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Category: Police

  • BART Shooting

    The big police news of the week is probably the police-involved shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant (a black man) at a Bart Station in Oakland. Riotshave followed. I hate riots and those who justify them. Like there’s any justification to bust up a hair salon called “African Braids”.

    And here’s to Oscar Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson. She is quotedas saying: “I am begging the citizens not to use violent tactics, not to be angry…. You’re hurting people that have nothing to do with the situation. Please stop it, just please stop.” That’s a very noble thing to say after your son is killed.

    At the time of the shooting, I was just across the bay in San Francisco. I actually heard a few gun shots in Noe Valley. But not these shots.

    There are tons of You Tube clips about this shooting. Just search for “Bart Shooting.” This is probably the best report:

    From what I’ve heard, this guy was unarmed. But it could very well be justified to shoot an unarmed man. I’ve also heard he was handcuffed. He wasn’t (best I can tell).

    Like it or not, police will assume you might be armed until you prove otherwise. Especially on New Year’s Eve when you hear the constant crackle of gun fire.

    If you’re pointing a gun at somebody and telling him to freeze and he’s fighting and then his hands are under him and then he doesn’t freeze and out from under his body come his hands holding something you think is a gun…. As the cop with the gun you either do nothing and get shot or shoot.

    If police think you might be armed and you won’t follow orders… well, it’s on you. Sorry. It may not be right, but that’s just the way it is.

    For the record, once I was brawling with and unable to controlan unarmed handcuffed man (lesson: never arrest anybody when you’re alone). Still I didn’t shoot him.

    I’ve heard that perhaps the cop thought he was Tasing the guy. I don’t know. I’ve never held a Taser, but I don’t think you can mistake a Taser for a gun.

    But really, this shooting looks terrible. From the officer’s reaction immediately after firing, it looks like he’s surprised and didn’t mean to fire. That makes it both a horrible mistake and a crime.

    And whether or not the cop fucked up, and odds are he did, I hope all those schmucks yelling at the police from the train take a second to think about how they too contributed to this man’s death.

  • Robbery suspect shot dead

    Robbery suspect shot dead

    I think the most amazing thing is that he kept the cigarette in his mouth the whole time! Pictures are here.

  • I’m back!

    After a pleasant tour of Santa Cruz, San Francisco, a long and nice train ride to Chicago. 55 hours, but in a sleeper car. After all, what could be finer than dinner in the diner (actually 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, and 3 lunches)? The train through Colorado is beautiful. But rural Illinois makes me the Chicago snob in me shudder.

    Chicago is looking good. Deep down I love Chicago winter. At least as a visitor. 4 months is just too long.

    Trips to many bookstores revealed that not one of them carried my book. Sigh.

  • Baltimore To End Year With Fewest Murders In Two Decades

    Justin Fenton writes in the Sun.

    This is great news. But one thing is very curious:

    The city’s Western District, for example, where nearly 90 people were killed in 1992, recorded 23 homicides in 2008. It has not recorded fewer than 32 homicides in a year since at least 1970.

    But the Western District is also emblematic of the past year’s uneven results: While it recorded the largest drop in homicides of any district, shootings rose and robberies increased by 37 percent.

    That just don’t make sense. I can’t figure it out. I hope it doesn’t end up like in The Wire, with all the bodies found in vacants.

    But in the meantime, kudos to the BPD.

  • Will Obama Legalize Marijuana?

    No.

    But still, read this piece by John H. Richardson from Esquire.com.

  • The Best Christmas Present Ever

    Cop in the Hood, naturally. (Did you expect me to say anything different?)

    I’ll be on vacation for two weeks. There may be post or two… but don’t hold your breath.

    More in 2009…

    Till then, stay safe.

  • That Christmas Spirit

    I’m not one to give dumb crime fighting tips, but keep this in mind: even criminals need to buy presents.

    The week before Christmas is always a busy time for police, with extra muggings and robberies.

  • Getting away with murder

    A jury in Brooklyn on Wednesday night acquitted one of three mencharged in the fatal shooting of Police Officer Russel Timoshenko of murder charges.

  • Work Dreams (II)

    I went through my field notes. My first dream in which I was in uniform happened about four months into the police academy. But it wasn’t a bad dream.

    But then about a year after that, after about 10 months on the streets of the Eastern, I wrote this:

    Had another bad cop dream. Somebody told me that this guy was wanted. I thought he was the [***] guy that Balto County is looking for. But this guy was a real junkie, oozing pus, guaranteed HIV +. This time I asked a guy to hand over the drugs he had and he placed vials into my hand. Except the vials had little needles on them, and one of them managed to somehow slide itself right through my skin, like a little finger piercing. I just knew I got AIDS from it.

    I was a little a bit of a mess in my dream. In the dream, the guy didn’t mean anything bad. I thought it was strange that the needle could have ended up like that. I was riding with [***] and was on the top of the cop car banging on the car how I didn’t want to get AIDS.

    This goes along with a dream a few nights ago about shooting someone. Don’t remember too much about that, other than it was justified. I shot the guy 5 times.

    Top o’ the morning to you, too! Try waking up to that and then look forward to going to work.

  • Work dreams

    One thing I hated about being a cop was having work dreams. I mean, I still have them. Don’t we all? But now my dreams are occasionally about being late for class, or unable to get my things together and leave home (the latter happens quite often in real life as well). Whatever, dude. So I’m late. Teaching dreams aren’t the end of world.

    But when I worked in the Eastern District, I had dreams about the Eastern District. And the Eastern District isn’t good. It’s one thing to work there and spend most of your waking hours in the Eastern (and a few asleep ones, too). But when I left the Eastern, I wanted to leave work. And for work and the Eastern to enter my dreams, myfree time, that’s just not right.

    This came to mind because last night I was talking to two John Jay College student, one a ranking police officer and the other an immigrant cab driver (I love John Jay College). The guy who drives the cab wants to be a New York police officer (and I think would make a very good one). He said he was thinking of getting a job as a correctional officer (jail guard at Rikers) until the NYPD starts hiring again. I advised against it.

    Being a C.O. is not just a tough job but also a bad job. To spend most of your waking hours in jail? I don’t care if you get paid for it. You’re in jail. And then there are the dreams….

    Out of the blue I asked the police officer what kind of work dreams he had. He didn’t even hesitate: dreams of being in fights and not being able to defend himself and needing to defend himself and having his gun not work. That didn’t surprise me. I actually don’t remember the details of my cop dreams. But they were something like that. They weren’t friendly. Correctional-officer dreams must be terrible.

    The student who drives taxis, not surprisingly, says he dreams of being in a car accident. He rents his cab each shift. And if he’s in a accident that is his fault, he’s got to pay for the repairs.

    Work dreams. Hmmmm…. It’s a good reason to be a teacher. Worst comes to worst, you’re just naked in front of your class.