Pee in a Bottle

Darrell meander into my office and threw out, “We are heading out on surveillance. Wanna come and play?” I usually make an excuse like, sorry brother I’ve got a ton of staff work. The reality is I would love too but I don’t want to get in the way of real cop stuff. When the boss shows up it changes the dynamics of an operation. Why is he out here? Something wrong?

Cathy was working late and Nordies, the girls were out with friends and I was going to eat a chicken pot pie. Sure, I’d love to. But I don’t want to interfere with the operation. This group is tough to watch. They have burned ground and air units in the past. They use extensive courter surveillance techniques, both fixed and moving. They are paranoid that the police are following them and as it turned out for good reason, we were. They are dangerous. They are an organized crime group that profits from kidnapping and murder.

This particular night we had a host of undercover cars. We briefed up in alley behind Costco. Sandwiched between the freeway on ramp, a large hill and the famous brown cinderblock walled superstore, our group looked like a used car lot. There were mini-vans, mustangs, Jeeps, pick up trucks and SUV’s. As we briefed about our mission, we were there to stop/prevent a murder, the plane spotted the target moving east on the “L” street.

You can pull up most police frequencies on your iPhone, so cops don’t use street name, suspects or technology. If you ever want to know what we are doing just get an iPhone and tune in. The cars scrambled out of the lot each speeding different directions. 1921 I’ve got the eye. West on Q. I am naked with none for cover. Peel off on the 38, I’ll take it retorted 1924. This buzz of activity went on for sometime. The group working as a team managed to track the guy who was doing hard U-Turns, blowing traffic lights and hitting the curb to see who was following. At one point I sat in my car on top of a hill overlooking the area smiling at their expertise. I saw the target rolling west on a major thorough fare and every car on the adjacent streets were SDPD, FBI, DEA or ATF vehicles. Darrell was masterfully directing traffic. I was successful. I stayed out of the way.

The surveillance really got complex. Detectives began calling out counter surveillance cars. An ATF agent called out a white Buick with 22” rims. An FBI agent called out some guys on cell phones watching them. Darrell blurted out an order. Alright, we have enough units to cover the area so everyone hit a curb. Call out where you are so we can make sure the coverage will pick up any movement. Each person called out their 20. It was a tight blanket of under cover officers. I sat on Cottonwood and 40th, several blocks from the target location. We are now several hours into this cat and mouse game. My radio was turned down low as 3 Dog Night played in the background. The surveillance was on a scrambled frequency, CIU2D. The regular radio freq for the area command was busy as usual with emergency calls, fights, 5150’s and shoplifters. I turned it down low and reclined by seat all the way back. I was looking through the steering wheel just over the curvature of the dashboard. Life is good. We’ll almost.

One of the difficulties of being on surveillance is sometimes you just got to pee. Yup, a 52 year old guy, with two bottles of water and three cups of coffee in him is an emergency looking for a bathroom. I sat in the car thinking about where I was going to pee. I thought about the tree next to me but that was just wrong. I could knock on the door of a house but who knows who lives there and who they are aligned with. Besides I have been in hundreds of these houses and I’d rather pee myself. You can not imagine the disgust.

Now I would drive out of the area and hit the Jack in the Box but…the counter surveillance vehicle with two thugs decided to park on the same block as me. The last thing I want to do is blow this surveillance. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, countless hours and all this effort down the drain because one cop could not hold his pee. Now way! I began to wiggle my legs like a kid in his 5th grade class. That made it worse. The two jack asses in the counter car decided to get out a smoke a joint. Great! They are laughing and I’m dying. We are reaching a crisis point. I looked around the car. Cathy left a sports drink bottle in the car after one of our runs. That will work. They smoked, I peed and the radio crackled with chatter. While I’m filling the bottle my cell phone rings, Darrell wanting to know if I’m having fun.

