PO-PO

I got the idea to write this post after talking to my old beat partner tonight.  She was my beat partner when I left the police department, and she was a darn good one as most of the officers there are.  I only spent about 6 months with her, the other 3 and a half years was spent with another beat partner in a different "hood".  For those of you that don't know, I began my tenure with HPPD beginning in 2003.  I spent almost 4 years there before deciding that I had endured at least the last year disliking the work and most of what it involved.  Sure there were a couple things I enjoyed.  I enjoyed DWI enforcement.  As a matter of fact, I've been subpoenaed to appear in appeals court for a girl I convicted last year that only blew a .07 (Remember, it doesn't matter.  All you have to do is prove appreciable impairment).  I found myself wanting to initiate my own traffic stops (usually from an interdiction standpoint), but not wanting to answer my calls because I didn't want to deal with more idiots than I had to.  Dealing with the people that call the police, and the people that the police are called on... is a very very difficult task.  I challenge you, next time you're in contact with a police officer (though I hope you're not) to remember a couple things:

1)  That he/she deals with citizens that don't respect the law, a badge, the constitution, or innocent people around them ALL DAY LONG.  

2) That at least half the people they deal with are drunk, high, half out of their mind, or all 3.  

3) That the normal people they deal with are either   a) Mad that an officer caught them doing something they shouldn't...  or b) Mad that they've had to call an officer out for something that shouldn't have happened.  

4)  That most of these people they deal with are as the Bible describes the world, out for themselves and very very selfish.  

5) I had CHILDREN cuss me like I had stolen their scooter for just stopping to speak to them. Before I couldn't have imagined, even as an adult, speaking to anyone of authority this way. 

With all this being said, I will attempt to keep this shorter than my normal "novel" posts, but it probably won't happen.  I left the PD because I just wasn't happy.  This did not come without some pains though.  The friends you develop in this line of work are different than anything I've been familiar with, because I wasn't in the military.  These friends watched my back, fought beside me, and filled in when I needed them most.  I still try to keep in touch with them as much as possible, but it's still tough.  I do not regret leaving, because I know it was in the best interest for me and my family, but I truly miss the people I worked with and being there to help protect them as they protected me.

As some of you may have heard, HPPD was just involved in their second police involved shooting of the year.  Obviously, this involved a couple of my friends who are now on administrative leave (which is standard).  The first shooting was in March and involved a great officer that left for some of the same reasons I did, but came back the PD as I resigned.  He filled one of the empty slots on the same patrol team I left.  He arrived at a domestic disturbance one night and witnessed a female attacking her boyfriend with a box cutter.  After neither subject complied, he was left no choice but to protect the man who was not armed.  The shooting last night involved two officers that arrived to a home invasion in progress.  I can only disclose what the media has released, but after a subject exited armed with a gun and made threatening movements at the officers, they... again, were left with no choice.

The reason I write this is because something inside me feels guilty for not being there.  That could have been me, and I ask myself, "If it was me, would I have made the right decision?" Every part of me says that I would have, and for some reason I feel like I should still be in that role to help protect my fellow officers.  The world is getting more violent, as is this particular city.  I actually saw it with my own eyes as I left.  I am not the only one with a family and child, many of these officers have a wife and more than one child.  I fear badly that one of my friends that are an asset to society, will get injured or killed by one of these that are a menace to society.

It bothers me bad to watch the media display their unbelievable ways of making a story out of the information they have.  Let me clear something up for you all.  The ways of these uneducated criminals and the families that raised them are this:  Information from word of mouth is fact.  I can't tell you how many times I witnessed full out physical attacks occur because somebody's mother-in-law's baby sister's cousin Lori said that somebody's boyfriend was up at the show with some "tramp" or "My Aunt said my brother ate my hot dog".  What the crap?  As bad as this angered me, I had to try to explain logic to someone who wasn't capable of understanding logic.  Fox 8, my most hated news channel for reasons I'd have to tell several police stories to explain, decided to put the mother of this victim on the news.  Now keep in mind, they put her on TV for a story.  They put her on knowing that she will say something that causes tension and cause the unknowing public to believe that there is a possibility of excessive force.  She was interviewed saying that her baby was shot in the back.  When someone is shot in the back, it implies that they were running, retreating, or surrendering.  Why can't they just take the facts from the report and let the system of investigation and forensics work?  It'd be like me putting in a report, "Mrs Stevens reports that she was attacked by Mr. Stevens.  Mr. Stevens said he didn't do it, so we are continuing the investigation elsewhere.".  Since when do we believe people and what they say?

 I just ask that you put your assumptions aside when dealing with the media.  They will attempt to put the police at fault, because that's what causes people to watch.  They want citizens to watch and say, "Wow, more corrupt police... what is the world coming to."  When you see a video on the news claiming "police brutality", how do we know that this guy didn't have a knife in his right hand he refused to drop?  You never know when yours or your families' life might be in the hands of one of these officers.  You have no choice but to trust them.  Please raise your kids to understand that the police are friends, not foes.  I can't tell you how many times I got the "Be good or that officer will put you in jail" comment in a store.  That irritated me, because now this kid is scared of me when I wanted nothing more to but lean down and give him a Jr. Police Officer badge (which now is no good).  Remember, officers RARELY get a kind gesture.  I'd guess that 90% of those that come in contact with an officer is very much not pleased to see them.  

Do I miss it?  Sometimes.  I miss the excitement, the adrenaline, the stories, and the people that worked along my side.  I think God took me through that phase as an important part of my life... as medication needed to learn more about how to raise my child, protect my family, and choose my battles as they present themselves.  Next time you see an officer grabbing a quick meal, don't think the same thing that many used to say to me ("Who's protecting the city?")  How about buying their lunch for doing what they do, because it is not easy... it does not pay well...not just anyone can do it... and I promise you that they miss more lunches and take more abbreviated lunches than you'll ever know...