Chronicles: Alan B. Rowley II - Success Warrior - ECoach - P90X

My Most Memorable Valentine's Day

In 2003, I had a Valentine's Day that stands out from all the others.  I'm not good at remembering dates and events and I even had to look up on the internet which year this happened in order to write this post but I remember the events of this day.

Tia and I went out for a nice dinner and then she treated me to a movie.  Daredevil.  I collected Daredevil comics during high school and had developed quite the collection.  Like so many other people, I sold off the collection later in life and now wish that I still had them.

When I saw that the movie was coming out, I knew that I would have to go.  I wasn't planning on going on Valentine's day but my wife knew how much I wanted to see it so we went.  That's true love.

I turned off my cell phone and pager when we went in so that I could just enjoy the movie.  Well, enjoy it as best I could.  I'm not going to go into a movie review here but it was disappointing.

When we got back in the car, I turned my phone and pager back on.  Both of them started going crazy with pages and voice mails that had been left.  I checked the numbers to see who I wanted to call back first.  I called dispatch.

A Friend had to Shoot Someone

A guy that was wanted for questioning regarding an armed robbery that he had committed decided to stop in to police department on his own.  Instead of invoking his right to silence, he decided to shoot off an AK-47 in the parking lot.

Police responded and when the shooter stopped shooting into the air and brought the gun down to point at officers, he was shot.

Tia and I want this deputy to know that we are thinking of him and if there is anything that we can do, we're here.

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Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 11

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

There's a saying that cops involved in shootings will be out of law enforcement within 5 years.  Some quit, some get fired, and some kill themselves.  One way or another, they get out.

That first week, I seriously considered quitting law enforcement but it didn't make much sense.  The damage had been done.  If I didn't want to be in a shooting, I should have quit the week before.  It would be the equivalent of tightening up lending standards so that even good risks had trouble getting a loan after the housing bubble burst.  Too late and not the appropriate response.  I decided that I would just stick it out and stay a cop.

I have concluded after living through this event that there are three things that cause the 5 year theory.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 10

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

Monday morning, I went to work in plain clothes.  The chief took me out to breakfast at Denny's. 

Have you ever had the feeling that everyone is looking at you?  I have.  That morning at Denny's.  Most of the people were probably travelers and had no clue who I was but that didn't stop me from thinking that they were all looking at me.

We had breakfast and then went back to the office.  I don't remember what I did that day or the next.  I was in plain clothes and probably just hung out in the office doing nothing but killing time.

I do remember what happened Monday night after I was home.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 9

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

When I got home, I went to the bedroom.  The peeked out the blinds and looked up and down the street.  I don't know what I was looking for.  Everything was quiet out there.  I took off my uniform and got ready for bed.  Before I climbed into bed, I peeked out the blinds again.  Still quiet.

From that day on until we moved our bedroom into the basement, I would peek out the blinds every night before I went to bed and first thing every morning.

I climbed into bed and fell right to sleep.

I have only woken up 3 times in my adult life screaming from a nightmare.  This was one of those times.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 8

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

After I had told my story, I went to the patrol officer's office while everyone did their work.  I did a little bit of work too, which lead to something a bit weird.

We wrote down the days activities on a log sheet that we carried around in our car.  When we got back to the police department, we would enter all the information into the computer.  I hadn't been given any instructions about what to do so I was just hanging out in the office while everyone else worked, trying to figure out how to investigate a police shooting.

I decided to put in my log entries, except the for the last one.  I left that one for the chief.  I had done a couple things before having dinner with Jorge and I entered the information into the computer.  As I was sitting there typing, the phone rang.  Out of habit, I grabbed it and announced who I was.  On the other end was the dispatcher.  She let me know that Doug, who had been life-flighted to major hospital, was dead.  I hung up.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 7

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

The chief and I walked into the police department.  This building must have been built in the 60s, I swear.  It had orange counter tops and yellow chairs that had the foam padding showing through the worn out material.  The desks were hundred pound steel army surplus things where the drawers squealed in protest when you opened them and sometimes had to be kicked shut.  The whole place was handmedowns.  Other departments would order new equipment and we would take the old stuff that they were going to throw in the dumpster.  The chief was proud that he was always able to come in under budget though.

We went to the interview room where I sat on the plastic chair reserved for criminals.  It was from the 60s as well but had no cushion so we were able to sanitize it after some drunk that had pissed his pants sat on it.  The chief got the seat where the cop always sat. 

Out of everything, this one thing bothered me more than anything.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 6

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

I sat in my car.