Small things make a big difference. In operations like this, having to go the bathroom can ruin the hard work of others. So too in the spiritual realm. No you can’t pee in a bottle at church. Small things make a big difference in the spiritual realm. Paul discusses this concept in his letter to Philemon. “I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I pray that you will be active in sharing your faith (by loving the saints), so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you my brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.

There are no deep theological truths just some practical advice. Love the saints! Small examples of love for each other will go a long way in being operationally sound.

Prayer Request

Dave and I had lunch with the Director of Public Safety for the Tijuana metro area. He is a good man who is fighting the Cartel Narco-Terrorist with all of his resources and a great deal of courage. He has a contract on his head by the cartels and they have made attempts in the past. Julián Leyzaola Pérez is a good man who we have a lot of confidence in as a leader, warrior and man of faith. Please take a few minutes before the Lord on his behalf and that of the men and women who gallantly fight for justice in Mexico.

Mexican Justice and the Bird Rock Bandits

The concept of justice is allusive. Some view justice exclusively as retribution - he got what he deserved. Others view justice as equal treatment: financially, educationally, legally, socially and spiritually. God views justice differently.

Two events took place this week that caused me to stop and think about justice.

Dave C organized a meeting between the Government of Mexico and the SDPD. Ranking officials from both sides of the border met to discuss justice in Mexico. In Mexico you are guilty until proven innocent. Therefore, to prove the case a confession is helpful. Mexico has been widely criticized (rightly so) for torture. They do get confessions. It is not known how accurate they are as most people are willing to say anything to avoid pain. One kid wanted for murder here in the US was caught in Mexico at our direction. After being in the hands of the Mexican police, he begged for our detectives to come get him. He was afraid of another interview in Mexico. Their justice system can also be slow. It is not out of the question for someone to sit in jail for years (4 or 5) before going to trial. If you are involved in an accident with injuries it is not unusual for the police to throw everyone in jail and wait for the courts to sort it out. It gives your in good hands with Allstate a new meaning.

After 200 years of the Mexican accusatory system where the defendant had to prove his innocence, they are moving to a legal system like ours. I spent some time with the equivalent of the DA for Baja California, Mexico. A bright and capable woman, she is eager to see how the police in the US put homicide cases together. I asked her, through David, why this new justice system was so important to her. She said, “God expects us to be just. When people sit in jail for 5 years before they are tried we are unjust. I want to fix that.” She also mentioned corruption. As we talked I learned she meets for a weekly Bible study to learn God’s idea of justice. She believes, and rightly so, God brings justice through his followers. Christians should be the center of just thinking.

Also, last week the Bird Rock Bandits were sent to prison. Finally! They are a group of thugs who grew up in La Jolla, preyed on others and knew they would get away with it. They came from privileged families in one of the wealthiest communities in the US. After drinking heavily they got into a fight with a slender built surfer and the four of them beat him to death at the doorstep of his mother’s house. They had little remorse. As part of their probation they were not to associate with one another, use drugs or fight. One of the bandits tested dirty 9 times for drugs. The lead detective on the case, Sandy, heard they were at a club downtown drinking with each other and mocking the victims girlfriend. Sandy went to probation and demanded they violate the terms of their probation. Officers went and scooped the bandits up and held them until the sentencing judge could order a probation report. When he got the report and with pressure from the DA and community, the judge who said they were NOT gang members, but misguided youth, sentenced them to three years in prison. He did everything he could to minimize the impact of the justice system on these violent men. I’m not so sure he would have been so gracious with them had they been from southeast SD and black or Hispanic. History shows they would have been convicted on a gang crime and spent multi-years in prison. It was a stark reminder of how close injustice is.

So, then how does God see justice? The Bible gives us a glimpse. The word justice in the English language is captured in the idea of the legal system. Not so in Biblical times. It gave the idea of “comprehensive well being, wholeness and peace.” (Marshall, Beyond Retribution, 2001) In the Biblical context justice is also interchanged with righteousness. Its about being, talking about, and brining about what’s right. God delights in what is right, hence righteousness. There are over 2,000 verses in the Bible that speak to the idea of justice! Here are just a few.

