Thursday Prompt: Frog

I have no idea how I came up with this from the writing prompt of “Frog”; but… there it is. I think I was working more on how to write dis-likeable characters.

___

“Stupid bitch.”

Jason kicked savagely at a fist-sized rock along the edge of the road as he spat out the words. The toe of his shoe hit the pavement before the rock, sending a shooting pain up his foot but only bouncing the rock off of the low brick wall that ran the length of the road. He grabbed his shin and sucked in a whistling breath, slowly settling his weight against the wall. He took a couple of deep breaths before gingerly setting his foot onto the ground again. “Fuckin’ great” he muttered, stretching his arms out against the top of the wall and leaning back.

His left hand brushed something cold and squishy, and he jerked it back quickly. A small, moss green frog hunched on the top of the wall, staring at him placidly through speckled gold eyes. Jason sighed, leaning back once again. He could feel the frog’s eyes on him and glanced sidelong at it. It remained immobile, its gaze unblinking and steady.

“The fuck you lookin’ at?” he asked the frog. It stayed motionless, as if carved from jade. Jason reached out a finger and stroked the top of the frog’s head. The pressure moved the frog lower by a fraction but it remained otherwise still. Its lack of reaction to Jason’s presence began to irritate him, and he flicked the frog on the end of it’s nose. The frog merely hunched further against the brick, still staring.

“Shouldn’t you be looking for a chick to kiss? Turn you back into a prince?” Jason asked before looking away. A lazy breeze rustling the leaves of a nearby tree was the only sound. He looked back at the frog. “Maybe you can kiss my ex-girlfriend. Bitch.”

The frog stared.

“Well, she is. Little whore gets herself knocked up, and expects me to stick around? Prolly ain’t even my kid. I told her she’d better be on the pill; ain’t my fault she gets pregnant.” He jammed his hands deep into his pockets and hunched forwards, looking away. “Besides, I’m too young to be stuck with a kid. I got places to be, things to do, you know? I’m supposed to be out buying diapers and shit?” He leaned sideways and brought his nose to within a foot of the frog, staring at the ebony oblong slits of its pupils. “She ain’t even a good fuckin’ lay, either. Just lays there. Might as well be fuckin’ a blow-up doll.”

The frog remained impassive.

“Fuck you too, then” Jason spat, and lurched to his feet. He turned and began to walk away when he heard a rumbling, croaked exclamation from the wall. He stopped and blinked- it almost sounded like a word, like-

He spun and examined the top of the wall, but the frog was gone; lost in the tall grass on the other side of the construction. He snorted and turned back. Stupid; it’s just a frog.

It sounded like “asshole”.

Law Enforcement is NOT (yet) a Profession

So… If you’re current or former law enforcement and read that title, and are ready to pour vituperation down upon my head, I ask you… Just read to the end. If you chose that career because you believed you could honestly do good for others, then you will give this article some consideration before attacking it.

A profession, sayeth Mirriam-Webster, is… Well, yes, the first three things; but also:

-a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation;

-a principle calling, vocation, or employment;

-the whole body of persons engaged in a calling

It’s the first one that concerns us here. Organizations such as the AMA and ABA identify four characteristics of a profession: 1) A common fund of knowledge 2) Certain standards or qualifications 3) some type of organization, and 4) Standards of conduct.

A Profession is a disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public, as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others.

It is inherent in the definition of a Profession that a code of ethics governs the activities of each Profession. Such codes require behaviour and practice beyond the personal moral obligations of an individual. They define and demand high standards of behaviour in respect to the services provided to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues. Often these codes are enforced by the Profession and are acknowledged and accepted by the community.

-Australian Council of Professions, 2003

The 1996 Georgia Peace Officers Standards and Training Council’s Peace Officer Reference Text- “P.O.R.T.” (the acronyms get out of hand pretty quickly); the manual you received Day 1 in the academy, mentions this definition, and compares it to Law Enforcement. It decides that “The first two characterizations of a professional are clearly evident in law enforcement. However, the last two, organization and clearly defined standards of conduct, are major deficiencies that must be corrected.” It goes on to say that while there may be national private bodies such as the IACP and international training organizations, they are private organizations and represent their own special interests. “but no national body establishes standards of conduct for the profession to the extent that members of the profession must adhere to such requirements”, the PORT concludes; “It is evident that law enforcement has taken the first steps towards professionalization. It is the responsibility of all in the profession to complete the progress.”

Whelp.

