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I told you how awesome your stories were in the Chicago thread, but now I have to ask, have you considered writing a book? Non-fiction or fiction you've got a lot of experiences to draw on and a good written voice. I think it would be worth doing.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:15 |
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elpintogrande
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| # ? Feb 09, 2010 19:59 |
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quote:hipp came out of the closet to say: The latter. At first you get by because you are playing a part. You've read about cops, you've seen them on TV and in the movies. Cops don't cry, cops don't get scared, cops don't get flustered and not know what to do. So you play that part. After awhile it becomes less and less an act but I don't think it ever goes away completely. Hell it's been oft said that we are all children playing the part of adults and hoping that no one will see through our masquerade.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:19 |
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quote:elpintogrande came out of the closet to say:
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:19 |
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CaptainWinky
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quote:Sehkmet came out of the closet to say: I was only a cop for 4 years, so by the time this thread ends my stock of stories may be down to my adventures escorting the kids across the street when the crossing guard called in sick.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:21 |
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quote:hotcharity came out of the closet to say: St. Charles, we're almost neighbors.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:22 |
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quote:Tokaii came out of the closet to say: You won my personal "smart reaction price"! Thanks for all those stories!!
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:46 |
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quote:vkxmai came out of the closet to say: Sure. Somehow the troublemakers always seem to be the ones at the bottom of the economics trough who have less reason to dream of success in the system. The district I worked in before task force had amazing diversity. Along the lakefront were the wealthy. Come in a block or two at the most and you had lower middle-class whites in apartments. Head south a bit from Wrigley Field and you had Puerto Ricans. For a reason I never learned the derogatory term was 'Pork Chops" so their neighborhood became, "Pork Chop Hill" even though there was no hill. Head north a ways and you had what we called 'Hillbilly Heaven' Further west it turned into middle class single family homes. I'd say most of the street crime came equally from the Puerto Rican area and Hillbilly Heaven. As the have-nots often do, they despised each other and their gangs fought constantly. By today's standards these gangs were wimps though. I used to tell threatening gang members that my gang had 12,000 members and we all had guns. Today they would have much better armament than us. I don't know how cops today can do it. I had had two years of college Spanish so I was sort of the last-ditch interpreter when no other was available so I got a lot of exposure to the Puerto Ricans. A typical PR apartment was very poor and very clean. The regular people, not the gangsters, were very friendly but suspicious because of past mistreatment by cops. Because of culture and the cost of air-conditioning back then the streets and porches would be jammed with people during the summer. I remember driving down the street and hearing "Mire! La Policia!" repeated over and over down the block. Sort of like, "The British are Coming!" Cops who didn't bother to learn anything about their culture found this street presence threatening. I'd like to find something good to say about Hillbilly heaven, but I can't. Almost everyone I came in contact with there was dumb, surly and stank. The apartments were disgusting and drunkeness, violence, incest, and worse were terrible. But, they were white, so the cops tended to fear them less. Looking back on that I always remember the Avalon Bar. It was a hillbilly hangout and you could count on a brawl at least once a weekend. The dispatcher might even say, "Yet another 10-10 at the Avalon." (CPD used a different 10-call system than the common one in use most places) Any cars available would head for the action. We'd stop outside and grab the big riot batons and, if we had them, a helmet and wade in. The scene would usually do justice to John Wayne tavern brawl. Two memories from those.. coming in once and seeing one of our Sgts standing up on the bar and swinging his riot baton (36") like a baseball bat... and another time when I started to pull a woman off another cop and she aimed a very nice kick at my balls. Thanking 12 years of martial arts I avoided it and planted the end of my stick on her temple. It took 4 men to carry the bitch's stretcher. It was only after joining task force that I was involved much with blacks. In another response I said that we put in our report that they were two male negroes. Perhap I should point out to the younger readers that this was the polite term back then. That's why we still have things like the United Negro College Fund, etc.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:49 |