Amos 5:21-24
“I hate all your show and pretense” the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. 22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. 23 Away with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears. I will not listen to your music, no matter how lovely it is. 24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, a river of righteous living that will never run dry.

Zechariah 7:9-10
9 “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’

Matthew 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34″Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 ″Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40″The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Gary Haugen, founder of International Justice Mission “…when it comes to seeking justice for the hurting in our world, God doesn’t have a special roster. He intends to use you and me. He doesn’t have any other plan. In fact, it was precisely for such good works that we were created; they don’t save us or make us righteous before God, but they allow us to fulfill the Godly purpose for which God created us…”
Are you fulfilling the purpose for which God created you?

OC Spray and God's Judgement

The earthquakes in Haiti is God’s judgment on them – Pat Robertson

On Tom’s first day of policing the LA riots broke out, He was called back to work and sped down the 405 toward South Central LA as large plums of smoke rose from the ash heap of urban decay. Tom recalled thinking what did I get myself into. He felt like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. Everything is going on around you but it seems surreal, kind of like events are unfolding and you are just an observer. But you aren’t. You are in the middle of the fight. You have a dog in this fight…it’s you. The sergeant briefed up the team. “We ride 4 deep, shotguns or long rifles in a position where you can shoot and move.” Tom’s FTO (Field Training Officer) gave him the once over checking his equipment. He told Tom to carry his pepper spray upside down with a rubber band around the center. It ensures against accidental discharges. Once you have been sprayed with OC you know it’s not something you wish to experience again. Each cop has been hit with it a dozen times. Overspray at fights (some cops are bad aims), the wind, an academy TO with no sense of humor, accidental discharges in the patrol car. It all hurts the same.

Tom feeling insecure and unsure, he just wanted to fit in. No heroics. No mistakes. Just don’t look like a new guy. Just blend in like paint on the wall was Tom’s motto. The sergeant said they would move in a platoon level caravan led by command staff. This was serious. There was likely to be a firefight. The riots over one man being beaten resulted in the deaths of 65 of his neighbors. Makes not sense at all. Many of those deaths were in gun fights with the police. I talked to colleagues whose squad went through over 100 rounds of shotgun ammo, went back to the CP and reloaded.

The team was ready. A senior officer drove, there was no way a rookie would get near the steering wheel and Tom knew it. He figured if they did not put him in the trunk it was a positive sign. Veteran officers can be ruthless to rookies. Tom, get in the left rear and shut up. Yes, sir. Tom jumped in the car, 12 gage shotgun in hand, fully loaded and safety off. If he jumped out of the car you would not hear the unmistakable rack of the slide, just the explosion of 9, .32 cal bullets headed your way. As Tom sat there, uncomfortable but proud, he heard a hissing sound. Almost like a snake was in the back seat. Maybe it was a flat tire which he would surely be assigned to change. His eyes began to water and all of the senior officers began to choke. Immediately all four doors of the car flew open and officers bailed from the car like projectile vomit. Don’t wipe your eyes its OC spray. Tom looked at his gun belt. His upside down can of OC spray caught on the seat belt and the entire can emptied into the car they would spend the next 12 hours in. This was in front of a platoon of veteran cops lead by seasoned supervisors. More than one person grunted *&%$# Rookie.

Pat Robertson believes that according to Haitian folk lore they devoted themselves to Satan for freedom from slavery. This he believes is the reason for the earthquake and the unrest that has been apart of the Haitian landscape for decades. Rush Limbaugh only sees our response as a political ploy for the Democrats and feels we have given enough through taxes to help the Haitians. Mean while everything that is good about the United States is in full motion. Warships steam full speed ahead with the children of people on this devo group aboard to give relief and provide needed help. Cops and firefighters from Florida were on the ground within hours freeing God’s children from tons of concrete and debris.