I read those words 25 years ago in my academy class, and remember it sparking a bit of debate between the class and the instructor. So, how are we doing now, in 2021? Do we have A common fund of knowledge, Certain standards or qualifications, Some type of organization, and Standards of conduct?

*Puts on green eyeshade visor and licks tip of pencil* Well, let’s just see.

Some type of organization

Well, yeah. It’s a quasi-military rank structure that falls under one governmental body or another. LE has that.

A common fund of knowledge

One thing Law Enforcement does do is share information. Memos and newsletters and bulletins fly back and forth; from state agencies and the FBI, ATF, DEA/EPIC, Homeland Security… Reams of paper of annual statistics, FOUO/LES/SSI memos, bulletins, and updates. Oh yeah, we share info; all the way down to the rural county Sheriff who posts a bulletin about an urban legend he read about on Facebook. LE folds, staples, mutilates, and collates forests worth of knowledge every year. In my own state, the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC, pronounced “gyp-stick”… told you the acronyms were getting out of control) has detailed, cross-referenced and thoroughly annotated lesson plans on every topic that could possibly concern law enforcement. Certain specialties, such as accident investigations and forensics, cloak themselves in a scientific aura that sounds impressive but, upon investigation (and not a few Frye tests), turns out to be more attuned to anecdotal evidence than the scientific method.

But… None of them are uniform nationwide. When I went through the academy, it was 9 weeks. In Georgia, it’s now…

A little over 10 weeks. The average number of hours needed to become a mandated officer nationwide is 547…

A little over 13 weeks. And the curricula? Very, very varied. There is no national standard for training. National training groups exist; but they are all private entities… with their own agendas.

Certain standards or qualifications

Again, even more scattered than the last one… each individual agency decides what they need to have; and most of the time, that decision is made based on “what do we need to have at a minimum to keep us from being sued?” Occasionally, state agencies will mandate certain standards… When I started, you didn’t have to qualify with your weapon or have any training on use of deadly force after the Academy.

This didn’t change until 2006. It wasn’t that many years before I went to the academy that you could work for up to a year as a cop before you had to go to the academy to be certified.

And every state is different.

The only requirements you have to fill to keep your certification in Georgia every year are to 1) attend a 1 hour Use of Deadly Force class 2) pass annual firearms qualification and 3) attend 20 hours of advanced or in-service training. The one thing that gets cops year after year is the 20 hour training requirement. Even though I offered in excess of 1,000 training hours a year as the departmental training officer, I had officers every year didn’t get that 20. But hey, no sweat! Yeah, you lost the powers of arrest on January 2 the following year; but all you have to do is make up the training and sign a waiver; and your powers of arrest were reinstated retro-actively! Now it doesn’t matter who you arrested in the meantime; you’re all good!

And every state is different.

Standards of conduct

You already know what I’m going to say here: And every state is different. But actually, every AGENCY is different. Each agency makes their own Standard Operating Procedures (or Suggested Operating Procedures… more on that later). Sure, there are national and state-level accreditation agencies, who certify departments based on what their policies and procedures say: CALEA nationally, and GACLEA in Georgia… but what does that mean?

If you go to their websites, you see vague promises of Staunch Support from Government Officials and Stronger Defense Against Civil Lawsuits if your agency becomes Accredited with CALEA…

But what happens if you don’t; or you lose your accreditation?

Nothing. Except you save $16,125 for agencies with 200-999 officers; which describes every agency I’ve worked for.

Accountability matters, and there is none here.

But, what are the things these accreditation agencies require of a police department before they can be accredited?

Well… on the face of it, they sound good. But in practice, they’re so vague as to be useless. Such as GACLEA Standard 1.10:

The agency shall have Use-of-Force written directives that address the
following:

a. Personnel will only use reasonable force to accomplish lawful
objectives and, when possible, apply de-escalation techniques.

b. Prohibiting the use of choke holds or the use of any technique
restricting the intake of oxygen for the purpose of gaining control of a
subject, except in those situations where the use of deadly force is
allowed by law.

c. When it is objectively reasonable that a subject is in law enforcement’s
full control, any use of force must terminate.

d. The duty and obligation to intervene in order to prevent or stop the
known and apparent use of excessive force by ANY law enforcement
officer, including reporting requirements.

e. Discharging firearms at or from a moving vehicle.

f. The use of warning shots.

See any wiggle room in those? Shit. You could parade all of the entire National Denny’s Gold Customer Award winners through those holes, and that’s pretty wide. How many times have we seen those standards violated, in a very public manner, over the past 4 years?

