Signs Signs Everywhere a Sign

I made a comment at Isiah Carey's blog regarding this post here. The signs being used by the people in attendance caught my attention. I left a comment saying I see a blood gang sign, one that looks like a Latin King, and a Folk Nation sign. Of course I got criticized saying the guy was flashing a Kappa Alpha Psi sign. Fair enough, you can find those guys flashing that particular sign where the thumb and index finger connect and the three remaining fingers are extended. However, as you see in the above picture the same sign has been used to mean 'bk' (blood killa). Of course the difference can be in which direction the hand is held. So, to be fair, look at Mr. Carey's pictures and look at the signs. See if you find similar signs in these pictures. You can also browse this link and look at different signs. Compare these signs, what do you think?

Usually the other way around

"My daughter works in homicide!"

"What?"

The woman handcuffed to the bench in the department store just told me her daughter is an officer. She came into the store and wound up trying to steal some books and magazines. I asked her if she'd done this before. She said she got arrested some thirteen years prior. Her tone told me she was lying. I knew when we ran her we'd find more arrests and we did. She tried explaining those as "misunderstandings." In her purse we found a court reset date for a theft case in Fort Bend County. Uh oh! She's got a theft case pending. Damn woman is a thief and a liar!

I felt it necessary to track down her daughter and let her know. Usually we call fellow officers when their kids get in trouble. I've never heard of an instance where an officer had to be called and informed that their parent was under arrest! I found the officer and told her what happened. She didn't sound surprised in the least. In fact her words was "she's gotta learn!"

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Of course it had to come at the end of the shift. Two groups of teenagers agreed to meet in a shopping center (while people are shopping) and fight it out. We get the first call of the groups meeting up. About five minutes later the call was upgraded to a fight in progress. Of course they had dispersed a few minutes before we got there. However, we did catch one car with four of them involved. We spent an hour trying to get some story of what went on. The long story short was one kid in that car has a feud with another little punk so they gathered friends and decided to meet at the shopping center. We had one of the instigators with us. He was a mouthy little punk. When his dad arrived he was upset. He was even more upset when I told him that his son was not a victim but planned the fight as well. While we're explaining that the other kid calls his rival's sister and threatens to slit her throat. I wanted to slap the kid upside the head and hope he realizes the trouble he helped start.

Friday, March 20, 2009

A woman calls to report one of her kids' friends took the key to her Cadillac and took the car without asking. She wasn't even going to press charges, she just wanted us to "scare him." Of course she is a single mom and her kids (except the youngest) are hoodlums. So of course she lets this hoodlum move into her house because nobody else wants him. As the officer arrives the hoodlum is in the car. So he jumps out and runs from the officer. I was about 10 miles away and doing 90 down the interstate trying to get to him. The hoodlum gets away, but we find out who he is and file a warrant. The owner of the car is a piece of work. She's mad because he's disappeared with the key to her Cadillac and can come back anytime he wants and take it. Those are the only keys she has. She made a comment while upset that caught my ear. She was saying how he has been stealing bikes at the school across the street and breaking into homes. Well of course she never reported it. Now only when he's stolen her stuff is she being cooperative. We know that won't last long so we get all we can and file our warrant. Hopefully we'll catch him.

Old Timer Story

I like stories from the old timers. Especially about the times that law enforcement was a total different animal than it is today. One old timer told me a story of a rural east Texas city Marshall who would sometimes meet them at a 24-hour coffee shop. One night the Marshall goes to the restroom. A few minutes later everyone else hears a gunshot! Now, imagine you're drinking coffee at 4am and a gunshot goes off in the restroom. Everyone rushes into the restroom to find the Marshall in a "high noon" stance with his pistol out and the mirror shattered! Apparently he was "quick drawing" in the mirror and shot it. The bullet went through the mirror, the wall into the women's restroom which was occupied at the time. Needless to say the woman had the hell scared out of her. He never lived that one down.

