This Wasn't Reported on the News!

An officer told me he had a harrowing experience on our freeways. He was south when he spotted a car coming at him going north in the wrong lane! Fortunately he was above to avoid the vehicle. Unfortunately an 18-wheeler also heading south hit the wrong way vehicle head on causing it to erupt in flames killing the driver. Clearly the dead driver had to be intoxicated. In a way, better they kill themselves rather than someone else.

Reverse Racism

One thing that annoys all officers is the phenomenon ignored by elected officials, the news media, and in some cases, police administrators. I call it reverse racism. Our politically correct status quo-double standards has taught people that the race card can be an effective tool to bully, coerce, and/or threaten police officers. This is common in the inner city black subculture that teaches since birth that racism is to blame for their problems, woes and predicaments. For example, you do poorly in school, it's because of racism (not because you're never in class due to fighting, skipping school, etc.). If people look at you warily and avoid you, it's racism (not because you're dressed and acting like a common street thug i.e. baggy pants, gang tattoos, walking around holding your crotch etc.). If you get stopped at 3AM by the police it's racism (not because you're 15 years old out on a school night in a area notorious for drug dealing or when you saw the police car you tossed your stash of dope or gun into some bushes). This subculture teaches that you are nothing and will never be anything because of your race. So, with this mentality why bother trying to better yourself right? The cards are already stacked against you so you may as well be a gang banger, criminal, gangster, etc.

I recall an incident (thought google can't seem to find it) when Quanell X and some other black activists went to the Houston City Council and got themselves thrown out. It was preplanned to get in a scuffle with police then run to the ever obliging media and cry racism. However, someone was smart and only assigned black officers to the council room that day and used them to clear out the unruly mob. One woman was heard, on tape saying "where the white officers at?" Of course only us police, and some in the public with common sense realized this was reverse discrimination. The black activists were going to lure white officers into a confrontation and then exploit the race card.

The four officers murdered in Oakland, California, recently is another point. Afterwards, a march was held for the killer of the officers! The killer was also a suspect in the rape of a 12-year old girl yet that did not matter to these people. All they cared was the killer was black. It also didn't matter to these people that he was linked to six rapes! All I heard was "tensions between the police and the black community.." Did anyone bother to notice that the people who participated in this march are racists themselves?


Just recently, there was a homicide here. A black man had been murdered in his home. Definitely a tragedy. Officers sealed off the scene while homicide detectives were doing their job to search for evidence to be used to find the man's killer. Understandably the family was upset, however they were calm at first. Then the media show up, and another relative shows up two hours after the murder acting irrational. Suddenly, the other family members began coming unglued when the cameras are being set up. The officers holding the scene are white and Hispanic! The man tried to charge his way onto the scene and was held back. This lead to the family going back to what they know, screaming "racism." An assist had to be dropped. One of the first to arrive was a black officer. He said and did the exact same thing the white and Hispanic officers said. The family listened to him after refusing to listen to the white and Hispanic officers. They calmed down after the media left. Why do you think this is? Simple, these people are racists and feel (after being supported by the media and government) they shouldn't have to listen to officers who are not black.

Then we have the problem of minority officers being insulted, and ostracized by their own people. Black officers are labeled "sell outs" or "Uncle Toms" and other insults. The same for many Hispanic officers. I've seen instances where black or Hispanic offenders begged black or Hispanic officers to let them go because "they are the same race" or "they are brothers!" Of course the criminal doesn't mean this, they are merely trying to use their race to manipulate the officer. Just another hustle.

In conclusion, officers are expected to put their duties and oaths above their personal feelings (including prejudices, etc) as we all should. Regardless of how we may feel about someone we need to be professional and fair to people. Let them determine how we react to them. However, it would be nice if certain people, especially those in the inner city were mature enough to put their biases and prejudices aside when dealing with us. However, this will never happened because this racist, narrow minded attitude is encouraged by so-called "community leaders" and our own government officials. Breeding racial division is how some people stay elected even though they are complete failures (Charlie Rangel is a great example of this).

End of rant!!!

You Must Be Kidding!

The general manager of the store where the woman was shot and car jacked called me (see the post 'Senseless'). Now, this is a civilian. She calls me, wanting all the witnesses' names and information. I thought "you must be out of your ***damned mind!" Instead I politely told her that we cannot give out that information and the police will do the investigation, not them.

Update: The car was recovered the next day. It was found in the adjacent, rural county abandoned. Hopefully there will be some evidence that can lead to the guy's identity.

I Wanted to See That!

