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Christmas and Police.
After having an excellent Christmas dinner with my entire family last night, I had to part ways and head on into the station.
Being that is was Christmas, several officers on each squad were off for the night and some even called in ‘sick’. That left only a handful of units to take care of an extremely violent district on one of the busiest nights of the year. I hopped in the car with another Pro-active guy on my squad and we did what we normally do, hump calls.
First call out of the station is an Emergency fight in progress at a family residence. We hit the lights and start rolling. Upon arrival we saw 16 people in the front lawn having an all out brawl. So we did what any sane person would do, wait for them to beat the piss out of each other until the last one was done and then start asking questions. Well, after about 2 minutes the majority of them were laying on the ground exhausted and only two stood, ready to engage each other. The next few things that were said made my partner and I almost keel over in laughter.
Subject 1 – “Pookie, I said we gonna eat the pork first”
Subject 2 – “No Fathead, we gonna eat that turkey first”
(Grandma walks out of the house, drum stick in hand)
Grandma – “You fools done yet? I’m already eatin the turkey”
Being that they’re all family and obviously have this method of decision making down to a science we cleared the scene and left to the next call.
BEEP!!! Attention all units, Emergency fight in progress reference intoxicated family members!
I get on the air and reference (take) the call and we start that way with lights and sirens blaring.
When we got there we saw about 4 generations of the same family in a 3 bedroom house. How that works even to this day still baffles me but it isn’t my place to judge. Mom is outside at the street yelling at her sister and son while another aunt and son are being held back from killing each other by the other 30people in the house. I look at my partner and he gives me the same look; not this crap again. This time we decide the best way to solve this problem would be to have Mom, who is entirely to drunk to even be coherent, leave the house because she instigated the entire feud. Mom says she’ll go, but she isn’t leaving without a bike. So she goes in the house, takes one of the bikes that she got for one of the 10 kids in the house and tries to leave. I make it a point to tell her she is entirely to intoxicated to be able to function the mechanics of the bike but she tells me she has stains on her teeth older than I am, so I let her be and wait for ‘it’.
She walked the bike to the front gate and hopped on. Mom didn’t get but 5 feet before she stopped in mid-peddle, dead upright. 2 seconds later we saw this woman tip completely over onto her side in the grass. Keep in mind, her body is still perfectly in the ‘riding’ position and she is now peddling and not on a bike. I walked up to her, told her that next time she wants to take a bike out for a spin, it’d be a good idea to remove the chain wheel lock.
Several more calls, very similar in nature took up another 4 hours of my shift.
Then came the Annual ‘Santa’ BOLO (Be on the lookout).
BEEP!!! Attention all units, BOLO reference a burglary subject. He’s a white male, approximately 6 foot and 250 pounds. He was last seen driving a 9 foot red slay with a license plate of MRCLAS. In the back of the slay appears to be a large red sack with stolen items. He was also said to have 9 accomplices all dressed as reindeer. They are considered to be armed and dangerous, as they’re wearing sharp antlers. They were last seen headed from the south of the county, northward. End of BOLO, clearing all frequencies.
Then I had a brilliant Idea. I picked up my car radio and said:
Me : Reference the BOLO just issued, I have it stopped here. Show me on a traffic stop on a red doorless car with a Tag of MRCLAS. And can you give me a record check and check for a Drivers license by name and date of birth?
Dispatcher : Attention all units, (my unit number) has the BOLO vehicle stopped at (my location).
(Very long pause)
Dispatcher : (trying not to laugh) Go ahead with the info for the record check.
Me : It’ll be a white male, last name of Cringle, first name of Christopher. Date of birth of 12/25/1902.
Dispatcher : (laughing in tears) Okay, hold one second while I run him through the system.
(2 minute pause)
Dispatcher : Officer, Christopher Cringle has no valid drivers license and no record in the state.
Me : Alright, go ahead and assign me a traffic arrest case number an—- hold on, he’s fleeing. He’s headed north bound on 27th Avenue and—- okay now he’s actually airborne, do we have aviation up tonight?
Dispatcher : (she keys the mic but all everyone can hear is laughing)
(3 minute pause)
Dispatcher : (More laughing, you can tell shes actually crying)
Me : Dispatch, go ahead and cancel Aviation, I lost a visual on the subject. You may want to advise the next county up he’s headed their way.
Dispatcher : (Now its a totally different dispatcher talking) Okay Officer, we’ll notify them immediately.
Me : Alrighty, thank you! I’m in service now and ready for a call.
Shortly after my ‘fun’ for the night, one of my squad members got on the air asking for backup. She had 3 subjects stopped outside of a known drug hole. My partner and I haul enough ass to beat santa north. Arriving there I took the subject that looked most likely to run and patted him down for weapons, then had him sit cross legged on the floor with this hands behind his head. The unit that stopped them got their records checks back and one had a warrant, so we loaded her up in that units car and my partner and I got back into our car and decided to go behind the strip mall (drug hole) to check for dealers.
We turned the corner and the next thing I heard were 4 shots being fired. My heart stopped, I thought my squad mate just got shot. My partner threw the car in reverse as I was loading my rifle. 6 more shots went out. We got to her and she wasn’t hit, but saw the guy on a motorcycle flee east bound. We tried to keep pace but he had the advantage and was gone before we even could turn onto the main street. We didn’t even know exactly what he shot at being he didn’t hit anything in the parking lot. Cold sweat isn’t a great feeling.
The next 15 or so calls I got were similar to the first 10 or so calls I had.
I got back to the station, handling a total of 28 calls, 19 being priority calls. It was a very busy night and you’d think people could hold it down for just one night. But then again, it keeps me busy and it keeps me in business.
Merry Christmas
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