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quote:Tokaii came out of the closet to say: I agree the guy was admirable, but absolutely inflexible. The instance where he got a guy sacked over a 2$ bribe or so springs to mind. Of course he was right when he said the amount was not the point, but still. That sort of absolute idealism and normal human beings don't tend to mix. Btw, a quick google revealed he has a site: http://www.frankserpico.com/ and a blog http://frankserpico.blogspot.com/
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 00:52 |
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Awesome sir! You and my dad are about the same age, and at about the same time he was a cop in NYC (foot patrol). Some of stories are nuts, too. I don't know so much about the corruption, but my dad did have a crazy stalker for a while. It's a lot of fun to go through his old patrol journals. Maybe I'll ask him to write out some of his stories and post em.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:01 |
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quote:Sehkmet came out of the closet to say: You're doing it wrong, use more nose.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:02 |
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I think Tokaii is in Goon Squad, Alliance, on Kel Thuzad. That makes me cool by proxy for being in his guild. Excellent thread.  Your comments about distraction by the media are spot on. Every time I turn on the television, it's nothing but Terri Schiavo and Michael Jackson. The news to noise ratio is pathetic.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:03 |
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You know, hoss, you ought to sit down and write up your experiences. Even if no other reason than to keep them for yourself to read. You do have a fairly good style of writing, straightfoward without being plain or simplistic. Hell, I would like to hear about what it was like being a scuba instructor. I would hazard that you were a young man at a time when scuba-diving was still a new thing. You couldn't have been too bad of a skydiver. That bad ones usually aren't around to tell stories. Wambaugh's Black Marble was about an alcohlic detective of russian descent who teams up with a female detective to investigate dog-napping. James Ellroy was a panty-sniffing benzadrine snorting kid in LA who got right and has done some really nice stories. Max Allan collins is drat fine mystery writer who used to write the Dick Tracy daily strips. Sharpe's Rifles and Horatio Hornblower I only know through the television series that showed up on A&E occasionally. I haven't been able to concentrate long enough to really sit down and read a novel for sometime. My brain is a little hosed up due to various things like life-long depression, catching Legionaire's Disease ( maybe, maybe not. My pumonologist is sending me for a ct scan on tuesday. I am on oxygen and she wanted me to get off of it until they walked me around the office and I was showing a pulse-ox of 85. My mom is worried that it might be cancer. If it is, none of this being brave about it poo poo for me, I am a gonna take to drinking, spending my wife's money on floozys and fast car and illicit drugs. I even know how I'll break the news to my wife. I'll look in her in the eyes and say " Hey honey, I got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I finally did your sister, the bad news is that I have cancer.") I also seem to go off on strange tangents about inane thing just at random intervals. Look, a dog!
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:03 |
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Fantastic stories, Tokaii, thank you very much for sharing them with us all. I'm going down the history career path myself, so it's doubly interesting to read.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:16 |
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quote:Mr. Fixit came out of the closet to say: Back then it could very easily be true. A story about him looking like someone wanted for a forcible felony and refusing to stop would be good enough. In a worse situation all of us carried either a drop knife or a drop gun to place beside the body. When I was in TF one of our most popular Sgts whose name I recall because it's a bit odd was shot and killed on a traffic stop. Sgt Doll got off six shots as he was dying and his killers ran. A blood trail showed at least one had been hit, but the trail ended. We flooded the area and searched every garage, garbage can, whatever. We were recalled and told it was over. On the news later the cpd press guy said that as the officers approached the suspect he fired on them with a shotgun and the officers responded killing both of them. Those of us who were in the area at the time and could tell the difference knew that it was pistol shots first followed a minute or so later by the shotgun. With absolutely no doubt of guilt, I was and am bothered by this not at all. Have things changed? I don't know. But I know that a few years ago I was on the way to a Bears game with a friend and our lane was stopped by a cop directing traffic. A pedestrian was yelling at him about something and the cop kept gesturing for him to move on. He kept it up, following the cop around the intersection. I said to my friend, "Watch this" and sure enough. He was, you know...subdued repeatedly, and dragged to the curb to await the wagon.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:18 |
