Gotta love the graveyard shift.......

Many years ago back when I was on the graveyard shift, which is the most fun and exciting shift, I got one of those fun calls right around midnight. I was literally next door to the call when it came out. There was a guy pounding on the door to a Safeway trying to get in but it was closed. So I head over that way when updated info came out that the guy threw one of those large cement ashtray things through the store’s glass door. That would be clue #1 that this could be bad, and I love clues because they help me gauge what might happen. I pull up to the store knowing that my partner isn’t too far away and I see the bad guy in a fighting stance yelling at the manager who looks really scared (clue #2). I get out of my car and yell at the guy who looks over at me with a blank look (clue #3). I now realize that this is going to be bad.
I look at the broken glass door and think for a second about going in, but instead I yell at the guy to come out. Luckily he does decide to come out but he says something to the manager before he exits the store. We later learned that he said he was going to “kill that cop” and then come back and “kill you” referring to the manager. You’d think that would’ve been some really nice to know information that the manager could’ve yelled at me when the bad guy came out but I guess he decided to keep that small tid-bit of info to himself. Anyway, the bad guy comes out and is standing there all weird like so I try and talk to him but he just stares at me so I ask him why he broke the window and again he just stares at me. He’s not a big guy but he is about 6’03, 200 lbs so I keep a safe distance of about 6 feet away and ask him for some ID to bide time until my back up arrives. It’s either that or have a staring match for a minute or two. How awkward would that be to just stare at each other? Hey, you blinked first! Now you have to go to jail!
Anyway…. As my partner arrives the bad guy turns to walk away failing to show me his ID so I reach out to grab his arm and he turns back and starts throwing a flurry of punches at me. It was very quick and caught me off guard but somehow I was able to block all of them. This was the first time, but certainly not the last, someone tried to actually assault me. In my mind I was thinking “hey this guy is trying to hit me.” The punches were quick but my thoughts were in slow motion so it was a weird experience.
So the guy takes off running down the sidewalk of the store and I chase after him. I remember that my car keys fell off my belt and I dropped my flashlight but I couldn’t stop because there was no way this guy was getting away! I yell at the guy to stop but he isn’t listening so we keep running and I am catching up fast. We get to the end of the sidewalk by Mclendon’s Hardware and he turns back around to fight, but I am right there when he turns around and we end up against the wall.
Just as my partner runs up on us the bad guy starts throwing another volley of punches so I just duck my head into his chest. I yell for my partner to spray the guy, referring to our pepper spray, and I hear the sound of his can dropping on the ground rolling away. Great, all thumbs during crunch time! So this bad guy is hitting me in the back of the head but it isn’t bothering me yet so I yell for my partner to hurry up and spray him. Unfortunately these were the days before tasers. All of a sudden I see my partner hitting the guy on the arms and shoulders with his flashlight. Remember this guy is tall and my partner and I aren’t, so this was a losing battle as long as I was holding him against the wall. I go to step back when I feel a “wack” right on my face. It was an unmistakable sound of metal hitting someone’s head. Yep, my partner swung and missed but hit me right on my eye with his flashlight. I grab back onto the bad guy and yell for him to spray the guy now! All of a sudden I feel, hear, smell, and taste a whole can of pepper spray being dumped over me and the bad guy. This stuff is powerful! On a scale of hot, jalapeno peppers are 5,000 units. Our pepper spray is 5 million units.
So the bad guy now stops and we take him to the ground. I put handcuffs on him and look up only to see my eye starting to close on me. It swelled up like a balloon. I look over on the wall where we got sprayed and literally there is a shadow impression of us where you can see the outline of our bodies on the wall. It was crazy! I look at my partner through one eye and I’m like “dude?!” And he’s looks at me like “what?!” Well at least the bad guy went to jail and nobody got hurt except for me and my eye. I can live with that.
And two months later that guy was on America’s Most Wanted (Seattle area addition) for assault on a police officer because some judge let him out and he then failed to show up for court. Go figure! And then believe it or not a week later my partner sees him walking down the street. My partner gets me on the radio on a side channel and clues me in so I can hurry up and get there before everyone else. I race to his location to make the arrest and when we contact him is totally cool and actually apologized to me. He said that he was off his medication and barely remembers what happened. I felt a little bad inside because I was going there thinking he might fight, but instead I get a really sincere apology. Over the years I’ve seen him walking down the street a few times and even arrested him for a shoplift once. My job is just weird sometimes!

"Ride the Lightening!"

