Click it or ticket baby

I have been hurting for cash so I recently signed up to work some overtime doing Click It or Ticket enforcement. Basically, the state pays officers overtime during this campaign to go out and do zero tolerance seatbelt enforcement. When I work this, I write citations for other blatant violations but my main concern is if you are buckled up or not.

To be honest, I really hate writing seatbelt tickets. It is very hard to catch someone with it off because you have to be real close to see through window tint. Even if a person isn't wearing it, they see me coming and put it on before I get close enough. I've also found out that people will argue seat belt tickets with you more than any other violation.

First they will put it on before you get to the window and try to claim that they had it on the whole time. I know this is a flat out lie because I will only make the stop if I am 100% sure it wasn't on while they were driving. I told one guy that I had pulled him over for not wearing it and he asked, "Are you sure about that officer? I am obviously wearing it now." Yeah, he got a ticket.

If that doesn't work they will either claim they just pulled out of a parking lot or they were just about to park. I try to explain that the law doesn't give you any grace period. You are either operating a motor vehicle on a roadway with it on or not. It's pretty black or white.

The final tactic is to beg for a warning and imply that I should have better things to do. I normally give warnings for that violation but this Click It or Ticket thing has been all over the radio and TV for weeks. There are billboards set up all over town and they clearly state we are out looking for this stuff.

When I do these things I try to hang out by the college campus. I figure that most adults are set in their ways on if they wear it or not but perhaps I can influence the younger folks. College kids drive like maniacs and if anyone needs to buckle up, it's them.

So wear your freaking seatbelt. I may be sneaking up behind you.

Can of ass whipping

This video has been big news lately. I watched it and cringed a little bit. I can understand how emotions run high after a chase and that it is very hard to de-escalate once things are done. There is an old school theory that if you fight a cop or run from a cop, you should have to take a trip to the hospital before you make it too jail.

While this appeals to me on one level, officers have got to understand that society doesn't accept this type of behavior anymore. A lot of things can be justified in arresting a resisting suspect but I see no way to explain dropping a baton strike on the head of an unconscious bad guy no matter how satisfying it may feel.

Cameras are everywhere folks and people are going to see what we do. I remember getting involved in a violent arrest on a busy street one night. This guy and I fought up and down the sidewalk before I was finally able to get him pinned. As I put a couple of elbows to his face, he started yelling that he gave up and put his arms behind his back. My adrenaline was still pumping and I wasn't ready to stop the fight but it was a good thing I did stop. I glanced up looking for back-up when I saw a sea of camera phones being held up in the record position. I just know I would have ended up on Youtube if I had lost it on this guy.

Of course all these sidewalk journalist never bothered to come over and help me arrest the guy.

Shouldn't have pressed your luck

Remember this guy? He got away with disobeying a lawful order from the Border Patrol once and decided to try it again. It looks like he ran into the wrong agent this time and they yanked him out of the car by his ears.

Check out the video below.



I love how he demanded that the police bring the dog back because he said it never alerted. Sure. We will just let you run the show buddy.

Happy we could be of service

There is a place in my city that is a notorious open-air drug market that's right next to our newest gentrified neighborhood. This means we have a ton of crack addicts and dealers butting up against condos full of liberal white folks who are so proud of themselves for (sorta) living in the hood. Most of these bohemian wanna-bes are afraid of the criminals in their area but aren't exactly sure about what they want done about it. This leads to some very bi-polar moments.

For example, we were doing surveillance near a trendy hippie coffee shop whose owners had complained about the drug traffic. We noticed a nearby dealer around the corner that was keeping the dope in his mouth. A customer would come up and he would spit out the crack rock like a sunflower seed and sell it. We watched for a few minutes and directed a takedown team to where he was at. The officers came up behind him and grabbed him.

Now a common practice of these dealers is to swallow the rocks when the police show up. That's why they keep in their mouths. If they are able to swallow it, it is bad for everyone. We lose the evidence and the bad guy has to be taken to hospital to have their stomach pumped. I've had dealers die on me from eating their stash. I don't give a crap about them dying except that I have to fill out a ton of paperwork and it gets classified as a custody death.

To prevent the bad guy from eating the dope we have a technique where we grab him under the chin and apply pressure inwards and upwards. This doesn't choke the guy or prevent his breathing. What it does do is prevent him from swallowing. Unfortunately it also looks like we are choking the shit out of him.

The end result was that we were able to retrieve several crack rocks and were able to hook up the dealer without having to go to the ER. As we were standing there getting ready to run to the jail, some long haired protester type came running out. He came up and demanded to know my name and badge number. I asked what the problem was and he replied that he was the owner of the coffee shop and he was outraged at our abuse.