Let’s look at some that have been in the national conscience lately:

2.1 The agency has a written directive that requires each sworn officer receive
annual training on:

a. legal updates
b. vehicle pursuits
c. authorized forcible stopping techniques
d. bias based profiling
e. search and seizure; and
f. the agency’s Critical Incident Plan.

Whoa, hold on, why does the 06/2021 revision have strikeouts? Do we not care about Bias Based Profiling in Georgia any longer? Maybe it’s a mistake; let’s look at another…

2.2 The agency has a written directive that requires all employees receive
annual training on:

a. off-duty conduct
b. sexual harassment
c. the agency’s policy on citizen complaints/Internal Affairs
d. ethics
e. dealing with the mentally ill or persons with diminished capacity; and
f. the agency’s polices on domestic violence incidents involving
employees of the agency.

Holy shit. That explains a lot, don’t it? And I haven’t mentioned “Suggested” operating procedures yet. You see, that verbiage sounds good on the face… after all, “Standard” operating procedures, with words like “shall” and “must” in them can’t cover every situation a cop might find himself in. He might do the right thing but still get hung on the “technicality” of unbendable SOPs. I sympathize with that…

…but it leads to the untenable practice of “commonly accepted practice” becoming “SOP”. Agencies have been handed a lot of consent decrees based on their “unofficial commonly accepted practices” running afoul of common decency.

There have to be standards. If LEOs are so hung up on imitating the military, then let’s hold them to those standards.

I think we can discount this point, as well. And I haven’t even mentioned that there’s no national standard, and-

Every state is different.

Folks. If you care at all about policing; if you’ve spent hours of sweat and frustration because you believed this was a noble calling, you have to agree with me.

There HAVE to be national standards, in all four areas, that every LE agency conforms to in this country. Otherwise we’ll wake up to headlines about cops committing some atrocity somewhere in the US on a daily basis.

Like we do today.

Law Enforcement is NOT a profession.

But it can be.

Possibly the clumsiest metaphor ever attempted

When I was a rookie cop at my first agency, fresh out of the academy- almost 30 years ago- one of my duties, depending on what shift I was assigned, was to raise and lower the American and Georgia state flags. After a few years they were replaced, and I kept the old ones. I found them last year, buried in a box in the basement. The American flag was given to a Boy Scout troop for proper retirement. The Georgia flag, however, deserves no such respect; as at the time it flew it was the Georgia state seal on a blue field next to- yup. The Confederate battle flag, the stars and bars, the ol’ middle finger to those who died because of racism and who are still dying today. For it, it was combined with a poofer bag of smokeless powder and an electric match as part of a bit of performative theater on the 4^th of July, 2020; after I’d about had my fill of “Heritage, not hate” idiots. It didn’t burn up completely; so I tossed the remains under the deck, intending to burn it in the fire pit later on.

Fast forward to almost one year later, and the wind and critters have moved it to the edge of the yard. The grass had been enjoying all the recent rain, and I was cutting by the edge of the deck when the south rose again.

Yup, the end of the flag got sucked under the mower deck and wrapped itself around both blade spindles, stalling out the mower. Sonofabitch. And it was wound tight around those spindles. But it was my fault; I should have finished the job on the flag a long time ago, and had forgotten about it. Back to the carport to laboriously remove the mower deck and flip it over, and hack, slash, burn, and yank bits of confederate flag out from around the shafts. Then re-install and re-level the deck, and good as new.

Rinsing off in the shower later- I cannot work on any piece of machinery, no matter how simple, without getting covered in grease and dirt- I thought about how apropos this situation was. Racism, once burnt and beaten, wasn’t properly disposed of… and it lurked in the background, moving closer to the light, until one day- perhaps emboldened by an orange man- it leaps out and tries to strangle the mower. The mower is only interested in law(n) and order (sorry); but now it’s hopelessly entangled with racism, so tightly wound around its core as to stall the whole mechanism. It ignored the danger, not realizing that the threat would come from it’s cutting edges.

Fixing it is an arduous, dirty, frustrating task, that calls for patience- and dismantling part of the whole machine. But only after the bits that are choking it off are removed can it be re-greased and re-assembled. Had it not been a strong riding mower; had it been the old, clapped-out push mower instead, it might have seized the engine beyond repair. But this is a strong mower. It’s well designed, and it can take- and has- a lot of abuse. It just needs maintenance, a clearing of the detritus- and a wary eye for dangers in the tall grass.

