Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Roll Call - May

Police Officer Rolando Tirado
Buckeye Police Department, Arizona
EOW: Sunday, May 1, 2011
Cause of Death: Gunfire

K9 Pretzel
Westchester County Police Department, New York
EOW: Sunday, May 1, 2011
Cause of Death: Kidney failure

Captain Ralph Braden
Wartburg Police Department, Tennessee
EOW: Monday, May 2, 2011
Cause of Death: Assault

K9 Niko
Mentor Police Department, Ohio
EOW: Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Cause of Death: Health complications (bloat)

K9 Gunner
Tempe Police Department, Arizona
EOW: Friday, May 6, 2011
Cause of Death: Heart problem

K9 Taku
Plymouth County Sheriff's Department, Massachusetts
EOW: Friday, May 6, 2011
Cause of Death: Cancer

Trooper Andy Wall
Tennessee Highway Patrol, Tennessee
EOW: Saturday, May 7, 2011
Cause of Death: Motorcycle accident

K9 Dar
Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, Oregon
EOW: Saturday, May 7, 2011
Cause of Death: undetermined

K9 Astor
Vernon Police Department, Connecticut
EOW: Monday, May 9, 2011
Cause of Death: Stomach complications (GDV)

Sergeant Brian Dulle
Warren County Sheriff's Office, Ohio
EOW: Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Cause of Death: Vehicular assault

K9 Cooper
Bagley Police Department, Minnesota
EOW: Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Cause of Death: Gunfire

Border Patrol Agent Eduardo Rojas, Jr.
United States Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - Border Patrol
EOW: Thursday, May 12, 2011
Cause of Death: Struck by train

Border Patrol Agent Hector R. Clark
United States Department of Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - Border Patrol
EOW: Thursday, May 12, 2011
Cause of Death: Struck by train

Corrections Officer IV Craig A. Orrell
Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas
EOW: Thursday, May 12, 2011
Cause of Death: Heart attack

K9 Kaiser
Oakland County Sheriff's Office, MI
EOW: Thursday, May 12, 2011
Cause of Death: unknown

K9 Jagger
Wake County Sheriff's Office, North Carolina
EOW: Friday, May 13, 2011
Cause of Death: Cancer

K9 Mel
Kentwood Police Department, MI
EOW: Monday, May 16, 2011
Cause of Death: Cancer (Lymphoma)

K9 Rex
U.S. Secret Service
EOW: Monday, May 16, 2011
Cause of Death: Cancer

Police Officer Paul W. Nauden
Chicago Police Department, Illinois
EOW: Friday, May 20, 2011
Cause of Death: Heart attack

K9 Chase
Tunkhannock Police Department, PA
EOW: Friday, May 20, 2011
Cause of Death: Cancer (ruptured tumor)

Trooper First Class Shaft S. Hunter
Maryland State Police, Maryland
EOW: Saturday, May 21, 2011
Cause of Death: Vehicle pursuit

Police Officer Trevor Scott Phillips
Tuscaloosa Police Department, Alabama
EOW: Saturday, May 21, 2011
Cause of Death: Motorcycle accident

K9 Alex
West Chester Police Department, Ohio
EOW: Sunday, May 22, 2011
Cause of Death: Intestinal complications (GDV)

K9 Bungee
New Albany Police Department, Ohio
EOW: Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Cause of Death: Automobile accident (accidental)

Police Officer Andrew Garton
Hawthorne Police Department, California
EOW: Thursday, May 26, 2011
Cause of Death: Motorcycle accident

K9 Simba
Toms River Police Department, New Jersey
EOW: Thursday, May 26, 2011
Cause of Death: Health complications (degenerative arthritis in spine)

Police Officer William Johnson
Newark Police Department, New Jersey
EOW: Friday, May 27, 2011
Cause of Death: Gunfire

K9 Atticus
Tunica County Sheriff's Office, Mississippi
EOW: Friday, May 27, 2011
Cause of Death: Gunfire

K9 Ben
Terre Haute Police Department, Indiana
EOW: Friday, May 27, 2011
Cause of Death: Heat related

Sergeant Kenneth Gary Vann
Bexar County Sheriff's Office, Texas
EOW: Saturday, May 28, 2011
Cause of Death: Gunfire

Police Officer Kevin Will
Houston Police Department, Texas
EOW: Sunday, May 29, 2011
Cause of Death: Vehicular assault

K9 Karo
Groton Town Police Department, Connecticut
EOW: Monday, May 30, 2011
Cause of Death: unknown

Special Agent Timothy S. Briggs
United States Department of Justice - Federal Bureau of Investigation
EOW: Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Cause of Death: Heart attack

K9 Mako
Independence Police Department, MO
EOW: Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Cause of Death: Health complications

K9 Cody
Wappingers Falls Police Department, New York
EOW: May 2011
Cause of Death: Canine ALS

K9 Lars
St. Charles Police Department, Missouri
EOW: May 2011
Cause of Death: Health complications

(15/21)

Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day remembrances

Going through the paper today, I came across this article written like a poem. I'm not sure who wrote this but its quite beautiful and haunting.