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quote:generationxyu came out of the closet to say: I'm afraid after 35 years I'm having trouble pulling up Taylor in from my memory. But Area 6 Task Force was on Racine so I knew it well. In general that area that far north was white middle-class with mixed apartments and single family homes. You had to go east or south to hit higher crime areas. I think south is the area you are talking about. I only remember Taylor street from the old Italian neighborhood there then (Taylor Street Pizza) and the teen gang. I seem to remember they were the Taylor Street Dukes but I may have that wrong. But they were further east than Racine I think. Edit: Oh and I live in St. Charles now. It's between Elgin and Aurora. 28 years of lily-white mostly middle and upper middle class students. Tokaii fucked around with this message at Jun 17, 2005 around 01:32 |
| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:29 |
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quote:Big McLargeHuge came out of the closet to say: I’ve already related one of the four times I fired my gun above,at the Cabrini Green housing project. - The second was one was when as part of my patrol I had to check one of the more remote subway stations twice per shift. One cold winter night I went down to the platform and saw two men fighting. I went over to break itup and there was a flash of steel and a pain in my hand. I backed up, saw blood seeping from my glove and the knife in the hand of the one advancing toward me. Then there was a loud explosion and both men were on the ground. I had drawn and fired without even realizing it. The shot made me a sort of tongue in cheek legend because it had hit him in the forearm holding the knife, passed through and into his side. That’s right, I shot the knife out of his hand. Considering I was totally unaware of firing the shot it was clearly dumb luck but of course I wouldn’t want to ruin a perfectly good legend. The second guy just had the good ghetto instinct to hit the floor before the echo stops. -The third time was when I was on patrol with a ‘ridealong’, a civilian who had gotten permission to tag along on a patrol. This one was a minister. The night was uneventful until we got a burglar alarm call. As we drove up the apartment house manager was in the street signaling to us. He said he’d had numerous breakins in the storage area and had installed an alarm which had just gone off. He was extremely hyper and was trying to drag me to the area. I told the ridealong to stay in the car and then tried to wait for my backup since I was solo. The backup didn’t come and didn’t come and the manager is having a fit so I went in. When we get to the area the alarm came from the manager steps in front of me before I know it and opens the door. The guy inside comes rushing out like a bull knocking me aside and takes off. I chased after, but unlike on TV real cops can seldom outrun fit young men. I’m yelling at him to stop and after a couple blocks I think I’m going to die. He runs up the back wooden stairs of an apartment building and leaps over the two-story high fence to the lot next door. No way am I doing that. Illinois law at that time (since changed by US Supreme Court ruling) was that an officer may fire to stop the escape of someone fleeing a ‘Forcible Felony’ if there is no other way to stop him. Burglary was a forcible felony and there had also been a string of rapes in the area so I yelled once more and fired. Department policy said you never fire to wound, you fire at the center of mass. but I aimed at his legs. He went down but bounced up and behind a wall and was gone. Suddenly, through my pounding ear drums, I hear what seemed like a hundred sirens at once. The ridealong, hearing the shot, had called in a policeman needs help. Any cop will tell you what this call does. Two cars are assigned to it and twenty more come anyway. So for a few hours I’d have to look at various guys rounded up in the neighborhood, but no dice. When dawn came we examined the area and found blood where he went down. We never found him. - The fourth time was when I was about the third or fourth backup to arrive on the scene where a trio of armed robbers of a savings and loan had been cut off as they tried to escape. They started shooting at us and we started shooting at them. The end result was one of them dead and two wounded, all with multiple wounds. With any police shooting all guns used are surrendered for ballistics checks. These were then compared with the bullets which remained in the bad guys. Several of the bullets recovered from them were unidentifiable, including what might have been the fatal bullet. My gun did not fire any of the identifiable rounds. But who knows who fired the fatal round? BTW I was at the time a Masters level competitor in police pistol competitions. Tokaii fucked around with this message at Jun 19, 2005 around 01:28 |