Removing the entangled shreds of racism from law enforcement will take the same patience, hard work, and dirt; and in some cases, dismantling the mechanism and rebuilding. And maybe the machine should be more narrowly focused instead of trying to solve all problems with it. Planting more areas of native wildflowers would reduce the amount that had to be mowed, and would increase the diversity and amount of life in the yard as well. You wouldn’t use the lawnmower to tend to the flowers, of course. There are far better, less destructive tools for that.

And I think I’ve stretched this metaphor to the breaking point.

The World’s Dumbest Coup Attempt… is still a coup attempt

Whelp. It seems that baby new year, after receiving the top hat and sash from old 2020, promptly downed a fifth of tequila and rode a dumpster of flaming MAGA shit downhill into an orphanage of screaming toddlers, while flinging plague rats with Mitch McConnell’s face at passers-by.

Does that sentence make no sense? Neither does baby new year. (Apologies to Jim Wright, who has a similar saying that I now realize I paraphrased. Seriously, though; check out his ‘blog. And Twitter @Stonekettle. And photography.)

Except… that it really does. What happened on January 6th- all of it; the hordes of delusional Qanon MAGAidiots descending on DC, the usual Republican names egging them on, members of law enforcement and the military in the crowd, members of Congress actually aiding and abetting the crowd- was completely predictable. And had been predicted, by many, many people. I didn’t think they’d actually try and claim Antifa was behind it all, but some predicted that too.

Worst. Day. EVAR! — **“Nothing to see here, move along!” Photo: Tyler Merbler**

And while it’s amusing to chuckle at Conan the Brietbartarian in his face paint and horns, and the idea (possibly fallacious) of some guy tasering his balls to death, and MAGAs not being able to fly home and crying about it; there’s something far more serious here that these same people who predicted 1/6 are still screaming about… Something that those of us secure in our mundane existence don’t want to think about, because isn’t there already enough shit going down, man? Almost a year of lockdowns and avoidable deaths and job losses and that annoying guy at the water cooler who won’t shut up about Nancy Pelosi? Can’t I just get a break already?

I wish I could tell you that it’s alright; that the DC authorities have learned their lesson and there won’t be a repeat during the inauguration and these weird guys will vanish after Trump is out of office…

But.

As much as I fervently hope for the same thing, I truly do not think that’s how it’s going to go.

As buffoonish and clumsy as this coup attempt… (and let’s not mince words about what this was… attempting to remove leaders of the opposition government so your favorite outgoing president can stay in office despite there being absolutely no evidence that this position is valid IS a coup attempt, and to call it anything else is not just phrasing or semantics but a lie to reduce the perceived severity of the situation) …as clumsy as this coup attempt appeared, there were people involved who had some semblance of a plan and organization, and skills necessary to achieve their goals. That they failed may only be due to the quick thinking of a single black police officer who led the seditionists away from the congresspersons they almost certainly intended to kidnap or kill. That noose they assembled wasn’t solely for optics, and their choice of a noose wasn’t coincidental. There were current and former law enforcement and military members in this attempt, and many, many more who didn’t go to DC but share the goals and ideas of those who did. Do you get a chill when you think about how many cops, how many National Guard members, how many regular military troops share the same sentiments?

You should. Because they are the ones you are relying on to keep in you in your warm, safe bubble. Are you sure they won’t find you objectionable, even if you’re white? Got a Biden sticker on your car? Hmm…

More than that, while this MAGA movement is, at it’s core, a white supremacist movement, (yeah yeah, surprise, cockbag, racism is still alive and well and more widespread than you thought); unlike that LAST white supremacist sedition, this isn’t North vs. South (and it wasn’t entirely that last time, either). We’re all mixed together now. That guy at work with the confederate flag sticker he still hasn’t removed? He’s probably one. That woman with the thin blue line Punisher sticker? Sus, dude. The person wearing a MAGA hat in Wal-Mart with no mask? Oh yeah. And while a lot of them may be appalled by what happened in DC, a whole lot more will be cheering it on, even if they don’t say it out loud.

Which means they won’t raise any objections when the mob decides to beat you with an American flag because you said “Hey, hold on, that’s wrong, you need to stop!”

