Dangling Baby

There was a time during my police career when prisoner rights seemed to exceed citizen rights.  Judges were forcing federal, state and local government agencies that were operating prisons and jails to provide inmates with at least 80 square feet of living space.  They also had to provide access to fully paid legal advice, medical services, education and library services in the jail, three square meals per day, all approved clothing, personal hygiene items, counseling, etc, etc, etc, .

When housing space “rights” were being violated judges would order jail doors opened and all inmates that did not have at least 80 square feet of living space were turned loose.  Sometimes dozens of criminals would be released to re-victimize innocent citizens again, knowing there was no room in jail to hold them.  It was in this environment that this episode occurred. 

I was working the 4 PM to 2 AM shift and it was about 10 PM and I was just getting ready to eat my sandwich and a few celery sticks when 911 dispatched me to an apartment complex in the lower southeast area of town.  This was a rough neighborhood where crime was a way of live.  Its criminals and victims all knew how to avoid the police and use the police to their advantage.

 

A young female had delivered a baby just a few days earlier and her boyfriend was the father of the baby. I will call him goofball and he was over for a visit and a disagreement ensued.  Goofball became aggressive and started to threaten the young mother with violence. The argument escalated until goofball grabbed the baby by one of his legs and opened a bedroom window then dangled the child out the window with one hand.  Goofball threatened to drop the child two stories to the asphalt pavement in the parking lot below if he didn’t get his selfish way.

   

A neighbor arriving home witnessed this extremely reckless behavior and immediately called 911 to seek help for the baby.  As I arrived goofball was still dangling the baby out the window so I too became a witness.  I called for fire rescue to put a catch net under the window to catch the child if goofball wasn’t willing to comply with my directions and decided to drop the child.  I then stayed under the baby to try and catch him if dropped.

 

Goofball was half drunk and ranting and ravening while holding the child out of the window. He wanted to know why the police always took the woman’s side in an argument.  I continued to engage him in conversation until fire rescue arrived and set up the net.  I then yelled to the mother to open her apartment door and despite her boyfriend’s objections she opened the door.  Cover officers had arrived to assist me, so if he decided to jump out a window he would be detained.

 

Once inside I directed goofball to bring the child back inside and give him to his mother.  Realizing through his drunken, stupid stupor, that he didn’t have many options he complied and I arrested him for reckless endangering.

 

At jail Corrections Officers would often make Police Officers wait for 45 minutes to an hour to book a prisoner to discourage officers from bring prisoners to jail so they didn’t have to deal with jail overcrowding.  Police Officers did become discouraged and often did not bring prisoner to jail because they did not want to wait for an hour to book a prisoner.  Instead officers would just issue them a summons and released them on the spot.

 

I did take this prisoner to jail and waited while he was booked.  After he was accepted I drove to a nearby parking lot to finish my report and eat my lunch.  As I was just finishing my cold sandwich dispatch called me to break away from my lunch. They dispatched me to see a man dangling a baby out of a second story apartment window.  I informed the dispatcher I was just finishing my reports for that call and had booked this person into jail. 

Dispatch assured me this was an active incident, at the same address and that this time the mother had called the police.  I was sure this was a mistake but I ran code three back to the apartment house only to find goofball dangling the baby out of the window again threatening to drop the child if he didn’t get his selfish way in the argument with the child’s mother.

 

The jail had released him as quickly as they had booked him because of overcrowding.  I repeated the rescue scenario again and this time I called a judge, in the middle of the night, to request a detainer be placed on this person to protect the child.  The detainer was issued and the jail had to release someone else back into the community.

 

“The United States … has the highest total documented prison and jail population in the world.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): In 2008, over 7.3 million people were on probation, in jail or prison, or on parole at year-end — 3.2% of all U.S. adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults."

The Lord’s solution to the bulging criminal population is for us to love each other as the Lord loves us. Jesus tells us in  John 13: 34  A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. To learn how to help stop crime by loving one another - click here Mormon.org    

Abbie sees a ghost

Shortly before I retired from the Police Bureau I was working in the Personnel Division and had a college intern helping me complete personnel background investigations while earning college credits.  She was 19 years old and studying criminal justice.  I will call her Abbie.

Abbie came to work on Monday morning looking ashen white and ill.  I inquired how she was feeling and her response was the socially acceptable; “OK, fine, thank you.”  I could tell she wasn’t fine so about 30 minutes later I inquired again how she was feeling and let her know that if she needed to go home that was OK.  She started to cry softly.  We sat down and while I was trying to find out what was wrong I noticed she was trembling and speaking with a shaky voice.