| # ? Jun 17, 2005 01:53 |
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quote:cerb came out of the closet to say: I'd love to hear how it really is now, but I have to say I doubt they would tell even you if it is still as it was.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:00 |
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quote:Valentein came out of the closet to say: In WoW I'm in Defenders of the Path on Eldre' Thalas. (54 Rogue) In Guild Wars I've not joined a guild yet.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:03 |
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quote:Foucault's Dog came out of the closet to say: I fear I must decline. The position I seek on that worthy vessel involves female sailors and medical exams.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:12 |
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quote:Tokaii came out of the closet to say:
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:16 |
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quote:elpintogrande came out of the closet to say: When my sister had her second book published she offered to give me that important first contact if I wrote one. I was heavily involved in the MIA/POW movement "Bring them home or send us back!" so I tried to write a novel of a captured pilot. I've learned that being able to read and enjoy good fiction and even being able to write understandable prose are not sufficient skills to be able to write good fiction. You see how I write here in short bursts as though I'm in a hurry to get to the end of the paragraph? That's how I wrote in my 'book'. It stunk and I set aside as have tens of thousands of others who thought they might have what it takes.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:18 |
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quote:Lynza came out of the closet to say: I would enjoy that.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:23 |
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quote:Lilosh came out of the closet to say: I think I did create a goon squad character, but I don't play him anymore. I went the carebear route and went to a non-pvp server. With the honorkill insanity now maybe that was a good decision? I was in a couple of the goon squads in City of Heroes and was in Clan Banhammer in EQ2 until I left for WoW.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:25 |
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quote:pontious36 came out of the closet to say: I was a bad skydiver because on my first jump I never looked up to make sure my chute was ok and made a heel/head landing that gave me a concusion. (this was before the tandem jump they do with newbies today) The doc said no jumping for a month so I went out the next weekend and jumped again. Once again I never looked up to make sure my chute was ok and, because of my concusion I made a standing landing. Note that these were old military hemishere chutes, no stalling out for a soft landing. That standing landing sprained both ankles, gave me shin splints in both legs and made me walk like a duck with a stick up his rear end. So I went out the next weekend. I got the chute on and put one painful foot up on the step of the plane and said, "gently caress no!" I walked away and sought other ways to prove my manhood. I hear you about medical problems. That young, fit 20 something cop today has congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, peripheral neuropothy, and gout. Muscle spasm pain got me addicted to stronger and stronger opiad painkillers until I was almost in the Rush Limbaugh league. I lacked the $15,000 he spent for rehab so I had to just stop taking them and take what came. I've told my wife that if the pain gets really bad for me I want one of those on-demand morphine drips. I won't know what's going on, but I won't care.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:37 |
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quote:CapnBiggles came out of the closet to say: Write to my son Vwulf. He begins grad school in ancient history in the fall.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:38 |