You have to wonder how dreary, how selfish can one be to shoot himself in the head with a .45 automatic pistol while his mother is in the house. On top of that, he weighed over 400 lbs. so it took a team from the ME's office to remove. I was told they had to stomp his legs into place. The sergeant who made the scene said he had just shot himself because the body was still trying to breathe. His teeth had been knocked out by the bullet and on his chest. Damn, I missed that one.

"This Case is Closed!"

Recall this incident? I looked up the report to see if there are any updates. The final medical examiner report came in listing the death as a natural one. I wasn't familiar with medical terminology. The big words were 'asthcleroerotic cardiovascular disease,' 'chronic ethanolism,' 'pulmonary emphysema.' In layman's terms it means he had a bad heart and he drank too damn much. The final words in the report were "this case is closed!" That's it! A man's whole life is officially over, complete, done away with. Nobody else to pay attention to him. In a way of speaking it is depressing. It's like now he never existed. The reason it seems depressing is that someday, someone will write those words on a report or a death certificate for all us and everything we've ever done and accomplished....finito! These are the photographs of the house the day we went into it and didn't find his body. A month later, and after three days of digging through this mess, his body was found in the kitchen, by the refrigerator underneath all that mess (pictures 2 and 3 from the top).

Senseless!

The crook forced his way into the lady's car with a pistol. She was exiting the passenger side when he shot her once in the back and drove off with her car. She was alive and talking when officers got there. She was taken by life flight to the hospital where last I heard she is expected to survive. It's annoying that this guy would shoot a woman, in the back as she's escaping for her car. It's even more annoying that people like this walk amongst us. While awaiting the detectives we learn that a witness who saw the shooting also saw the robber come out of the store. There are no cameras outside, but there is one inside. That means there is video of the robber! I watch the tape and find the guy I'm pretty certain is the robber from the description. I tell the manager I'm going to need the tape for evidence and he says no. I just stared at him wide eyed. I couldn't believe he just told me no. He cited company policy and said he needed to talk to his supervisor who would need to contact her supervisor and so on. Most managers are happy to give us videos that can be used as evidence. My first impulse was to get in his face and tell him that tape is coming with me. Like Robocop "dead or alive 'it's' coming with me!" However, there was a better way. Without a word I walked out and obtained a subpoena for the tape. I then gave it to the manager and informed him that I had a court order to take the tape and he has no choice in the matter. I even offered to talk to his supervisor which he accepted. I told her the same thing. A woman was shot in their parking lot. Their camera got a glimpse of the robber and I'm taking the tape regardless of their policy. I get the tape and give it right to the detective. I still cannot believe he made me get a court order.

I'm Still Laughing...

A 40 year old woman got herself arrested for causing an accident then leaving the scene. A wrecker driver followed her until another officer caught up. They take her to jail. While enroute she tries to strangle herself in the seat belt. Now, I'm trying to picture someone in the back seat of a police car, handcuffed with arms in the back (presumably) trying to hang themselves on a seat belt. Unless the officer doesn't have her properly restrained I fail to see how she can do this. Predictably, the jail refuses to accept her because she's "suicidal" which means the officer has to take her the psych hospital. Problem is, the psych hospital will not take her if she has criminal charges pending. It's a legal game where everyone is trying to cover their asses leaving a poor officer with a nutbar passenger. She gets to the psych hospital who refuse to admit her and now she's back to jail. They don't make it out of the parking lot when the woman is trying again to strangle herself in the seat belt. What he hell!!!! I can't wait to find the officer and ask him this.

"Everyone is on you tube!"

The call came in as three black males beating another black male on the hood of a car. As is my luck I'm the first one there. The 6'4" man holding the kid on the car is the kid's father. The kid ran away a few days prior and was located in this apartment complex. The father was extremely upset when he found his son and slammed him on the hood of the car and told him not to move or he'd get knocked out. The look on the kid's face was sheer terror. I'm trying to get information but the dad is highly emotional and irrational. In a blindside to me, he yells at me. I really have no problem with him slamming his brat kid on the hood of a car for running away so I'm not looking to arrest, or make any problems for him. However, when he yells at me, demanding I respect him because he has a dead son, a sick mom, and all around wants to hand over a sob story and think that entitles him to bully people it isn't going to work with me. I first politely asked him to step back so I could talk to the kid. This really set him off. It was clear he doesn't like being told what to do and due to his mentality feel he shouldn't have to do what someone else (especially a white cop) tells him. He walks up to me yelling about respect. I knew I was making a safety faux paux but I was losing my patience with him. I stepped up to him and got in his face and flat out said he was mistaken if he thought he was going to yell at me to get his way. I told him I'm sorry for his sad life story and I will respect him, but I'll be damned if he thought he was gonna talk to me like that. He kept running his mouth, but he started walking down the sidewalk. By now other officers were arriving on the scene, including a black officer. The father goes to him and says "hey my brother..." The officer reminded him they weren't brothers and this set him off again. That's why I'm convinced he wasn't going to listen to me because I'm white. He did a half assed apology and said his son was driving him nuts. I used the sympathy card to keep him calm. He was rambling he didn't want him to come home now and how he was a minister and could be found on youtube. I wanted to ask if he was such a man of God why wasn't he acting like one. It's funny how whenever there is a literal "black/white" controversy the ones playing the race card are the ministers. Just what kind of doctrine are these guys preaching? Anyhow, the decision is made to take the kid to CPS to cool off. This pisses off the good reverend and he launches into his rehearsed "I'm gonna sue you all! I know the law! I've been arrested but I wasn't guilty...bla bla bla!" The same old sh** all professional race-baiter victims say. We explained it to him but he's not listening. He's got to yell and be heard over anyone. I tell everyone to put the kid in a car and just go. We're wasting our time. We can't be rational with an irrational, emotional man. So we leave and I'm pissed off! I should be used to being talked down by certain people because I'm a white cop. Later on I did a youtube search and sure enough, there is a clip of him on there. Oh well, as my wife says "everyone is on youtube!"