The department was so small that I just had to sit there.  No one could be spared to babysit me somewhere else.  I can't tell you what went on.  I don't remember much of it.  I didn't really watch anything and if I did, I didn't really see anything.  Cops were walking all over the place, I'm sure.  There were probably rubberneckers.  I don't know.  I just sat there.

This was the first time that this kind of thing had ever happened in Tinytown and there were lots of things done in a manner that would be considered wrong by today's standards.  They all did the best they could with the knowledge they had.  I went on from this incident to study up on what should have been done, both from the admin side and from my side.  I point this out for all the cops reading this because you will no doubt be shaking your head at some of the things that happened.  Everything went well because this was clearly a justified use of force.  Thinking this, I just played along with everything that happened.  If it happened again today, things would be different.  Live and learn.

Here are some things that I remember from my little sit in the car which today feels like I was there for hours.  Maybe I was.  I don't know.

Fast Food Makes Adults Stoopid Too

I don't know if you caught this story so let me give you the short version before we discuss the mentally degenerative affects of Big Macs.

A McDonald's employee spilled some salt on a bunch of hamburgers.  Her and a couple of ohter employees tried to "thump" the salt off and then cooked them and served them.  One was served to a cop and he got sick.  He returned to the McDonalds, found the employee that spilled the salt and arrested her.  She was taken to jail where she bailed out for $1,000.

Where to start with this is the hard part so we'll just in chronological order.

How much do hamburgers cost McDonalds?  With several gazillion sold each year, there has got to be a pretty good bulk rate discount.  Knowing this, if I spilled salt on McDonalds burgers, I'd just chuck them in the garbage.  McDonalds can afford to lose a box of burgers rather than risk more bad publicity or pissing off Chief Wiggums and having an employee hauled off to jail.

Fair enough.  Let's move on.

If you're burger is so damn salty that it's going to make you sick, wouldn't you notice that?  Wouldn't you take one bite and go, "Holy crap!  What did they do, spill all the french fry salt on this thing?"?  Then wouldn't you go back and get a replacement burger?  Does one bite of salty hamburger really make people sick or does it just piss them off?

Do McDonalds burgers taste so bad that you can't tell that there is an extra box of salt on them?  But he must have noticed or how would he have known to go back and ask who put all the salt on his burger?

He couldn't arrest her for putting salt on his burger because he can't prove intent so they are charging her with serving the burger knowing that salt was spilled on it.  A supervisor was called over the spilled salt and must have made the command decision to go ahead and try sneaking them past the customers.  Wouldn't it be the supervisor that would be arrested for serving the burger?

We don't know the whole story of course but doesn't this just look like an abuse of power to arrest a 20 year old girl for spilling some salt?

The idiocy doesn't end there though.

Chief Wiggums hamburger has been sent to the state crime lab for testing.

"Yo Bob, can you put a hold on the blood sample from the homicide?  I need you to check the salt content of this burger."

"Ummm, why?"

"Apparently someone got sick from eating this hamburger.  I need you to see if there's anything wrong with it."

"Sure thing.  Let me have a look.  Oh yeah, here I see the problem.  This is in a McDonalds wrapper.  I'm not surprised that who ever ate this got sick."

The girl made a mistake.  The cop's actions are completely lame.   

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On a somewhat related subject, today's Success Warrior post is Should Obese People Pay More For Health Insurance?

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 5

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

The trooper arrived and asked what happened.

"The guy came at me with a knife so I shot him," I said.

About 10 years after the incident was the first time this trooper and I talked about the shooting.  For those 10 years, I had pretty much concentrated on how the shooting affected me.  He was in our office one day after I had started to focus outward and I asked him what he thought about the day.  He said that the thing that really stood out for him was how matter of fact I was when he asked what had happened.  It's not something that anyone in that rural county expected to happen so he was caught off guard when I told him.  We only talked about it for a few minutes and never brought it up again.

I finally noticed the guy that had come to help me.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 4

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

Nothing happened.

Okay, something happened but what Hollywood had taught me was going to happen, didn't.  Not even close.  Not even "based on a true story" close.

I heard the gun go off as a distant pop, quieter than a champagne cork on the far side of the restaurant.  Forget about the tinkling of the brass hitting the cement.  I barely heard the gun go off.  I couldn't hear the guy coming behind me asking if I needed help.  My ears didn't ring because of the close proximity to the mini-explosion.

I have forgotten to put my ear protection on at the firing line before and let me tell you, dang does that hurt and boy do your ears ring for a while.

Not when you do it for real, at least not for me.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 3

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

"I'm not going to kill you," meaning it at the time but not lowering the gun at all.  I had my Glock pointed right at his nose.  It didn't feel odd or scary or anything.  It was like I talked to guys with knives at gunpoint all the time.