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Here's another one.. I mentioned doing the undercover thing with the Nazi’s. A couple more snippets from that: - Being in the loop wearing my White Power T-shirt and handing out literature about how the holocaust was a big Zionist lie. An old woman looked at it and started screaming at me about her family dying in the camps. Then she started beating me with her giant purse. All the time I was thinking, “I don’t blame you. Hit me again!” - I told above about the cop calling me by my real name in the party HQ. Following that incident we had a good time for months after with me taking a pen or something out of my pocket and holding it close to one of them and saying something like, “Would you repeat those plans a little louder, I didn’t quit get it.” - For such work the Intelligence Division (later infamous in Chicago papers as “The Red Squad”, would recruit the candidates who scored the highest on the application test and put them to work BEFORE they went to the academy. The idea was that no other cop would know who you were and so your legend would be safer. So I was sworn in in the back of an unmarked squad car on Chicago’s south side and sent into the fray with no badge and no gun. The rule was that I could tell absolutely no one. This meant I had to tell those who knew I’d applied that I’d not passed the test. When Martin Luther King came to Chicago for his open housing marches through white neighborhoods the Nazi leader, George Lincoln Rockwell decided to have a White Power march through a black neighborhoods. A few of us young stormtroopers (I’m not kidding, that’s what they called us) were to flank Rockwell as bodyguards. The march was peaceful thanks to the hundreds of cops flanking us on either side but the next day on the front page of the Sun Times was a picture Rockwell during the march and there I am next to him in my White Power T-shirt. My best friend at that time was still living at home and his father saw the picture and recognized me. He threatened his son, on pain of being tossed out, if he had anything to do with me again. Since I could not explain it, that was the end of perhaps the closest friendship I’ve ever had. - BTW during one of Dr. King’s marches ‘we’ threw rocks at them. Of course I made sure I hit no one. But today, when I no longer feel it is necessary to keep the secret, I can stop a conversation cold by mentioning the time I threw rocks at Dr. King.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:51 |
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From what I've read here, your stances on politics/society/etc. do a fairly good job of mirroring my own, which is something that I find reaffirms my own positions on a number of things. It's encouraging; so I thank you for that, too. I don't think you need to worry about getting caught up in little rants about the state of things. I'll add my voice to the voices of others who have expressed appreciation for those, too. There's been so many questions about your history, and I must admit I'm a serious sucker for history, and I could happily read about history until the end of my days, but I'll leave those questions for everyone else. Right now, I'm more interested in what you think about the future. Optimistic? Pessimistic? Any thoughts on where we're all headed? Thoughts on where you're headed yourself? Got stuff you'd like to do but haven't quite gotten around to yet? Lastly. Most importantly. I don't think it's possible to really express how great this thread, those insights and experiences you've decided to share with us, really is. Whatever I could write would fall far short of what I'd really like to convey. So, I'll just have to settle for offering a horribly mundane thanks for everything you've given us. Thanks.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 02:55 |
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You are kind of close to me too! I am living (for the summer) in La Grange Park, which is just off of I-290/I-294. Wheeee
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:03 |
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My family's from Chicago. I was born in Aurora, but we moved to New York when I was still a small child, so I don't remember much about it. We lived in Naperville. Back then it was still a small suburb, with open wetlands behind our back yard. Ha! My father's namesake was on the CPF. My great-uncle James was killed in the line of duty, by another police officer. It was Good Friday, April 15, 1927. My father still has the .38 revolver carried by his namesake. Great stories, Tokaii. As thanks I thought I'd share this article from the Chicago Tribune, April 16, 1927. I hope you find it interesting: quote:Officer Slays Detective As Thief In Error I've always wondered if it was really an accident, because of the discrimination faced by Czechs and Poles in those days. But nobody's alive who remembers. Either way, I think it's interesting family history.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:17 |