I would encourage people like Rush and Pat to rightly divide the scriptures from the broad perspective: Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who morn for they will be comforted. Ps 119:76 ff May your unfailing love be my comfort…let your compassion come to me that I may live…May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause. Speaking extra biblically is dangerous when it comes from Rome or LA.

I pray God will help the Haitians see His love and compassion through the gloom of this disaster.

Terror...Conflict We Can Not Avoid

Warning: This devo may offend the sensitive.

Sometimes people have irresolvable conflict. There are conflicts where one or both are just unreasonable. For others it’s just a genuine difference of opinion and no way to compromise. Occasionally it’s a matter of politics or religion. For them there is no compromise and it’s the other who's unreasonable. There never can be comprimise for the fanatical. I see this in the war on terror. How can one compromise with an organization like the Muslim Brotherhood genuinely believes the great Satan (USA) needs to be destroyed? On a smaller level marriages get into problems that are difficult to resolve and often devolve into violence. They bubble to the top and that’s when the police become involved. E.S.D. a place where unreasonable people congregate, find each other and fall in love. Love that turns to violence.

Bill and Tom were co-habitants. As they often do they began to drink heavily which made them more unreasonable than usual. Neighbors began calling the police to intervene in the latest dispute. A police response can take time in this part of the city on a weekend night when calls are “stacked”. Communications triages the calls to send out robberies in progress, gang fights and sexual assaults. A family disturbance where there is no violence has to wait. Tom reached the boiling point, picked up a large glass sex tool, broke it over the head of Bill. It sliced him deep and blood profusely poured out of the veins that run close to the surface of the face and scalp. Someone called 911 and the fight escalated. A two officer team rolled, along with a K-9 and sergeant. As the officers moved closer to the scene more 911 calls poured in.

As the first officers arrived the victim came running out of the house past them… “He’s got a knife. Do something.” Dispassionately, “831Z have the next unit bring less lethal munitions and we’ll need the K-9 out.” They can see in the house as Tom stripped naked and ran around the house gashing at his wrists and neck with the knife and broken glass. If they enter he will force a lethal confrontation. If they wait he will hurt himself further. “Expedite the assets and a supervisor.” Emergency tone blares over the radio and units scream to the scene. An ad hock team is assembled and they quickly formulae a plan of action. As they enter the building Tom set the house on fire. Not only would he kill himself but the cops as well. Officer one fires the 50,000 volt tazer. Direct hit to Tom’s torso. No affect! Officer two steps up as #1 reloads a new cartridge. He fires and Tom again fights it off. Officer #1 fires again. Tom is a resistant bugger. The sergeant calls up the shotgun loaded with bean bag rounds. All four rounds are direct center mass hits…no effect. Smoke fills the house as the officers gasp for air. Get the firefighters up here to extinguish the flames! Negative, not until its safe came the depressing retort over the radio. The K-9 barks his warning but releasing him is dangerous in this confined smoke filled environment. They just want to bite something, doesn’t really matter who. You have a bleeding naked man with barbs hanging out, glass and a knife and a worsening fire. The dog is released and runs through the smoke and flames using his 100 pounds of muscle and teeth to take an unreasonable man to the ground where a group of plastic gloved officers slosh through the blood and sweat to drag the naked and now profusely bleeding man outside into the front yard as firefighters quickly knock down the flames. He’ll have to save his unreasonableness for another day. Swift and violent action helped him stop his unreasonable ways.

As a country we face an unreasonable foe. Groups such as Al Qaeda, Hamas or Hezbollah, Al Shabbab and Lashkar-e-Taiba have recruited radicalized prison inmates, college students and American citizens to strike the homeland. Many are educated, “normal” families. They do not and will not understand reason. There is no negotiating with them. They must understand our resolve to defeat them at all cost. This is however nothing new. It is debased humanity at its worst, just ask Mexico. They are living a life of terror. Whether it’s a religious, political or financial ideology it’s all the same.