They rose like fog in a deep, dark valley,
Leaving the blood-stained earth,
The smell of gunpowder,
The stench of sweat and burned flesh.
Leaving behind their broken bodies
On the fields of Shiloh and Manassas,
Of Chancellorsville and Antietam,
At Gettysburg where they gave their
Last full measure of devotion,
And joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
They rose from the blood-stained earth
At Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry,
from the muddy trenches,
from the clouds of poison gas,
from the snipers' deadly mark.
They rose from the blood-stained earth
At Somme and Normandy,
At Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima,
The bodies of the soldiers they were,
Buried at Colleville-sur-Mer in France,
At Ardennes in Belgium,
At Nettuno in Italy.
And joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
The heroes of Inchon and Chosin
Rose from the blood-stained earth
And joined their eternal brothers
And sisters, fathers and grandfathers
On the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
They rose from the blood-stained earth,
From the rice fields and the jungles
Along the Mekong, at Da Nang
And at Khe Sanh.
Far away and dangerous places
Where terrible things were seen,
And terrible things were experienced.
They rose and joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
At Kosovo and Kabul and Kandahar,
They rose from the blood-stained earth,
Rose like fog in a deep, dark valley
And joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
And still the line grows longer
With each passing day,
Stretching beyond the horizon,
Stretching our ability to remember.
Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands
Joining the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
Dead in Mosul, dead in Kirkuk,
Dead in Najaf, dead in Tikrit,
Dead in Fallujah, dead in ...
And they march and they march
and more and more they march
And we can only kneel and beg
That those we know and love
Will not join them as they march,
Will not join those who rise
From the blood-stained earth
Like a fog, joining in the march,
Taking their place on the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
And the sounds of bagpipes and bugles
Echo with the playing of "taps,"
And we pray again for the brave,
For Americans dead from combat.
Amen. Amen. And Amen.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

I hate these calls

Sam called at 9:30 tonight to let me know that he was involved in a small traffic accident but that he was okay. It happened around 6ish.

As he explained it, he and another officer were responding to call. His fellow officer ahead of him decided to pull over a bicycle on the the other side of the bridge. Sam following the flow of traffic was coming over the bridge when the car in front of him saw the first officer with lights flashing and put on the brakes hard. Sam slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the car but as we can see that didn't work out so well. I don't think Sam went to the hospital but he said the other guy did complaining of "severe neck pain".

At least he called and told me he was okay. When he broke his knee last November, he put it in a text very nonchalantly "hey babe i broke my knee"....He assured me he was okay then. I'll probably head over to his place tomorrow afternoon once he's awake and getting ready for work just to check up on him.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

He sunk your battleship!

Got a call last night from Sam after he got home from an ER detail after midnight.
"I caught 'em babe! I caught 'em!"
He finally caught his neighbor driving through his yard. He was taking out the dogs in the backyard when he saw one of his Japanese neighbors getting into a minivan, conveniently blocked by other vehicles in the driveway. At first he didn't think the guy was going to do it but he did, almost ran over the septic tank cover in the yard and had to back up in order to correct. Well he confronted the neighbor who continually said he was sorry and that Sam was a very nice man, and the reason he was driving through the yard was because he didn't want to wake anyone else up in the house to move their cars. Sam said he didn't care and called the police to make the report. He said that two city police and a supervisor showed up to take the case.

His adrenaline was amped afterwards. He sounded disappointed because I think he wanted to get to sleep. I told him to go kill some zombies, a favorite past time of his. I'm pretty sure he was smiling on the other end of the line and said that he might just do that.

I knew the neighbors would eventually be caught but I didn't think it would be so soon.

Friday, May 27, 2011

For your honor and bravery you shall always have my respect

The American Flag does not fly because the wind moves past it. The American Flag flies from the last breath of each Solider, Sailor, Airman and Marine who has died protecting it. - Author Unknown.

Memorial day will be here on Monday and the weekend of parties start most likely tonight and well into the weekend. I won't be partaking in any kind of parties, in fact I'll be working but regardless I wouldn't be out drinking and getting crazy. I have a good handful of friends who have joined the armed services. I have one friend who recently returned from Iraq. A close friend of Sam's who graduated the academy and served in the same department just recently re-enlisted as a private contractor and is currently back in Iraq or Afghanistan.