"So Mike, how's the wife and kids?  Nice knife you have.  What do you think about my Glock?"

Doug started walking toward me and I started walking backward.  He kept asking me to shoot him and I kept telling him that I wasn't going to.  After several steps, I started yelling, "Drop the knife!"  I did this for rest of our little stroll.  I'm suprised that there weren't more rubberneckers initially because there were ear-witnesses that heard me from their back yard. 

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 2

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

I told dispatch that I was on scene and she acknowledged my transmission with the time: 1922 (7:20 pm).

I pulled the car to the right and parked.  I opened the door and looked down beside my seat where I kept my wooden baton.  This happened long enough ago that expandible batons hadn't made their way to mainstream yet.  Pepper spray was becoming more common but our department didn't carry it (what happened on this day would change that).  Our bat belt back then was pretty slim pickin's.  My only weapon (that was designed as a weapon) was my gun.  I had a knife in my boot.

I couldn't think of why I would need my stick for a suicidal individual.  It was nice when we started carrying expandible batons because you didn't have to try to guess whether or not you would need it.  It was just there.  If I would have taken my stick on this call back then, it wouldn't have change anything.  If it happened today and I had a stick, things would have been very different.  I'll cover that in later posts but I will tell you this little bit.  My last year of patrol, I was carrying two guns, an expandible baton, pepper spray, and five knives.  My last year, I was armed, not just physically but mentally.

Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993

On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  It was an act of violence that changed the world and the way people thought from that point on.  48 years later to the day, I was involved in an act of violence on a much smaller scale that nevertheless changed me and the way I thought from that point on.

It was a beautiful day.  Sunny, hot but not scorchingly hot.  Not that it mattered to me anyway.  I had been a cop for almost 14 months at that point and it was still fun to put the costume on.  It didn't matter that there were days that I could feel sweat running in rivulets down my spine.  I was a cop and sweating was part of the price that I paid.  It was worth it.

One of the nice things about being a small town cop back then and living in your own jurisdiction was that you could go home or go to other officer's homes during shift on your break.  The city had a diameter of about 3 miles.  You could respond from anyplace in the city and be on scene within a minute or two.

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 8

Showtime has been pre-empted for the conclusion of the Corn Bust.  My apologies to Heart and Charley Pride but I want to finish this story before tomorrow and that kind of limits my options.

Billy was in jail and the next day I came in to start on the report.  The most time consuming part was going to be listening to the tape of the chase and writing down each every turn and road that the chase went on.  45 minutes spent turning every every minute or so meant that I had a lot of recounting to do.

I was sitting there typing up the rest of the report first putting off the road list until Slider was free to help out when my phone rang.  The caller was giving me an anonymous tip of where a guy with a warrant was.  I hung up, double checked that there was a warrant and went to pick up the guy.

I had debated whether or not to do it but decided that a warrant was such a quick arrest that I could fit it in and still get right back into my report.

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 7

Cops started showing up and soon we had a dozen cops around the field.  The chief showed up and assigned me to be Incident Command.  The problem with the situation was that we thought Billy was armed and so any search of the corn field was going to be very dangerous.

I called for a K9.  I assigned Ninja to cover the K9 since the handler would be busy.  The dog went in on Billy's scent but lost it.  They crossed the field a couple of times but came up empty.

This had no essentially turned into a barricaded subject.  I called for more officers.  We were going to have to make a chain of officers across the field and search it row by row.  I called out all our officers and the county SWAT team.  The stand off went into the next shift so everyone stayed and the new officers came to the scene.

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 6

The car blocking the exit from the parking lot moved out of the way.  They were probably trying to get out of the way of the cop car but that also meant that Billy was free to go again.  He shut the car door and hit the gas.  I shut my door, put my seatbelt back on, and told dispatch that the footchase was off and that we were still in a car chase.

Billy charged out into the road, not caring about the traffic.  Slider was pretty much brought to a stop by the traffic.  I called out Billy's direction and we got back on the road as quickly as we could.  We were well behind any possible chase.

I didn't find out what happened next until I was back at the office and a deputy filled me in.  When Billy had charged out onto Main Street, he drove right in front of a Purple Mustang.  Billy went east in his purple Neon and the driver of the Purple Mustang took after him in a fit of road rage.

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 5

Slider and I had barely missed the tree when I had ordered him to make a turn too quickly.  We were lucky.  A couple of the others weren't so lucky.

This chase went round and round Tinytown.  Troopers and deputies had pretty much contained the town so that if Billy tried to leave, he'd get spiked.  Well, at least they would try.  Spiking up to this point had not worked and there were going to be a couple more attempts before the chase was over.