Super Lawyer vs. Super Cop

I have to give a kudos over to my amigo Jason over at Cigars, Donuts, and Coffee. He made a post over at defense attorney Mark Bennett's blog. While Mr. Bennett is certainly a competent attorney he had a post in which an HPD officer (whom he named) arrested a lawyer after ticketing him. According to the post the officer filed resisting arrest charges on the lawyer. When it got to court the prosecution and the lawyer's lawyer wanted to know what charge was the lawyer originaaly being arrested for. The officer said 'failure to comply with an officer.' The post went on to say that none of the lawyers could find that offense so they dismissed the case. Basically it was criticizing the officer and implying he made up the charge. Mr. Bennett even made a comment in the post that it is illegal to disobey a crossing guard but can't find where it says police officer is mentioned. He also sarcastically referred to the named officer as "super cop" (yet he didn't name the lawyer arrested). Jason knew what the officer was saying and found this and posted it in the comments section.

Sec. 542.501. OBEDIENCE REQUIRED TO POLICE OFFICERS AND TO SCHOOL CROSSING GUARDS. A person may not wilfully fail or refuse to comply with a lawful order or direction of:

(1) a police officer; or

(2) a school crossing guard who:

(A) is performing crossing guard duties in a school crosswalk to stop and yield to a pedestrian; or

(B) has been trained under Section 600.004 and is directing traffic in a school crossing zone.

Jason went on to further point out how it was funny that he could find the statute and the "super lawyers" couldn't. Mr. Bennett replied to that post saying he didn't realize that the statute covered both police and crossing guards. That is admirable of Mr. Bennett to admit that. Now, the post has been removed entirely! This reminds me of an exchange I had with a prosecutor who plied his lawyer tricks on me when complaining about a fellow officer. Mr. Chief Prosecutor left out a few crucial details as to make him look like the victim. That post will come another day.

This Parking Lot

This news story caught my attention. It reminded me of two occurrences in this same Walmart parking lot.


1-One time an officer was coming down this feeder road on his way to work. A vehicle shot out of this parking lot and cut him off. Since the officer was in his personal vehicle he could only express his disappointment by pulling up next to them at a traffic light. He turned his interior light on so the driver could see he was a cop. The officer hollered and yelled at them. The driver's mouth formed an 'O' and made a sharp turn fleeing. The officer thought he intimidated them. He later found out this guy and some friends (also in the car) had stolen thousands of dollars worth of merchandise and ran out of the store with loss prevention chasing them. They got away. All the while the officer is cursing that driver's mother's name he never got the plate. I laughed at him.

2-One night I was coming to work and saw a college police officer following a truck with his emergency lights on. The truck wasn't stopping, but not trying to lose the officer. I exited the tollroad and watched as they pulled into a parking lot. I got out to let the officer see me and know I'm backing him up. The officer tells me he's been following this guy for blocks trying to get him stopped. He thought the driver was drunk. I talk to the guy and he had been drinking, but when I administered the sobriety tests the guy passed. I inform the officer that his only other options are to arrest him for whatever traffic violations he observed or find someone to pick this guy up. The officer opted for the latter because he was afraid of getting in trouble for being off the campuses. As I'm leaving this black, fancy car pulls up with some young, haughty looking male with an equally haughty looking female. He had to have been an ill-informed lawyer or an ill-informed law student who watched what was going. He wanted to question the authority the college police officer had to "operate a DWI checkpoint." I guessed this dipsh** was showing off for his female companion. So, I pointed out that he was wrong and this was a traffic stop. He then switched his position to questioning the authority of a college police officer to run traffic. I told him look it up, he's a police officer, he enforces the law. I was running late so I flat out said I was leaving before he made a bigger fool of himself in front of his girl. Too bad this idiot didn't interfere with my sobriety tests, I would've really embarrassed him in front of his girl.

