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You’re Not Listening To Me
I’m getting tired of all the so called experts on policing. Whether it’s David French, Radley Balko, or any number of Woke mayors, prosecutors, college professors, the ACLU, and the rest of the usual suspects. I don’t remember any of them wrestling around with me at 0200 hours helping me make an arrest of a suspect that had committed crimes ranging from assaults, vehicular homicide, or any other form of homicide, and robberies.
Some want police officers that are Golden Retrievers and not Belgian Malinois. There are times when you have to be both. I get that videos of arrests that result in violence are disturbing. In a very real way that is good that enough people find it disturbing. I was compassionate when I could be, and I could fight when I had to fight.
One afternoon, I had to become the Belgian Malinois. An information call went out for East Precinct officers from Radio about an individual that would stop his car in front of someone’s front yard. He would get out of the car and walk towards the children, and their parents and display a knife an threatened to stab them. He did this at about three to four different homes.
I found him drifting around the neighborhood in his car. The car matched the description, and he matched the description. I turned on the lights and he pulled over to the curb. When I got up to the driver’s windows Officer Friendly (that’s me) didn’t pretend he was pulled over for a traffic violation. I told him exactly why I stopped him. I asked him if he had a knife in the car. He started to reach under the seat. I pulled my pistol from the holster and pushed the barrel into his left ear. I told him, “You’re not listening to me. I asked you if you had a knife. I didn’t ask you to show it to me.”
I got him out of the car, handcuffed him, searched him, and placed him in the back seat of the car. I found a Bowie knife under the driver’s seat. I called Radio and asked them to have the complainants meet me at their homes. They identified him and identified his knife that I had placed in the trunk of the police car.
I will not apologize for being the Belgian Malinois when I had to be.
Published in Policing
Well, I wasn’t power mad. Lots of different calls, but the good news for everyone out there is I’m too old for fence jumping contests. Street cops are on the lowest rung of the city ladder. I got through it without being sanctioned by the department, or sanctioned by the DA’s office.
Then again I was in the arena. I never measured anyone I met that chose a different profession than police work. However I wasn’t fooled by admin cops that worked for three and half and got off the streets as fast they could. Some were incompetent, some were cowards. All in all we were better off when they left the streets.
By the way I believe this might be a non-sequitur:
It’s all good. As a Moderator I don’t moderate comments on the posts that I write.
Especially the streets being better off, I am sure.
It is not just police, is is anyone too separated from operations
I thought the holding a pistol to his head was pretty unwise. But if it’s stupid and it works, then it wasn’t stupid.
In a way it’s only stupid/risky if you believe someone can grab the knife and bring it up etc, faster than you/he can pull the trigger of the gun that’s already at his head. Or that someone in that position would hesitate long enough to allow it.
Reminds me of an episode of Magnum, PI where Magnum is dealing with some kind of martial arts master who always “blinks” before striking. At the end, Magnum has his gun pointed at the guy’s face, and he says to the guy (more or less) “Don’t do it. Nobody is that fast.” Then the screen goes black, and you hear “BANG!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcLP6gHkgD4
The idea isn’t just to win. The idea is to convince the subject that he can’t.
That way, maybe you won’t have to blow his brains out.
Also true.
But I think cops more recently are usually trained to be more precise in what they say. If you just say “do you have a knife?” the typical reaction might be like if you ask a store clerk “do you have peanut butter?” They’re likely to not just say “yes” and then stand there until you ask them to show you where it is. They’re likely to say “yes” and then turn to show you where it is, or just say “over here…” and then start going to where it is.
I’ve actually seen that kind of thing on TV too. The cop says something like “if you have any weapons (or needles, etc.), tell me now.” That’s less likely to result in a reflex “here, I’ll show you” move.
But back when Doug Watt was being trained and on the street, or wherever he happened to be, maybe that wasn’t common.
@acanavan
You may wish to familiarize yourself with the Code of Conduct. Going full bore at someone like you did is close to a personal attack. Cool your jets. I am holding off on redaction here since it is partly criticizing the main post, but I will erase personal attacks or similar conduct.
This is probably the reason your post was not received well. People were debating police tactics and law before your post without talking about Doug like he could star on the Shield.
If it weren’t for non-sequiturs, I’d have no sequiturs at all.
Despite operating from a distinct deficit, I do think.
This is not what I meant at all. If it came across that way, I apologize. Skyler, I wasn’t even addressing anything you have said, rather somebody else (I can’t find it now) that made a reference to “military – grade weapons.” This is pure claptrap from the unabashed anti Second Amendment people. I went into some detail regarding the features that so many people think are intended to make the firearms fit for combat, and not fit for civilian use. Nothing could be further from the truth. So I was rebutting an argument that was not stated, but inherent in what was stated. At minimum I hope I was able to equip people with little firearm knowledge, to counter those who try to use the “military – grade weapon” argument.
Nor did I mean to imply that those commenting in this thread was considering armored vehicles as tanks. But the claim is made in the MSM with some regularity – often as a caption beneath a picture of a large, wheeled vehicle. And somebody just recently claimed (I don’t remember if it was in this thread or another) that police were conducting regular neighborhood patrols in armored vehicles. That ain’t happening.
Regarding the statement that the police are dressing like the military, I disagree with that, too. Even their “riot gear” outfits don’t resemble in any way the “TA-50” I was issued in the military. However, I would also assert that the move to higher – level protective gear is justified by the much higher level of threats that they face every day. It’s clear that the increase in violence has driven the upgrade in protective equipment, not the other way around.
My first sworn position was as a park ranger. Somebody had a subscription to a magazine that was called something like C.H.P. something or other. It covered happenings in the California Highway Patrol. They had a regular feature called, “Routine Stops.” Every month they featured a bunch of “routine” vehicle stops, that turned out to be nothing of the sort. That was in the ’70’s. Even as a park ranger, I experienced a small number of “routine stops.” If that’s how it was back then . . .
I don’t know why I’m bothering with this, but Doug hasn’t really defended his action. What the perp did in his original post is called, in police training, and everywhere else, a “furtive movement.” Any move that conceals a person’s hands from an officer’s view is a situation that shouts “watch out!” It is among the most dangerous moves that an officer faces in a vehicle stop. About ten years ago now, such a movement cost the life of a local, very popular CHP officer – on a “routine stop.”
Edit: I think I need to clarify. Any competent officer, faced with that situation, would properly draw his weapon, and be ready for anything. Because if a gun comes out, there won’t be time to draw.