 

Abbie told me a young couple from her church was going to Europe for two weeks and offered to pay her to live in their home while they were gone and feed their pet cat and dog.  Needing some extra money, like most college kids, she accepted their offer. Also, there was free food, a hot tub, and a big home to live in.

These friends were leaving on Friday evening so Abbie went to their home just prior to their departure to receive final instructions on how to care for their pets and home.  After saying goodbye to her friends, they departed for the airport and Abbie settled in, ate dinner, watched TV for a couple of hours, then played the piano.  It was now time to feed the cat in the kitchen.

 

As Abbie was walking from the piano room through the front room to the kitchen she passed by a large picture window.  In the reflection of the window she saw a man and a woman standing behind her on a staircase.

Abbie was startled and very frightened as she now realized she was looking at a man in a military uniform and a young woman next to him.  Abbie whirled around to confront them and all she saw was a bare wall with a couple of small pictures on it.  She looked back into the window and again saw their reflection but this time they smiled at her.  She was so scared she could barely speak to ask them, “May I help you?” When they didn’t answer she again looked behind her only to see a bare wall and no staircase.

Too frightened to stay in the house she went outside and the pet dog began to howl.  While she was outside she looked around to see if some of her college friends were trying to scare her.  There was no one outside nor was there any evidence of someone trying to trick her.

 

Abbie went directly home too afraid to return inside the house.  After sharing this ghost story with her parents they assured her she had just spooked herself and then became too scared to stay alone in a strange house.  They told her she had just imagined these ghosts in her mind, so they became real to her.

On Saturday, Abbie invited a friend to spend the night with her and warned her about what she had seen the night before.  The friend thought this was great adventure.  When it was time to feed the cat they both walked through the front room together and were shocked and startled to see the same reflections in the window of a man in a military uniform with the young woman standing next to him on a staircase.  It only took one sighting to end this sleepover for her friend. The friend was “out of there,” never to return. 

Again, Abbie left and went home, being too afraid to stay in the house.  On Sunday, she took her mother with her and they went in the back door to avoid the front room, fed the cat then immediately left the house.  Her mother was not going to have anything to do with ghosts.

By Monday morning, Abbie was an emotional wreck when she came to work. She was worried because she wasn’t keeping her commitment to care for her vacationing friend’s home and pets.

 

I inquired about the soldier’s uniform to try and determine what war he was affiliated with and what type of dress the young woman was wearing.  Abbie didn’t know uniforms of different wars so I did a Google search and found pictures and showed them to her.  She immediately picked the Confederate uniform of the Civil War.  Next, I showed her a picture of a Southern Bell dress and Abbie told me the dress worn by the young woman was the same style but different colors.  She also told me the woman looked like she young, maybe in her late 20’s.

 

Obtaining the address of the residence I next went to the Property Tax Division of the county and looked up the property’s ownership history.  I was shocked at what I found so I made copies of the records to show Abbie.  The first owners of this house had moved into it in 1880 about 15 years after the Civil War ended in 1865, and the soldier was a veteran of the Confederate Army.

 

Abbie ask me to go with her to feed the cat and dog that evening, so I called my wife to see if she would go with us since I didn’t think it would be appropriate to go alone with a young college coed to a haunted house.  My wife thought about it for a few minutes, then said she didn’t want to see any ghosts or get involved with someone else’s property without their knowledge or consent.

 

I was disappointed but it was getting late and the cat and dog needed fed so Abbie called her mother to meet her at the house.  They avoided going into the front room and for the rest of the two weeks they just fed the pets and left.

 

When the vacationing home owners got home Abbie told them what happened.  They dismissed her story because they had not experienced any similar events and suggested she had used this ghost sighting as an excuse not to stay in their home.  They only paid her for feeding the pets since she didn’t stay in their home as agreed.

 

Those hearing this story may rationalize this as an imagined event for Abbie and her girlfriend but it will always be a real ghost encounter for Abbie.  A year later, my wife and I attended Abbie’s wedding and we all had a good laugh together recalling this event that had frightened Abbie so badly.

 

Ghosts are people like you and me, but in spirit form without a body, like the Holy Ghost.  After Christ’s resurrection his disciples thought they had seen a ghost when He appeared to them.   Luke24: 37 “But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.”  