Ninja was off duty when this whole thing started but happened to be in the office when a corrections officer brought my car back to the police department.  I had left it at the side of the road where Slider had made the initial stop.  It was unlocked and running when we left.  A local corrections officer brought it back to the office so that it wouldn't get stolen.  That was nice of him.

I don't remember if Ninja got called in or if he happened to be in the office when the corrections officer brought my car back.  Which ever it was, Ninja hopped in my car and came out to help.

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 4

Billy zipped around and headed back into Tinytown.  We chased him around street after street, around blocks, and up alleys.  This chase went on and on.  The entire chase took 45 minutes with a great deal of the going around in a one-mile diameter in Tinytown.

All those cops worked their way up the freeway as we were chasing around Tinytown.  They fanned out and worked their way into town.

Billy had a good idea and had there only been one or two cop cars following him, he might have gotten away.  He would drive up the alleys that ran north and south in Tinytown.  The alleys were just gravel roads and when he went flying down them, an incredible amount of dust came billowing up behind him completely blocking off all visibility for the cop following him.  The cop would have to slow way down to make his way safely through the alley. 

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 3

Billy saw all those cars and did the only thing he could in the situation.  He put the car up on two wheels so that it would fit between the cop cars parked in his way.

Just seeing if you're paying attention.

He actually went into the median and into the northbound lanes.  Slider followed him while Chuck and the Chief went into the median and got in front of Billy.  Billy started back to the north.  The Chief stopped sideways in the fast lane.  Billy gunned it and went straight for the Chief.  The Chief braced for impact but Billy turned at the last second and went around him.  The chase was on again and it wasn't long before we were all back up to 100 mph.

The cops that had been set up got in their cars and started north but at a more liesurely pace.  They were going to be ready in case Billy turned back around. 

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 2

Slider and I literally waited on the edge of our seats while the Chief made his negotiations for a peaceful surrender. 

"When he takes off," Slider said without looking at me, "just slide in and we'll chase him."

"Roger that," I said.

We waited for the Chief to say the magic words to start the chase.  The magic words for today were, "We have a warrant for your arrest."

The brake lights came on, the car shifted in gear, the chief back peddled and drew his gun, Slider and I holstered our guns and slid into the car, Chuck lowered his rifle and ran for his car, the Neon jumped forward, Slider threw the cop car in gear, and the chase was on.

Ask a Cop: Corn Bust - Part 1

It was a beautiful September day with not a single cloud in the sky.  It was nice in the morning but it was going to be warmer than normal in the afternoon.  That was okay with me and Slider.  We'd be out of our uniforms and body armor by three and enjoying the warm fall weather at home in shorts and t-shirts.  That was the plan, at least.

Plans in police work are tentative.  All plans.  When you will go to work, when you will go home, when you will sleep.  They can all be changed with a ring of the cell phone or a call on the radio.  Even seemingly mandatory appearances like court are tentative.  It was early in the day and quiet so getting off on time and relaxing was the plan.

We got a tip that a guy (who we will call Billy in this series) was in town.  Billy had a couple of warrants.  Billy was a meth-head.  Billy was the suspect, on a good tip, in the burglary of some firearms.  In short, we wanted to have a bit of a chat with Billy.

Billy had obviously pissed someone off because we got a great tip.  There probably weren't a lot of fine upstanding citizens that knew about Billy and all his antics.  One of his "friends" must have made the call and gave us his location and a description of his vehicle, a purple Neon.

Ask a Cop: Religious Persecution

Jake's post yesterday that mentioned shorty-shorts (I hope that's the right link, blogspot seems to be down this morning) reminded me of my own little adventure in shorts.  I am a runner.  Not as much of a runner as I would like to be but still, I consider myself a runner.  I run anywhere from 3 to 7 miles several times a week.  As such, I have running shorts.

When my wife and I were looking for our last house, we knew where we wanted to be.  We knew that we would be reselling and we wanted our house to be in an area where it was easy to sell houses.  It turned out to be a good move because we ended up selling quicker than we thought.

There was only one downfall to the neighborhood.  It was where the supermormons lived.  Medical doctors, an eye doctor, a radiologist, a dentist, and many more that I don't know what they did for a living.  They had two things in common.  They had enough money to live in this neighborhood and they were mormon.

My wife and I are "live and let live" kind of people.  We do our thing, you do your thing, everything is fine.  We weren't happy about the type of people that would be our neighbors but we thought we would get along well enough.  It turns out that the neighbors weren't happy about have a cop move into the neighborhood either.  Something that they were going to fix.