Some Are Worthless!!!!

Some officers can be absolutely worthless! I heard this story from a friend. An officer gets flagged down on a disturbance that another officer is en route to. She goes to the restaurant and learns someone is causing a disturbance. The primary officer shows up, sees her, and starts whining about how he has three other reports to do. She probably wouldn't have minded handling the call, but his attitude killed any sense of altruism. I don't blame her, I'd have done the same thing. They confronted the suspect who is drunk and agitated. The primary officer leaves her with the agitated drunk while he talks to the manager and takes forever. He's clearly dragging his foot because he's sulking and doesn't want to deal with the situation. Meanwhile, the drunk is getting more and more agitated. They walk him outside to put him in the patrol car when primary officer wants to talk to the guy alone, telling the others to leave. It's clear he's gonna let the guy go and doesn't want any witnesses. So, the others start to leave when the drunk tries to run and gets into a fight with the primary officer. Thankfully nobody is injured, however instead of going to jail he gets released to an ambulance! The other officers are disgusted with the primary officer and with good reason.

"Am I going to jail? Tomorrow is his birthday!"

It started with a shoplifting call. A man and woman were being observed via camera stealing CDs with a small child. I got there and found a man and woman in the loss prevention office and a three year child running around. The woman was crying crocodile tears. Clearly she's 'remorseful' after getting caught. She was begging to pay, to be let go, and that CPS had just placed the child in her custody. This caught my attention. I did find a toy monster for the child who was having a grand old time. He clearly had no idea what was going on. I gave him the toy after telling the store I would buy it for him if necessary (they were kind enough to let him have it, so in the end the only one who got free stuff was the child). The woman kept whining and crying about the kid's birthday the next day. I asked her if any of this dawned on her before she decided to steal rap CDs. I then told her if she's going to bring a child to a theft then nobody has any sympathy for her so she can knock it off. She then said she had never been in trouble before. I already knew she was lying. Nine out of ten people who say that have criminal records and sure enough, she had been arrested for assaulting her own mother. She's a real winner. The guy she's with is a felon from Louisiana. His only form of identification was a Louisiana prison ID. This couple is a sure winner. I really try not to be judgmental, after all I'm nowhere near perfect nor will I ever be. However, there are just some people I'm way better than. Hell, there are some people whose lives are way less valuable than my pets! Anyhow, we call the woman's mother to come get the child. When she gets there, she's mad as hell! She gets in the office and she looks at her daughter and says "I'm gonna beat your ass! Ya'll leave the office, give me a few minutes alone!" As the woman is being escorted out of the office her mother whacks her upside the head "yeah how's that feel?" Oh damn! I got in between them and calmed the grandmother down and told her she had a beautiful grand baby and to focus on him, not her daughter. I did call CPS and let them know what happened. I later learned that the child is the nephew of the thieving woman. The mother had her parental rights terminated by CPS and placed him with his aunt who was trying to adopt him. This stunt will throw a monkey wrench into that plan. I just hope that child gets a sense of right and wrong as he gets older. I know he won't remember me, or the toy I gave him. I just hope he doesn't grow up to follow in the footsteps of his family and become another hoodlum.

We interrupted it!

My partner and I were making a turn when I spot a car going past us the opposite direction. I noticed it didn't have a registration sticker nor a front license plate. I took a quick glance at the driver who is looking at me pretty hard. Well, I could make a sharp turn and try to catch him, but I really wanted to stop by Starbucks so I let him go. As we pull into the parking lot we see four individuals and two cars on the other end talking and all of them give us hard looks. We stumbled into the middle of things. One of the cars looks like the car I just saw, but how could he have gone the opposite way, turn around and beat me here? However it damn sure looks like the car and the driver. I go in and get my coffee. As I'm conversing with the barista and two of them come in. They circle me and I do not like this at all. So I maneuver where I can see them and cover my gun. The barista is clearly concerned and whispers for me to stick around which I do. They buy a drink and leave. I get mine and get in the car and tell my partner what happens. We notice one of the cars has left. We drive by to get the plate but one of the males is standing there covering it up. This can't be accidental. These guys are definitely up to something and waiting for us to leave. So I pull around the plaza and sit and watch. After a minute he pops the hood. Okay, that's it! We're not waiting around. I start a conversation and find out he is the guy I saw. So now I have probably cause to detain him. He has two traffic warrants that I arrest him for. The other guy is clear. Whatever these guys were planning we interrupted it.