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quote:bahamut came out of the closet to say: As to the world, I try to bear in mind all those writers of the past who bemoaned the failures of their times and predicted the terrible end to come. But I do worry for my son and future grandchildren etc. I worry because: - I do not believe that unrestricted open markets will raise the world to our current level. I don't think the world can possibly support that. So as the rest of world rises we must fall. I like the analogy of the water resevoir behind the dam. In order to raise the water level in the valley below by a foot you must lower the level behind the drat by fifty feet. The arguement is that increased production world wide will offset this and we'll all go up. But consider that to achieve what we have now we consume something like 25% of the world's oil. How can the whole world do that? And that brings up.. - We refuse to be serious about things like energy, pollution, and global warming. Bush and his oil friends hold out the Alaskan preserve as our solution and we ignore the detail that the most optimistic estimates are that it could provide 1% of our need. Bush (and others on both sides) make speeches about alternative fuels, conservation, etc. but it is the funding that matters and it just isn't there. And how can a civilized nation accept that the previous lobbiest for the oil companies is now established as secretary of the government committee studying global warming with full authorization to edit all reports. It's like we're willing accept the absurd as long as they don't preempt American Idol. As to my own future, my health is so bad that even walking for exercise is too painful. I take part in a water exercise class for seniors three times a week, but that just keeps the joints from freezing still. Other than things like that class, doctor visits, etc I pretty much spend my days here at the computer. I'd like to sell our house and move somewhere warm on a lake but my wife has so many friends here that it would break her heart to leave so I guess I'm stuck here. I went through a bad time accepting my condition back when I was hooked on the pain killers, but kicking them and finding the right anti-depressant has pulled me out of that. I'd say I'm fairly satisfied with my situation. I'd like to be one of those dancing, happy seniors on all the commercials but it's not going to happen.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:20 |
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quote:Mommie Dearest came out of the closet to say: There's no way we can know, but I would doubt it. I know about the adrenalin in the uniformed man's bloodstream and the fear he had to conceal. He obviously had not been warned plainclothes were on the scene and he saw a man with a gun turn towards him. If his face was not immediately in full view and recognizable, he could not afford to wait. Friendly fire is a fact of armed conflict of any kind and a tragedy nonetheless.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:26 |
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I just noticed my new avatar and title. Thank you to whoever did that.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:28 |
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quote:Tokaii came out of the closet to say: You're welcome, I felt it was a good way of expressing thanks for all of the memories you've shared with us all, from humble episodes on the beat to life lessons well-earned. A gift as precious as gold. CapnBiggles fucked around with this message at Jun 17, 2005 around 03:37 |
| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:33 |
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I must say, this is definitely one of the greatest things I've ever read on the internet. I love hearing old cop stories. Believe it or not, I work at St Charles East HS (until tomorrow, last day and all), so depending on if you taught in D303, I might know some of the people you worked with for all those years. Regardless, your stories were so good that I had to buy an account to say that at least one more person appreciates the effort you went into to post them and answer questions. I met a few Chicago cops while I was a kid working in the city, and a bunch of my buddies are actually the offspring of Chicago cops. They have some great stories, one being the old "I roll my own cigarettes" line while smoking green (ostensibly "retrieved" from a bust earlier in the day) in front of my buddy. I've still heard only one other cop say some of the stuff that you've mentioned. I do have a question about your experience at the CPD. There was one cop I did some work for who retired a while ago, and I was talking to him about a buddy of mine who really wants to become a cop. The first thing this guy asked me is "What's his last name?" Well, my buddy is pretty Polish so let's just say it ends in -zch. He said "then he'll be fine." Why?
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:47 |
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Thanks so much, Tokaii, both for your stories and your service to the city. Were you ever assigned to work those free rock concerts they had in Grant Park? What happened during the Sly & the Family Stone concert that made the city cancel the concerts after that? I was out of town then, and always wondered what happened. Edit: Your talk of Hillbilly Heaven and, separately, the '68 convention reminded me of the movie "Medium Cool." Did you ever see it, and if so, what did you think of it? Willa Rogers fucked around with this message at Jun 17, 2005 around 04:00 |
| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:53 |
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This thread has made my evening, both the wonderful stories and political insight. Not to circle jerk too much that is  Thanks Tokaii!