As long as there has been recorded history there have been sightings of good and evil spirits. Many evil spirits never received a body and now desire to be a tenant in our body. We must be careful not to invite or allow them to share our body. One man allowed a legion of evil spirits to occupy his body and eventually he no longer had control of his body, they did.

Luke 8: 

27 And when he (Jesus) went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.

28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (note: the spirits that possessed this man did not have a veil put over their minds like we did when we were born.  We are to live by faith but they knew Jesus was the Son of God because they do not have a veil over their minds.)  

29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.

30 And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

31 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. (Outer darkness where bad guys live)

32 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. (These spirits wanted a body so bad they would live in the body of a pig.)

  33 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

(The pigs would rather give up their body than share it with an evil spirit so they drown themselves in the lake)

It’s fun to tell ghost stories, but remember ghosts are real.  They may invite themselves to the party. 

Jilted Lover

I was working a 10 hour shift from 6 PM to 4 AM and had just begun my watch when I was crusing down 82^nd Avenue, minding my own business, just being content to let folks know I was on patrol when suddenly I saw two cars racing towards me at break neck speed.  They were trying to run each other off the road or into some other car. 

In an attempt to stop this insane behavior I threw on my overhead lights to let them know they were now under the watchful eye of the police.  When the lead driver saw me he braked hard turning into a well know tavern that attracted a rough crowd and had large pot holes for a parking lot.  The man and woman in this vehicle quickly jumped out of their car and ran into the tavern to seek refuge among friends.  At the same time, the other car tried to follow them into the parking lot but was going too fast when he hit one of the large pot holes flipping the vehicle on its top and slid into the other car.  As I was exiting my patrol car I called for Code 3 cover and fire rescue.  

This man (I will call him Hard Hat) crawled out of the driver’s door window.  He was very muscular looking, rough and tough, with huge arms and a barrel chest.  He was wearing well worn construction clothing covered with cement dust indicating he was a concrete cutter.  He also had a baseball bat and was screaming for the wimp (the other driver) to come out of the tavern and face him like a man.  By now tavern patrons were boiling into the parking lot to see what was going on.  A crowd of 40 or more were gathering and I was very concerned many of them would be Hard Hat’s friends.

   

I got between Hard Hat and the tavern door ordering Hard Hat to put the bat down and submit to questioning for threatening to kill the other man with the bat. When he saw I meant business he turned and walked to 82^nd Avenue and stuck out his thumb hitchhiking for a ride.  I couldn’t believe someone would stop to pick him up but sure enough a motorist attempted to stop for him until he saw me waving him off.  I then told Hard Hat he was under arrest for failing to perform the duties of a driver involved in an accident since he was trying to leave the scene of the accident.

 

I also told him that I considered his bat to be a deadly weapon and if he didn’t drop it I was going to shoot him.  He threw the bat towards me missing my head as it landed in a large blackberry patch on the side of the parking lot.  That was good because I knew he couldn’t retrieve it and no one else could get to it.  I was going to have trouble containing this suspect and the crowd was now full circle around us egging Hard Hat on.

Fire rescue had arrived but they were not inclined to rescue me or get involved so they just watched. The circle was tightening and there was nowhere for Hard Hat or myself to go except face to face.  I kept stalling hoping cover officers would soon arrive; I could hear their sirens in the distance.  Once again I ordered Hard Hat to submit to arrest but this time he quickly put his right hand in the small of his back as if he was reaching for a weapon.  I drew my revolver and was waiting for the slightest glimmer of metal before I shot at him.  I was very concerned as we were surrounded by tavern patrons that were now in our cross fire.  I felt like this was a showdown at the OK Corral and lead would soon be flying.

 

I ordered him to show me his hands and to get down on the ground but instead he quickly threw both hands in front of him in a shooters stance.  In this split second I didn’t see gun metal so I didn’t shoot.  I then felt he was trying to get me to shoot him to show the women in the other car his true love for her.  Next he put his left hand behind his back and advanced towards me and when he was about five feet from me he again swung both hands around like he had a weapon while positioning himself in a shooters stance.  Again, I didn’t see gun metal so I didn’t shoot.

I was close enough now to Hard Hat that I knew I had to engage him in a physical contest of strength to subdue and arrest him.  Boy was I in trouble! I holster my weapon as I moved towards him grabbing his right arm and tripping him to the ground.  Once on the ground I got on top of him and wrenched his arm behind him and put one handcuff on his right wrist.  While I was doing this he did a one armed push up with me on this back, with his left arm!  I knew then I was really in trouble and quickly decided I needed to do something before he got control of me. 