Training Day 2

Woke up early and had to find long sleeves. Another officer and I have been carpooling, very helpful. Well except for that one crazy turn as someone was pulling up. For a moment I thought we were gonna tap and the last thing we needed was an accident in an unmarked vehicle. Today they talked about using tools to investigate and about prison gangs. I rather did enjoy some of the photographs. I study how these guys look, what traits to look for. I also pay attention to their tattoos as those are a dead giveaway. There was also a story about the "bottle cap" gun. This was a 9mm handgun traced back to nearly 30 incidents (robberies, drive by shootings, and murder). It was named for the bottle cap looking mark left by the firing pin, very distinguishable. I would hate to have had to work for that department having to work at least two drive-by shootings a month for about six months. Not to mention the public, and the department administration would get sick of it. For the most part it was gang banger turd on turd violence so no big loss to society. Of course it never stays that way for long and eventually innocent people got killed.



Had lunch with my new probation officer friend. The juvenile probation officers are going through a new training that believes those "kids" shouldn't be locked up nor yelled at. On top of that during an encounter, the child has to be asked by the officer for permission to touch them! So I see the powers that be are going back to the 'inmates run the asylum' philosophy endangering their workers so as to avoid negative publicity. That always works out! Glad I don't work probation. I'd be the first probation officer that did drive-by shootings on the kids' homes. Can you imagine;

"Okay juvenile turd, who shot up your house? The bloods? The crips? MS-13?"

"No man! It was my probation officer, he's pissed!"

Training Day 1

I'm spending the next few days at a gang conference training seminar. I am not good getting up early in the morning but today I managed. The conference is about gangs. So far the most interesting has been the lecture on the Mexican drug cartels with names, events, and pictures of dead bodies. They even showed us a video of captured hit men who were giving a confession and then one of them got a bullet in the head at point black range. Not upsetting at all since the "victims" were pieces of crap themselves. I know that sounds harsh but some people really don't deserve to breathe air period! Another speaker showed statistics that increasing numbers of illegal aliens are coming here to commit crimes, not to work. That is something the bleeding hearts and ivory tower dwellers will never recognize. He showed another picture of a group of illegals at the border grabbing their crotches and flipping the bird exhibiting their distaste for this country and especially its police. Over lunch made friends with a couple of probation officers. We traded some horror stories. One of the officers pointed out two recent news stories that were "clients" of his. One was the clown who was drunk and drove onto an HPD raid at a downtown club and drove up a median. Another was the crook who robbed then shot an off duty Pct.6 reserve deputy. He had just been released. So, I don't think the system is rehabilitating people. Then they mentioned this story. I remember this guy who murdered the HPD sergeant in front of his wife. I met an EMT on that scene. He said she couldn't remember her own name. Nice that when the defendant is black suddenly the racial make up is an issue. When the defendant is white, nobody cares.

"Thanks for checking on me!"

I try not to mess with bums, er, excuse me, homeless people. I've spent a lot of time, water, soap, and hand sanitizer cleaning up after having to handle one of these people. Often time they are drunk and always dirty as hell. They are not the 'down on their luck' as often portrayed by bleeding hearts, people with big hearts but little street sense and the ilk. Most of these guys choose life on the streets because they do what they want, don't have to answer to anyone and usually are given enough money to eat and drink off of. Not to mention that it's tax free. However, they are also human beings. When I see them panhandling in the street I do make them get out of the road. I'm sure they wait until I'm gone then get back in the road. However (so far) I haven't had to deal with the same bum in the street because the next time I find the same guy in the street I will make a scene that will leave him uncomfortable.

Yesterday I'm driving down the street and find a bum in an intersection leaning over a stolen shopping cart (filled with clothes and such) with his head hanging down. At first I drove past and then got to thinking. What if the guy needs medical attention or even better, what if I was on someones camera seeing if anyone would stop and check on a bum. I make a u-turn and come back to the intersection. By now he has crossed. That's a good sign. I get out and walk up to him. He's hanging off the basket. He says over and over he doesn't need an ambulance. He says he is depressed. Well, not to sound mean but I don't really care to hear his problems. All I care is that he isn't dying right now when I can easily get an ambulance to tend to him. The bum then thanks me for checking on him and that was all. I'm sure he was a little drunk, but going through the motion of arresting him and having to keep up with that basket full of clothes when this guy was going to sit behind a building didn't strike me as a prudent use of time. So I let him be.

Classy Lady

She had to have taken a combination of alcohol and medications. How else could we have explained how messed up she was. An officer spotted her driving up a median and hitting a water main. He tried to stop her and she took off. She fled out of the neighborhood, running a stop sign and crashed into a car. When they opened the door she was covered in her own vomit. Talk about a classy lady!