Ask a Cop: Death Threats

When you're a cop, you get the wondeful opportunity to have people threaten to kill you, your family, and your pets.  If you don't get death threats of some type, you probably aren't doing your job.  It's just part of the deal of catching bad people doing bad things.

I remember my first death threat.  It came from a DUI arrest.  About a week after the arrest, the suspect's girlfriend calls me up to warn me.  Her boyfriend has put a gun in his truck and is out driving around.  If he finds me, he's going to kill me.  Interesting.

This is a more credible death threat than the drunk yelling at you from the back of the cop car.  I told Pacman about the threat when he came to work.

"Really?  Let's go find him," Pacman said and we went out looking for the guy looking for me.  The hunter had become the hunted that quickly.  Pacman was a great cop and was the poster boy for what a cop should be like.  He was tall, strong, kept his uniform clean, was a great shot, and had the predator mentality.  He quit after a couple of years and went to teach school in Alaska.  Law enforcement lost another great officer the day he turned in his badge.

We never did find the guy.  In fact, I don't think I ever saw him again, now that I think about it.

 

Yes, Seriously, We Called The Cops To Help With The Lawn

Protect and serve, right?  My lawn needs some protection.  The best way they could serve right now is stop the encroachment of the desert on my lawn. 

"Stop, in the name of the law."

Most cops either don't make enough money or don't manage their money well enough to live on just on job.  Many of them take a second job.  I worked with an officer that had 3 jobs. 

His wife didn't work so he worked 3 jobs to support them.  Man oh man, was he tired.  There were nights that it probably just wasn't safe for him to be on the road.  I remember one morning when I came in and saw a printout of his shift log.  Complete jibberish.  He had typed in random letters and symbols and had even spelled his name wrong.  That's tired.

The chief told me about a time when he heard one of the computers beeping quickly and non-stop.  He came out to find out what had malfunctioned to find the sergeant asleep at the keyboard.  Her fingers were on the keys and the computer was trying to tell her that she had exceeded the character limit for field she had been filling in before falling asleep.

I've woken up driving down the wrong side of the road.  Lots of officers have fallen asleep at traffic lights.  The light turns red and they fall asleep waiting.  It cycles several times before they wake up.  I know this really makes you feel confident about your protection at night. 

Ask a Cop: It's not just a joke on Super Troopers

Eating in restaurants and fast food places was just a part of life as a cop.  I didn't do it everyday because I lived in my jurisdiction and was allowed to go home.  There were times when I found myself going someplace to eat.

My favorites were Burger King, Subway, and Quiznos.  The choice has absolutely nothing to do with the food.  At these three places, I could watch my food being made and I got my own drinks. 

"No special sauce, thanks."

Ewwwwww.

Denny's was especially off limits.  Again, not necessarily because of the food.  In Tinytown, it was easy to see why Denny's was able to advertise being, "Always Open."  The meth head cooks didn't need any sleep.

I did want any special condom-mints with my food.  Since we kept arresting these people, it wasn't a far stretch to think that there would a little paybacks if given the chance. 

I'm sure the waitresses thought we were crazy on those rare occasions that we came in.

"What'll it be?"

"What do you have out at the server station that doesn't need to be cooked?"  The server station was in plain view and the safest way to go.

"Soup, salad, cake."

"That's what I'll have.  Thanks."

Ask a Cop: Peer Pressure in Law Enforcement

Another big factor in police work is peer pressure.  There are a lot of cops out there that either don't work too hard or who work on the dark side and they can make life hard for people who draw attention to those things.

A minor example:

I was having a good month as far as arrests were going.  For some reason, I was making a lot of arrests, both physical and what we called "paper arrests".  A paper arrest is essentially just tracking someone down and handing them a paper saying they have been charged by the prosecuting attorney and they need to show up in court.  I came in the office after serving one of these papers.  Puff was in the office playing solitaire on the computer.  I chucked the paper in the basket and said, "Boom!  Another arrest."  I was kind of hoping it would motivate him to go out and work.

"Anything for the stats," he said in a mocking tone.  I got that a lot.

That's minor compared to an incident that happened in New York.  A cop reported that some of his coworkers had done something illegal.  It ended his career because he had to be put in the witness protection program.  He lost his job and had to move because he received so many death threats from other cops for breaking the Code of Silence.

How do you do what's right in those circumstances?

Ask a Cop: Part of the Problem in Law Enforcment

We've been discussing the problem of excessive force by police officers and I wanted to create a post just for that subject.  There are a lot of factors that go into this and we'll explore any that you want to discuss.