One of my many hats at the department is that I’m a defensive tactics instructor, which includes being a Taser instructor. For those of you that don’t know what a taser is, it’s a new and improved version of the stun gun. The taser has 50,000 volts of shock value and 26 watts of thumping power. Those numbers don’t mean a whole lot to me but I do know that the taser packs a punch! As an instructor I had the opportunity to volunteer, okay I was forced, to feel the effects of the taser at the instructor school. Then I took an advanced instructor course and had to “volunteer” to go through it again. They kindly refer to it as “ride the lightening.” Oh on a side note, did I mention I stopped going to the instructor courses?!
Anyway, the master instructor goes through several students one at a time as we all watch, some in horror. It is actually really funny to watch and see the guy “ride the lightening.” I mean I laughed loud and hard. It’s hilarious! That is until it was my turn! Don’t get me wrong. I wanted to do it and was excited to get in there, but I think it would’ve been better to go first instead of watching others suffer at length. I step up and notice my hands starting to sweat so I put on my warrior face and get ready for my own personal right of passage.
So the instructor turns it on and I instantly feel the effects of an electric fence times ten pounding through my body. My muscles lock up and I try to cowboy up but I start to go into my version of Tourettes Syndrome. And for a guy who doesn’t swear I think the electricity unlocked some dormant memories of my “BC” days (Before Christ). And as soon as the taser shuts off, everything stops. No more pain, no more Tourettes, nothing! I am now part of the club. I jump up and I do a quick check to make sure all my limbs and parts are there, and that I didn’t pee on myself, and all is good. Whew! And I’m glad I did it though because knowing the effects came in handy not too long afterward.
A few months later I’m on patrol driving down the road and see a car pass by me very fast, but I was able to get the license plate. I run it and comes back expired so I flip a u-turn and go after it. The driver then speeds up and turns down the first street but by the time I turn he is gone! So I make the first right (they always take rights) and at the end of the street I see him turning around. I activate my lights and he pulls right over, much to my surprise. He immediately gets out, which is a danger clue in my book. He is apologizing for taking off and appears very nervous, which makes me nervous. I tell him to get back in the car and he does a quick look around. That is another clue. I unsnap my taser and grab my radio because I know it’s coming. Yep, a foot pursuit! The guy takes off running like a gazelle. I radio that I’m in foot pursuit so the troops can come help. After about 3 seconds I yell at myself for not running more because I am already breathing hard. I mean the gear we carry is heavy! Depending on the officer, it can range from 25-35 pounds. It’s amazing we ever catch anyone.
This guy is about 20 y/o, 6’00 and thin, and he can run! But I never, ever give up! So we go running down the street and I pass by several people standing out front of their home. I really don’t expect them to help but maybe just throw something at the guy to slow him down a little. And he was out of taser range and if I do use it and miss the darts will bounce back and I could run into them. Now that would suck! So I keep chasing him and he is pulling away from me, fast! But at the end of the street I see a garbage man emptying garbage into his truck and his looking right at us coming his way. I vision a large trash can flying through the air and taking the guy out at his knees, but noooooo! He lets the guy run right by. Why I thought at that moment there was a direct relation between garbage pick-up and police work I don’t know. (Oh, note to self… tonight is garbage night) Anyway, I pass by Mr. Garbage man dude and I just look at him and he looks back at me like “what?!” Yep, just like the drivers that don’t get out of our way during pursuits (see previous blog entries).
All of a sudden he starts to slow down and I get my second wind. I’m actually catching up which just motivates me even more. I see two fences directly ahead of us and thankfully he chose the short fence. He slows down to jump the fence and when he gets to the other side he looks back at me. I jump over the fence and hit the guy with the taser. He falls back onto the tall chain link fence and holds on. Since he doesn’t follow commands to get on the ground I move in and my leg gets caught up in the taser wires. Yep, now both of us are riding the lightening. He grabs onto the fence and so do I but since it’s a metal fence, and the wires are touching it, we both continue to get zapped. It was like one big merry go round of electricity. So I’m now doing the happy dance (similar to the potty dance) trying to get the wires off my leg. Meanwhile I’m trying to fight off the effects of the taser and keep an eye on him at the same time. Trust me it wasn’t easy. The funny thing is we both made eye contact as we both were getting zapped. There was this unsaid mutual understanding of pain and discomfort we were both sharing together at that moment, but at least I had been through it before.
So as the pain and electricity are running through my body, I strive with all my might to move my thumb over only a ½ inch to the safety toggle of the taser to shut it off. Heck, it might as well been a mile! It was like slow motion watching my thumb travel at the speed of a snail but somehow I managed to fight through it and get it to the safety. And just as I started to turn it off, the auto 5 second timer quit and it shut off by itself. So as he tries to figure out what just happened, I jump away from the wires and zap him again as he tries to get up and run away. All in all, it was pretty funny and I was so glad I caught the guy. There is nothing worse than a foot chase when you lose! Except a foot chase on a full stomach, which is another story for another time! =)
And why did he run? He was DUI, and had a warrant for DUI, and had his license suspended for DUI, and had open beer in the car. Man he got a lot of tickets, and a trip to jail. Who knows, maybe I saved him from getting into an accident and hurting someone, or worse?!