I am thankful for their services both at home and overseas.
I am thankful, honored and blessed that I know these individuals on a personal level.
I am thankful that they have not sustained physical harm in their tours overseas or in boot camps.
I am thankful for the services of the men and women serving this country of whom I do not know.
I am thankful for your courage, selflessness and bravery to engage in battle on foreign territory.
I am thankful for those of who are able to make it back home safely, and more thankful for those who cannot. Your families have my love and prayers.
I am thankful for you.
Thank you.

Please everyone, be safe and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And just remember what this day was observed for.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

There are days when I'd like to have that normal relationship with Sam. I mean I wouldn't change what we have now for anything. Nevertheless, I find myself hesitating to post "Hey I love you" up on his Facebook wall and wishing at times he would do the same. I stop myself because he's a very private person and has been very protective when it comes to our relationship and with his family over the Internet. His cop-brain is paranoid when it comes to that, not wanting someone to track us down and hurt us because we're the family of a police officer.

And it doesn't just extend to over the web, for instance, he hates it when I walk behind him (not just me, could be anyone). But I hate walking in front say if we're in the grocery store so he can food shop. I don't know where he wants to go first or what he's getting. Heaven forbid he makes a list. If I had a list then I certainly wouldn't mind walking ahead of him.

Gosh this whole post is starting to sound like I'm bashing on him, which is different than when I wanted. I just can't win on these late night blogging binges.

I do love his cop-brain and he uses it to keep us all safe. So I'll just stop this blog binge for now.

Monday, May 23, 2011

The saga continues

Saturday morning around 6:30A I woke up to take the pups out in the yard. Everything was going good until two dogs come around the fence from the other backyard. A light tan dog mixed, maybe male with a scar over his right eye and a black female pit. They approached the puppies and me, not aggressively and I was surprised the puppies didn't bark at them. The tan dog sniffed and left the yard, the black dog stayed around very happy to be in the presence of puppies. I was able to drag the puppies back in the house with no incident. Got in and found Sam was up, he had just come out of the bathroom. He wasn't happy when I told him about the dogs especially since I mentioned one was a pit. Said he would shoot them if they ever came back in the yard. To which I gave him the evil eye and he croaked out that he would call Animal Control first but if they attacked then he would. Later when we were taking out the pups we found a poop too large to be from his puppies. That didn't make him happy.

To add to his annoyance as I'm getting ready to leave for work around 1:30P he peers out the front window. He rattles off a few curse words and asks if those are tire treads in his lawn. I look out the window and confirm they are in fact tire tracks. Going outside we see they lead from his neighbors yard and across his, but we didn't know if they were fresh. Just that we hadn't noticed them before. He suspected they had gone through the yard before but the treads were closer to the road and on the other side of sidewalk so its technically city property so he couldn't do anything. These treads are higher up in the yard close to the house and front door area. (please excuse my crude paint drawn diagram which aren't to scale, just wanted to give you an idea of what I was talking about)

I refer to these neighbors as the Japanese Whaling Fleet, coined after Sam and I had been watching Whale Wars. They're an Asian family, I'm certain their Japanese since they work at a Japanese steakhouse that opened up a few blocks away a few months or so ago. They're a strange family. In their driveway at any given time there can be at the least 6 cars, and they're either all there together or gone at the family business. The street Sam and they live on is for the most part a busy main street so switching cars around in the driveway isn't the easiest maneuver to execute. On busy days it can take upwards of 5 minutes to pull out, so I can't imagine having to switch in and out.

So we're pretty sure it's them but we haven't caught them in the act yet. I think it's a pretty bold move by them considering Sam's cruiser sits in that driveway for most of the day. I would hate to be them when they get caught in the act. So he talked about putting nails in the yard in an attempt to deter them. I don't think it's the best way to confront the issue but it would stop them and I wouldn't put it past Sam to do it. I'll have to periodically check the property line for nails. Then I'll just sit in the kitchen with the blinds opened, waiting for them to falter. He should get a camcorder or something to put up and watch for them. But he may not follow through with the nails. He called me up as I got into work saying that he had a good idea: he would move his car from the left side of the driveway to the right side hoping that would let them know he's on to them. (Again, this crude drawing is only representation and not to scale)

Saturday, May 21, 2011

This week's "What the!" moment

Police: Utah woman tried to trade salad for drugs

I heard about this woman just the other day on the radio. I thought it was pretty hillarious. I wonder if she was already high after lunch...or lost one too many brain cells from past drug hits.