I made a tactical error at this point thinking I could smack him in the head with the butt of my revolver.  As I was swinging it towards his head he ducked just enough that my arm hit his head causing my service revolver to fly through the air and into the crowd.  I ordered one of the firefighters to pick up the weapon and put it in his large turnout coat pocket for safe keeping.  I said it with enough authority he assisted as requested.

I had a boot gun but there was no way I was going to be able to get to it at this point.  I struggled to get Hard Hat’s left arm behind his back to handcuff him but he was too strong.  I could still hear sirens coming in the distance but they were not close enough.  At last, one of the ambulance medics stepped in and helped me pull his left arm behind him to get him handcuffed.  All of the time I was wrestling with Hard Hat I was afraid someone from the crowd would jump onto my back to help rescue him from being arrested. 

Finally, cover officers arrived and helped me load Hard Hat into my patrol car, because he was not volunteering to cooperate in any way.  Cover officers found the couple from the other vehicle and learned the woman was Hard Hat’s sometimes girlfriend and when he saw her in the other guy’s car he flipped out, made a wild U-turn and tried to run them off the road.  

As I checked Hard Hat’s criminal record, I learned he had been arrested just two days earlier for carrying a concealed weapon on his belt in the small of his back.  At times like this I often wondered if being a grocery bagger wouldn’t be a better vocation.

 

Loyalty in intimate relationships is important to harmonious living.  I had a case where one jilted lover put a car bomb in the new boyfriend’s car and when he opened the door it killed him.  The jilted lover went to the penitentiary for the rest of his life. The Lord understood the strength of passion in relationships and from the beginning of time has commanded us to not commit adultery or fool around with someone else’s companion. 

The Lord tells us many times in the scriptures:

Matt 5:27 Thou shalt not commit adultery: 

Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ...

To learn more about the importance of keeping Heavenly Father's commandments and to have peace in our lives and relationships click on Mormon.org

Fallen, but not forever

I was working the afternoon watch on a beautiful Memorial Day.  I drove down a busy avenue to my district and this avenue hosts all the vices known to mankind.   I saw the usual assortment of thieves, prostitutes, and drug dealers lurking in their haunts.  I saw two hookers about to pick up a john (a person who solicits a prostitute) so I got on the tail of the john and he suddenly wasn’t so interested.  Dope dealers moved into the shadows and car thieves that were hanging around a 7-11 convenience store (waiting for someone to go inside without shutting off their car) went indoors themselves.  Many of these miscreants would be rousted before the night was over. 

As I was focusing my attention on a known burglar with a large TV in the back seat of his car, 911 dispatched me to check on the welfare of a man acting strangely in a nearby National Military Memorial Cemetery.  When I arrived thousands of miniature American flags waved in the wind covering the hillsides of the cemetery.  Memorial Day visitors were paying tribute to fallen soldiers and loved ones. 

A grounds keeper contacted me at the main office and gave me a map to an area near the top of the cemetery where he had observed a grieving young man, in his early 20’s, behaving  strangely by one of the graves.  The ground keeper told me this man had been in the cemetery for several hours drinking beer, crying and ranting near a headstone. 

Mess Kit

He also reported that he brought shoe polish and was spit polishing a pair of military boots that he placed uniformly beside the grave marker.  He was arranging a mess kit with the knife, fork and spoon at strict right angles to the pan and he had several T-shirts rolled up over beer cans that were placed symmetrically side by side.  He had taken off a military shirt that he had worn and had shredded it into one inch strips with a Ka-bar knife.  The grounds keeper also told me he last saw the young man walking into a wooded tree area on the edge of the cemetery carrying a cotton rope, but when he didn’t come out when he thought he should, the grounds keeper called the police.  

Ka-bar knife

I located the grave and read the headstone noting the deceased was a decorated military veteran of WWII and Korea and that he had recently died.  The items described by the ground keeper were as he reported and the Ka-bar knife was stabbed through the shredded military shirt sticking it to the ground. 

There were several empty beer cans strewn around on the road near the grave.  Alcohol seems to be associated with numbed senses and bad judgment, so I knew I would have to go into the woods to find this young man, whom I’ll call Jerry. 

When I found Jerry he had taken his own life.  As I lowered Jerry’s muscular body to the ground, that was now lifeless, I thought: “what a waste of a life.”  I later learned that Jerry admired his grandfather as a decorated military hero, that he wanted to be like him, and had spent a lot of time with him.   Jerry also could not come to grips with the thought of not being with his grandpa anymore.