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:57 |
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The traffic courts then in Chicago were, well, interesting. If you showed up to contest your ticket you’d find that the doors to the courtroom were not opened for about 15 minutes after the time it said on your ticket. This was to give the lawyers time to fish. The same lawyers day after day would pass among the plaintiffs. They would say, in effect, I can guarantee a not guilty for $X. The size of X would depend on the offense. Speeding might be $50 and DUI (DWI today) might be $500. Finally the doors would open and you would go in. If you knew what to look for you would notice that as the cases for the lawyered up ones came up their lawyer would approach the bench with something, often a paper coffee cup, in his hand and held casually as he talked to the judge. During the conversation the item would be cleaned off the desk to keep it tidy. In that cup was $X/2 the judge’s share. At that time the national conviction rate on contested tickets was about 95%. In Chicago it was about 45%. A few years after I left the feds did a sting there and convicted a bunch of lawyers and judges. I think it was called Operation Greylord. I have a couple of stories about these courts and one about the criminal court. -I once stopped three cars at the same time all traveling one behind the other at 20 over. I wrote all three. All of any officer’s tickets have the same court date once a month and they all showed up. Number one had no lawyer and was found guilty. Number three had no lawyer and was found guilty. I’ll bet you can finish this story yourself? Yup, the guy in the middle had a lawyer and was not guilty. I’d like to hear the physics on that one. -I was sitting in my squad watching an oft abused stop sign when a guy blew through it at about 30 mph. I ticketed him and he came to court with one of the hallway lawyers. I testified and then he said, “Your honor, I stopped at that stop sign, looked to the right then looked to the left and saw the officer sleeping in his squad car.” The judge said not guilty. As he turned to leave with his back to the judge he gave me a big grin. I could have forgiven the bribe of the judge. I could perhaps have forgiven the lie about my sleeping, but the grin was too much. Over the next year he had more than half a dozen parking tickets written on him (with the owners copy destroyed) and turned in. Each one was for a different serious parking offense like under a fire escape, in an ambulance zone, in front of a fire hydrant etc. Eventually he would have been contacted by the city for these delinquent tickets. He might suspect, but each had been written by a different officer, none by me, and one outside my district. We take care of our own. So if you’re ever tempted to yell an insult at that cop directing traffic cause you know he can’t chase you, bear this in mind. - I was criminal court on case where a rioter/protester had thrown a rock at me and gave me a half dozen stitches in my head. He had a lawyer and though found guilty was given probation. Meanwhile down the hall another arrested at the same time for throwing his rock through a plate glass window and without a lawyer was convicted and sentenced to six months in jail. So if you have an irresistible impulse to throw a rock either throw it at a cop or get a lawyer.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 03:57 |
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I have been sitting here, ignoring the world, for the past 2 hours reading all of this. By far, its the best thread I've read in my years here at SA. You're an amazing person. Thanks for sharing all of this with us.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 04:06 |
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Excellent thread. Do you have any more stories about kill-for-hire cops?
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 04:13 |
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quote:TRex EaterofCars came out of the closet to say: I did teach in D303 and you know I retired as a middle school computer teacher and if you read the whole thread you know my name As to the Polish question. I don't know about now, but back then it seemed like 1/3 of the department was Irish and 1/3 was Polish. Chicago has the largest Polish population outside of Warsaw. So if there is ethnic bias in the hiring he should be fine. It is race that may make it difficult. Affirmative action has been a sore issue on the department in the past but I don't know how it is now. This question reminded me of someone I should have mentioned earlier when someone asked about odd characters. I guess I didn't think of him as odd cause he was my best friend on the force. His name was Wally Wajchowski and no I can't guarantee that spelling. Wally was about 6'4" and all muscle. Like me he had been in martial arts about as long as he could remember. But, unlike me, Wally dearly loved fighting. He was in the district just south of mine which included the Rush Street Old Town area. To non-chicagoans this is the nightlife area. Wally became so good at what he did that he had a permanent assignment as foot patrol in that area. All of the regulars knew him and respected/feared him. No parking lot jockey would dare park one of his cars illegally in Wally's area. He would only draw his gun facing another gun. Any other weapon and all he had were his leather gloves which he wore year round. In fact, everyone called him, 'Gloves'. Wally would come upon 4 guys fighting with broken bottles in a parking lot and kick the poo poo out of all 4 before calling for help. My last few days on the department I was <sob> selling my cherry red 66 mustang fastback because I couldn't afford it going back to school. Wally was driving on the expressway to check it out (he eventually bought it) and a car full of guys started screwing with us. The usual coming up close beside, pulling in front and slowing down, etc. Wally waited for his chance, rolled down his window and sped past them. Then he turned and fired four shots directly under their car. I never saw anyone brake so hard they turned their car into a sled before. I have no idea if he hit anything or not and my only thought at first was that it was my license plate they might know. But after a while I just could not stop laughing. I sure missed Wally after that.
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| # ? Jun 17, 2005 04:20 |
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