He said that he saw us run up to that "poor young man" and start choking him for no reason. I tried to explain that this was one of the dealers HIS SHOP had called and complained out. I then tried to explain to this sheltered PETA protester about crack cocaine being kept in the mouth and all that other stuff. He didn't want to listen and kept going on about our "heavy handed tactics". I mentally said "screw it" and walked off while he was in mid-sentence.

A few weeks later I was driving by there and saw flyers on the wall with the above picture and directions on how to file a complaint with Internal Affairs if you witness police misconduct.

You know, sometimes I just hate people.

Why didn't I think of that?

Seriously? It's come to this in the UK? Perhaps if there were stiff penalties and the threat of an armed homeowner, police wouldn't have to embarass themselves like this.

*video orginally discussed at Inspector Gadget's blog.

Death from above

During the briefing for our next raid, the case agent told us that the subject had a large and very mean pit bull in the house. It was a two story house and the dog was allowed to freely roam around the top floor of the residence. There was also a second story patio where we had seen it walking around.

I hate pit bulls. Plans were made on what to do if it was a threat and a couple of people were carrying shotguns to "neutralize" it if needed.

We rolled up the house and made our approach. I was covering the second story windows when I saw the curtains of one move. I started to yell out that our approach was compromised when I saw a huge pit hop out onto the balcony. It immediately started barking at us and came up to the edge of the railing. I was just about to disregard it and refocus on the windows when it slipped through the railings of the balcony and hopped down onto the roof JUST ABOVE THE DOOR.

We were about halfway from our van to the front door of the residence and were committed. This freaking huge pit bull was standing on the roof directly above the front door of the house and we were headed right for it. The entire raid team paused in the mid-step but there was no stopping at this point.

I was the third man in the stack and due to the setup, I posted right under that snarling monster. It was about 1 to 2 feet above my head as the ram man started trying to defeat the door. That dog was going nuts barking and snarling. Foam from its mouth was hitting me in the face. I stood there trying to cover the front windows and that dog at the same time. It wasn't working for me but I didn't want to shoot it. We were in a residential neighborhood and I didn't want to start sending rounds up in the air. Plus I was a little taken aback. We never trained for airborne attack dogs.

It seemed like it was taking forever for that damn door to get opened up. Of course this would be the time when the door was reinforced. I ended up kinda hunching my shoulders and tilting my head so that my kevlar was between me and that monster. I hoped that if it leaped onto my head like a crazy attack monkey, it would smack into my helment first.

The door finally got open and I almost knocked the ram man over when I ran into the house. I had just stepped into the doorway and was wondering how I was going to clear the upstairs with that dog up there when I heard **BOOM**...THUD.

Never mind. It turned out that one of the guys on my team was not an animal lover.

So whose fault is it?

What is it about people that just makes them refuse to accept any responsibility for their actions? It really frustrates me sometimes. We had a warrant the other day that was your typical dope house. The owner would let some of his buddies set up shop and sling crack all day and night.

Once word get out that a place is selling, foot and vehicle traffic to and from the house increase until the neighbor notice. Normal people start to get concerned about dope addicts walking through their yards and the police begin to get tips. That's where we come in. There is nothing remarkable about it except that this was the third freaking time we had raided this person's house within the last few months.

Our previous raids caused the resident to get evicted each time. Each time they moved to a new place and the cycle started up again. I was getting a little irritated about it because the judge kept letting this fool out on bond and he would start selling dope again to pay for his lawyer. You would think that sooner or later he would stay in jail.

On this particular warrant I was responsible for maintaining control of the prisoners while the rest of the team searched the residence. I don't normally talk crap to the prisoners while I guard them because it just makes my job harder if they are agitated. However in this case I got real sick of the suspect and his friends whining about how the police were harassing them and the neighbors only complained because they were so racist. I got sick of that crap fast.

Me: What the heck are you talking about? You are selling crack. I have personally raided you multiple times and we always find guns and dope there. You are a criminal. That's why we are standing here again.

Suspect: Man why are you always raiding me? Why not go mess with someone else? I know its because the neighbors don't want a black family living here. That's wrong man.

Me: Ummm no. It's because our informants have bought dope from you multiple times and crack addicts are all up and down this street since you moved in.

Suspect: Yeah BLACK crack addicts and that just bothers the racists around here.

Me: You know, you are a complete waste of air buddy. I guess I will be back here next week so we can do this all again. Next time you should just send me a change of address card when you move so I can streamline the process.

Suspect: Man why don't you go arrest someone else?

Me: I like to stick with what I know.

Incredible.