 If Jerry had understood better that Christ died on the cross and was resurrected so that we all will be resurrected, he possibly could have endured missing his grandfather for the season of his mortal life.  Jesus Christ has told us in John 11: 25 … I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

 Amulek teaches us in the Book of Alma chapter 11:

 42 Now, there is a death which is called a temporal death; and the death of Christ shall loose the bands of this temporal death, that all shall be raised from this temporal death.

  43 The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time …  44 Now, this restoration shall come to all ...

Let’s all have greater faith and hope in Jesus Christ.  Then we can share our faith to help comfort those who have lost a loved one.  To learn more about the resurrection and God’s plan of happiness click on Mormon.org

He didn't make it

Was it an accident, a murder or a suicide?  I had to decide quickly to determine who should be called to assist at the crime scene.  It was just getting dark when 911 dispatched  me to investigate a pedestrian that had been struck by two vehicles on a busy four lane metropolitan boulevard that had a double guard rail separating opposing traffic.  We’ll call him Wayne.

My first job was to determine if the fire department and ambulance company should be cancelled since they are dispatched at the same time police are sent.   As soon as I saw the pedestrian I knew there was NO WAY there could be any life remaining so I cancelled the fire rescue and ambulance then requested the County Coroner respond.  The coroner is responsible for the investigation and determination of the cause and manner of all sudden, violent, or unusual deaths.

I also requested two additional patrol units to block all traffic and divert traffic off of the two boulevard lanes so an investigation could be safely completed.  As I was examining the crime scene, I saw a pair of handcuffs in the path of the victim.  I spoke to the driver of a large Cadillac that had hit Wayne. He told me a Ford Ranchero first hit the pedestrian in the lane closest to the double median guard rail that divides the four lanes, knocking Wayne into his lane of traffic. This driver told me there was no way he could avoid hitting Wayne.

I obtained a description of the hit and run vehicle and radioed the information for all cars to apprehend the driver and seize the vehicle for processing.  Based on what I was observing there would be significant damage to the right front headlight and fender.

While I was investigating the accident, I noticed a Ford Ranchero with only one working headlight sitting on the opposite side of the boulevard where several cars had stopped (rubber-necking) to see what was happening. I radioed for another police unit to make contact with this suspect and sure enough it was our suspect vehicle.

 

This driver, Jack, explained that he was scared and drove off but his conscience got the better of him so he returned to the crime scene.  However, he didn’t have the courage to contact me because he had been drinking and had not stopped at the scene of the accident.  Jack told me he was on his way home from work and had stopped at a bar for a couple of beers (it is always just a couple of beers).  I now contacted our fatal traffic accident investigators to process Jack for vehicular homicide and book him into jail.

Next I interviewed a witness and based on what the witness told me I contacted detectives so they also could process the crime scene because now Wayne was possibly a homicide victim. This witness told me he saw Wayne jump out of the back seat of a four door sedan that had two men sitting in the front seat as the car slowed in traffic.  Wayne was handcuffed as he ran through heavy traffic then jumped the median barrier into fast moving traffic going the opposite direction and was hit by the Ford Ranchero knocking him in front of the Cadillac.

• Were friends driving Wayne to a mental health hospital because he was suicidal and had agreed to be handcuffed for everyone’s safety?  No one ever came forward to claim Wayne’s remains and his ex girlfriend thought he was suicidal when she knew him.  
• Earlier in the afternoon a private security guard had arrested and handcuffed a shoplifter that got away.  The guard said the handcuffs did not match his pair.     
• No local law enforcement agency had a prisoner escape this day.
• Detectives told me their investigation indicated it may have been a drug deal gone bad. Perhaps the buyers ripped off the drugs that Wayne was selling and were going to drop him off in the woods somewhere.  Instead, Wayne took his chances by running for his life across the busy boulevard but, he didn't make it.  

Helaman 9: 15 Now, as for the murder of this man, we know not who has done it; and only this much we know, we ran and came according as ye desired, and behold he was dead ….

This case was never solved. So what do you think? Was it an accident? A murder? Or a suicide?

When the Lord comes again will you be running towards Him or away from Him. Will you stumble and fall as you run away from Him into the darkness. Or, will your hands be free to reach out to His mercy and forgiveness because you have not shackled yourself with sin.  
We all need to heed Amulek’s warning in Alma 34: For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

                  To read more about Jesus Christ and preparing to meet Him see Mormon.org.