Ancient Israel fought this problem long ago. Look at Nehemiah 4 (read the whole book). The Jewish people tried to rebuild Jerusalem and the surround communities mocked them (what are these feeble Jews doing?) and made plans to attack them. A Nehemiah lead team rebuilt the wall with a “spear in one hand and a troll in the other.” “They worked at it with all their hearts.” Zabbi zealously repaired another section”. We need to zealously repair and defend our country. It lies in ruins and is a shame to the world. It started with the leadership of Nehemiah. A man ordained by God to rebuild His kingdom. He understood and took the threat seriously.

There are three things I am going to do:

1. Pray to the God of heaven to save, preserve and protect this great nation of fabulous people that has fallen into disrepair.
2. Pray to the God of heaven for the leadership in Washington (especially the President) to take the threats of Islamic extremist seriously. I think reality is setting in and they need to find a way to release the power of our intelligence and military communities. So far the President and Congress has hamstrung it by increasing intelligence requirements.
3. Work diligently and zealously to protect and defend our SD community from those would harm it. It is all of our responsibilities. Some of us just do it full time.

To quote Martin Luther King Jr. “When evil men plot, good men must plan.”

Hair on Fire!

New Years Eve is always a wild night for a cop. In years gone by Darrell, Dan and I would sit on top of 52nd and Orange watching tracer rounds light up the mid-night sky. We would guess the type of guns being fired. O, that was the bark of an AK 47, boom of a 12 gauge, the concussion of a 45 cal and that wimpy one, well that’s a 22 short. You knew the next shift would have to take reports of stray rounds that hit houses in the area.

On a recent New Years Eve a colleague of mine and his team were assigned the Gaslamp district as part of their undercover duties. After walking around the crowded area for hours having beer spilled on them, being accosted by drunks and spat on by well meaning, and at other times normal people, they decided they had enough. They retreated to a safe corner where the crowed what thin because of the poor lighting. They guys (and lady) decided they would ring in the new year smoking a fine cigar and watching drunks engage in what drunks normally do, lunacy.

As they stood smoking cigars, the fragrance wafting to the heavens above, laughing at the revelry as only cops can, the sidewalks filled with an angry crowd. One drunk man decided he would take on ten others all twice his size. The reasons really don’t matter as a massive fight broke out, bodies flying into the crowded street. One person bounced off a storefront window, another got knocked to the grown and trampled. Shirts were ripped and noses broken. This was the first 10 seconds of the fight. Most people can’t last much longer. The detectives in unison waded into the fighting crowd that look more like a mosh pit at a punk rock concert than a public street.

One of the detectives not wanting to give up his splurge of a $15 cigar grabbed the trouble maker from behind and by raw strength, surprise and violence of action, bent him over the hood of a non suspecting car. The team formed a circle around the detective showing shields and hollering, “Police.” One drunk got dropped for his lack of good judgment and the rest of the crowd decided to comply fully, except for the one on the hood of a car.

As the detective pinned the fighting drunk to the car he whispered into his ear to calm down. The cigar, burning at 560 degrees, was neatly tucked into the side of his mouth like George Burns or Milton Berle in the 60’s reality shows. POOF. A fire started. The cigar inadvertently touched the product in the drunk’s hair setting it ablaze. Not realizing his hair was a flame, not from his natural color but from the flames shooting skyward, he calmed until detectives began patting his head to extinguish the flames. This caused a struggle until the sent of burnt hair reach the senses of the man on fire. With a little advice and the heat of the cigar the guy decided to go along with the program. What if there was one friend of his who had the sense to advise his friend?

Tell him hey idiot you are getting out of control. The Apostle Paul told his followers, “The things you have seen in me, do!” In other words pick up his behaviors. In Isaiah 30 the Jewish people are told about how gracious God is when we cry for help. They were told there will be teachers and “when you turn to the right or to the left your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying “This is the way; walk in it.” I believe that voice is the Holy Spirit that was promised us upon salvation. I don’t have a new year’s resolution but to listen. Listen to that quite voice telling me, “This is the way (Andy); walk in it.” It might keep my hair from catching on fire.