An all too common call........

Hello once again. I know it’s been a while since my last post so I’ll get right to it, but first I just wanted to say thanks for all the nice comments everyone has been leaving.
So anyway, we had a manager at an apartment complex call 911 because she saw a guy enter an apartment where his girlfriend lives. No biggie except there is a No Contact Order out against them that prevents him from seeing her. It all stemmed from a fight several months ago where she claimed that he assaulted her during an argument so she called 911. Well she later recanted her story at court and said that the “officers must have misunderstood” what she said. Well the judge didn’t buy it and set the case for trial so they’ll get their chance to prove it.
So we show up and my partner goes around the back in case he decides to bolt out the back window. I walk up to the apartment and I see the blinds moving so the element of surprise is probably now gone. I go ahead and knock on the front door and get no answer at first. I knock several more times and still no answer. I announce that I am the police (maybe I should’ve said “Bloggin POPO”) and I hear the female answer from inside with “what do you want.” Oh, I dunno. How about tomorrow’s weather report? (jk) I quickly explain that I need her to open the door and speak with me, which she does, and I tell her straight up why I’m there. She then says that her boyfriend left and isn’t there. I explained to her that I was going to ignore the comment because lying to the police is illegal and I told her that I wanted her to think about her next response very carefully before saying anything. And to help her from getting arrested for telling another lie I wanted to paint a picture so clear that she would know I was helping her out. I told her that witnesses just saw him go inside and not leave so I was positive that he was still there. I told her that I would like her permission to check her home to see if he is there and she says “I don’t feel real comfortable with that.” I bet! I explained to her that in these cases I really don’t need her permission and I was going to anyway so I gave her one more chance and asked her if he was inside. She said, “I think he may have left but I’m not sure.”
I go inside and announce that the police was there and for him to come out. Of course I get no response so I go to the bedroom where I find the bathroom door locked. Hmmmm, I find this odd and highly suspicious. Okay, I know. It’s a big clue! I order whoever is inside to come out or I would kick the door in. No response. I say it again. No response. This seems to be the running theme at this home. So I get ready to kick in the door and I’m secretly thinking that I should’ve stretched out before work. And there is no cool way to do it while this lady is watching me so I step back and make one more announcement. Then I hear “Just a minute. I’m going to the bathroom.” Well I don’t know about you but if the police come to my home while I’m in the bathroom I won’t wait until the last second to let them know I’m in there.
But anyway, I order him out and he says “I’m almost done.” Yeah right! I ask him if he is “Randy” and he said, “No he left.” Uh huh! I mean am I now supposed to say okay and just leave. Sorry to bother you sir. Go about your business and have a nice day? I don’t think so. So I wait a minute and hear the toilet flush. I seriously wish I had $10 for every time this ploy has happened since I became a cop. It is so lame! But just in case, I tell him to wash his hands before he comes out. =) So he comes out and I put him in handcuffs. He eventually admits that he is the bad guy and off he goes to jail, but the whole way he does nothing but whine and cry. He had every excuse under the sun for his problems and took zero responsibility. At first I tried to be nice and offer advice but after 20 minutes of excuses I had to give him my two cents worth.
I decide to tell him one of my life’s mottos, and I have many. I told him that “you can tell the measure of a man by the countenance on his wife’s face”… and he says “huh?” I mean here I try to leave this knucklehead with some profound advice and all I get is “huh?” I tell him never mind and he replies with “you just don’t understand our problems.” I quickly explain back to him that I understand he was not supposed to be there, I understand that he locked himself in the bathroom and left his girlfriend to fend off the police for him, I understand that he pretended to be someone else other than the man of her dreams and the head of the home, I understand that he blames everyone and everything for his problems other than himself....however I also understand that he is without God so I don’t stick him with a whole bunch of charges, just the order violation. =)
I just don't get it. I have been on so many of these calls, and unfortunately will go on many, many more. I may never get it...why do so many women subject themselves to this? Why do they call 911 for help, only to show up in court in defense of these guys? They'll keep calling for help, and I'll keep showing up....but I guess if I can truly help even one, it makes it all worth it.