I wonder what an actual drug dealer would have done in this situation?

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Good Eye, Sniper

I was going to post this up over the weekend but got sidetracked with the previous post on the I-95 accident.
Any ways, I finally did it! Friday, I finally got to go shooting with Sam. I was nervous about it but he's a very good firearms instructor.

I was able to handle a few different guns that his family brought along. Some were easier to fire than others. I wasn't expecting the "kick" that some of them gave. Like his personal firearm. I fired off one round when he asked how I liked it, and I wasn't hesitant to let him know that I didn't like that one at all! He just laughed and said he would finish the bullets left in the clip.

Now I'm not sure if it's allowed and I've been all over the web trying to find some clarification, just short of asking other law enforcement (Sam is no use, he just says it's fine and not to worry about it). The gun I was most comfortable shooting was his duty gun. I was very hesitant it but he assured me it was okay, so I took his word for it. I was under his constant supervision so I'm assuming it was okay.

But I digress. Everyone, including myself was very impressed at how well I did considering it was my first time. I shot a BB gun at cans once on a camping trip way back (elementary school age) and then paintball once for a friend's birthday. Both of which, according to Sam don't count as shooting a gun...which he's right because they aren't the same but hell I did pretty damn good so they have to count for something. I'm even thinking of posting a picture of my target just to show the world "Hey! Don't mess with me" *laughs*

I have to get into some serious shape for the next time. Who knew that shooting a gun can be so physically demanding of the body? Talk about a workout. During the time at the range my arm muscles would get sore and at times it was hard to hold the gun level with the target. The palm of my hand holding and shooting the gun was tender. The next day it only got worse. My entire upper body: hands, arms, shoulders and back were sore and aching. I felt like I had been lifting weights all afternoon! It lasted until about Monday. I just wish I had the mindset to have grabbed a chocolate milk afterwards at the restaurant, that way those sore muscles could have been avoided.

I can't wait to get back there!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Hero of the week

I'm giving myself this gold star moment. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and through the littlest of actions. What I did wasn't especially heroic and I was at best just a good samaritan.

Saturday we had a major storm system that came through the area. It caused the baseball game at the stadium to be called  and as such I was on my home early by about 30minutes. I'm driving northbound on I-95, just crossed over the county line when I see a few feet or yards ahead of me through the rain an SUV make a sharp turn to the left through the center median and across southbound traffic. As I'm passing, I don't see the car or their headlights on the road. I keep driving not sure if I should turn around in the emergency median. I don't turn around right away and travel another six or seven miles to the next exit before I finally do. I couldn't leave it unchecked thinking what if I read about this in the paper the next day. I could have been there, it could have been avoided. How could I sleep if I knew something could have been done.

I'm going at least 75 or 80mph, my usual on I-95 but rather unsafe in the rain. It seems like I was driving forever but I finally find the car in the ditch between I-95 and the Turnpike. I couldn't believe no one else had stopped. The car didn't appear damaged. I put on my emergency flashers, turned off the car and headed down the small incline to check on the driver and any passengers. The driver was a young black woman, around my age. She was on the phone with I guess a family member since when I asked if she had called 911 she indicated she had not. I told her that I was going to call them for her. I climbed back up to my car, got in and made the call letting them know what happened and where we were. After the call I went back down, she was still on the phone, and I let her know they were on their way and asked if she was okay. She said she was fine and the only apparent damage was to the back of her car. Regardless, I was going to stay with her until someone arrived.

The fire department and ambulance arrived fairly quickly, asking if we were okay. I said I wasn't involved but just the witness and recounted my story to them. I said that I didn't think she was hurt but had called just to be sure. Another medical officer asked if the car had rolled at all and I said no. They thanked me for the call and staying with her and went to check her out. I got a call from dispatch asking to clarify the position as the department was having trouble finding us but I assured them that they were on scene. She thanked me and said that I was good to go. We hung up but I stuck around because a state trooper arrived and I figured he would want my account. I waited about ten minutes, the fire department had finished their assessment and were leaving the scene and it was maybe another five minutes before the trooper came to my car to get my side of the story and my driver's license information for his report.

Any who, the woman was fine and able to drive her vehicle out of the ditch with the trooper's assistance. After that I was good to go. I got home about 8:30p, not too late but it almost seemed forever between all the driving back and forth and for the emergency services to get there.

Now that I think about it, in all that time I spent waiting with the woman we never did exchange names. Not that it matters to me, I'm just really grateful that her accident wasn't any worse than it could have been. She was very lucky in that fact.