissed off old ladies when you have one of those “ problems you would like to disappear”…… I’M Just Saying ……….

…There is a constant drum beat from media types, both on the left and the right as to the issue of judging others.

The confusion lies with Sin V laws made by Man. This calls for a definition of sin.

What is Sin?” Sin is not robbing banks or beating up grandma. Sin is living your life as though the word of god means nothing in your life.” We are therefor called not to judge others in their relationship to God.

We can and do make judgments about the conduct of people as it relates to their interactions with others and the Laws of man. ……..

…. I was a high school drop out that had received my GED in the US Army. I made rank easy in the army, despite the spelling thing. I was a tall boy 6 feet 5 inches 188 lb.

In School I was a tall Quiet kid easy going but there was something about me that caused the so called tough kids to want to beat me up. The big guys were bad enough it was the little tough guys that really irritated me. ……

….Korea: What is there to say about that war torn country? The Land was awful; devastated by the war that had ended 12 years earlier My Uncle had fought there and had been wounded the stories he told when you could get him to speak about it were troubling. He had lain behind a 6 foot stone wall for 2 days while an ammunition dump was blown up in front of them. The wall was 2 feet high when it all stopped. He didn’t get a scratch. Then he was side swiped by a diamond T dump truck and his leg was split from the crouch to the knee……..

….The United States Army is a: how do I say this without sounding disloyal? No! I won’t say it I’ll just tell you the scam and you can decide what adjectives that best describe the monetary policy practiced by the U.S. Government.

We were paid in military script, Funny money; this stuff was about the size of monopoly money. It was half the size of the US dollar. The exchange rate for a greenback on the Korean black market was about 1300 won to the dollar the exchange rate for military script was 270 won to the dollar. OB Beer in the village of Unchon-ni was fifty Won or 5.4 beers to the dollar of script. If you had a greenback the exchange rate in the village was 1300 won to the dollar or 26 beers to the dollar. The Military was ripping us off! It was a violation of UCMJ to have……..

….In June 1969 I was hired as a rookie Police officer. My training officer was piece of work. He was a good and conscientious training officer but he was also as political as I was idealistic. His flat spot was that he was a stickler for the law when it benefited Him, but political, if that benefited Him. Whatever the politicians wanted he did. It worked well for him he eventually became an Assistant Chief. I recognized what he was early and tried to align myself with a less political group. This hurt my career but I have no regrets’. To tell the truth when He was being his normal self he was a fun guy to work with. He had the nuts and bolts of policing down pat. He was one of the best teachers of patrol tactics I have ever seen. I learned a lot in our time together my worst problem in the job was report writing and in particular SPELLING. If I was under pressure I couldn’t spell my own name. I was bad and everyone knew it. It made the probation hell for me. It was the excuse they used to fire me 6 days before my probation was up in December 1969. ….

…..On this day, my training officer, I and were sent to an injury accident on the Valley Highway. When we arrived there was a VW pushed up against the guard rail in the south bound lanes of this four lane road a new Dodge Super Bee was sitting about 10 feet south of the VW the VW had two people in the front. The driver was pinned with his feet crushed on the floor. The passenger, his fiancée had hit the windshield. Glass from the wind shield sparkling in the lights, covered her face……….

…….In my defense I pointed out to the chief that every post on that fence was rotted and a strong wind would have knocked it over. Why does this crap always happen to YOU? Well Chief there are two philosophy’s around here. One is “work hard and your diligence will pay off”. The other is “ Do the minimum get the maximum”……

….When a traumatic situation occurs within a family group like the police there is a tendency for the excitable elements among the family to lose perspective. When the Members of the group that tend to lose perspective are themselves command staff and politicians the end result can be devastating. When you break it down it is usually because they are more concerned with getting their pictures taken than completing the mission……

I was working at an off duty job at River City High. It was one of those typical school dances lots of kids and parents and teachers volunteering as chaperons. The night was uneventful until about 9PM I was approached by one of the school chaperons who stated that there was a girl lying on the floor of the girl’s locker room.