So what I’m trying to say is: Even if we get through the next week without violent confrontations, it’s not over. While 81 million voted for Biden, 74 million voted for Trump. And a startling number of those don’t have any problem with what happened in DC. They won’t quit overnight. And a large number of THEM have been raised on the Turner Diaries, just as Timothy McVeigh was, and wank themselves to sleep each night dreaming about knocking out the power grid by shooting very hard to replace transformers with their .50 caliber penis extension rifles, or bringing down a federal building with a truck full of ANFO, or even just beating the shit out of whoever they think is antifa this week. You can’t count on them all to be incompetent.

So, be careful out there. Prepare yourself, mentally, for the possibilities. Use some situational awareness when you are out and about, especially if you live in a state capitol.

In law enforcement, we were taught the “Cooper Color Code” for situational awareness… we’ll leave aside Col. Cooper himself right now and just look at the idea. At any given point, you are at a certain level of awareness, represented by a color… Sitting in your living room in your underwear binge watching Netflix and cramming pizza down your gob? You’re at White, no awareness on what’s going on around you other than the show on TV and how many slices are left. That’s cool, you’re at home and it’s been a rough day.

In an unfamiliar neighborhood and trying to find an address? Probably at Condition Yellow; paying attention to your surroundings, don’t see any threats, but you’re looking for the street and paying more attention than you were in White.

Suddenly see a guy standing on the side of the road, looking like he’s about to cross the street? Body position says he’s about to go for it? Condition Orange… you’ve seen a hazard (because you were paying attention and you’re focused on him, ready to slam on the brakes if you have to so you don’t turn him into a hairy wet alpaca sack full of strawberry ice cream (you have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to allude to a Catch 22 reference)).

***I mean, really… It’s not worth it to humiliate yourself this way. From CBS 60 Minutes***

Crap! He’s making a run for it! You are now in Condition Red! You’ve already decided- maybe subconsciously- what you would do if he jumped into the street, and now he has. You put your plan in action; slam the brakes and hit the horn and cuss.

Folks… Even if you are still in condition White- quite an appropriate color name at this point- you need to slap yourself and get in Condition Orange. No, I don’t mean you need to start applying war paint and the skins of dead animals; but recognize that there’s a credible threat and start planning on your response.

Let’s all be careful out there.

On Southern Heritage

Hi, all. On this glorious July 4^th, I thought I’d take a second to talk about a topic that’s been on the forefront of a lot of people’s minds in recent weeks: Heritage. Specifically, “southern” heritage.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s in Georgia, and have lived within an hour of Atlanta my entire life. In grade school, we had a class on Georgia history; and, as part of that history, the Civil War. We learned that the Civil War was basically fought over state’s rights. Oh, there was the slavery issue too; but that was just a smokescreen. We learned that Sherman was a sonovabitch while at the same time learning that Lincoln was a saint who freed the slaves. Might have been something about Frederick Douglass in there. Oh, and Martin Luther King fought for equal rights and was assassinated. Roadside history placards still called the Civil War, “The War of Northern Aggression” well well through the end of the century.

And that’s… about it, until high school (and sometimes not until college) history classes. But the seed was set… We were led to believe that all that racism stuff was handled in the 60s and we’re all good now. Sure, some guys still tell “black jokes”; but, you know… That’s just guys telling dirty jokes; they don’t mean anything. The “Stars and Bars”, as we proudly called the confederate battle flag, were everywhere and on everything, including the State flag. We were told that was to honor those that died fighting during that terrible conflict and not at all racist, and we believed it. Every Friday night we watched Dukes of Hazzard and watched the Duke Boys make a fool of Roscoe P. Coltrane, the flag prominent in almost every scene. It’s part of our history; our heritage.

Except… it isn’t. Most of what we learned wasn’t an outright lie… but it was only one sanitized sliver of the whole story. Yes, state’s rights and economic peril did figure in the roots of the Civil War; but those issues only existed because of slavery. The Civil War was a rebellion of rich, white slaveowners against the United States that killed 750,000 people and cemented racism in the south as a permanent fixture. Oh yeah, they lied about racism not being an issue any longer in these modern times, as well. The confederate battle flag isn’t a symbol of plucky good ‘ol boys who never did no harm and hasn’t been since the end of the war. It’s a gigantic middle finger to anyone who isn’t white; a reminder that for a vast number of people, the much seen on bumper stickers slogan “The South will rise again!” isn’t a pride-swelling symbol of the south, but an implied threat to everyone who isn’t white, or heterosexual, or protestant. It isn’t heritage, it IS hate, solidified in a symbol.

So, on the 4^th of July, 2020, I’d like to remind the staunch defenders of the ol’ Stars and Bars, that…

The Confederacy lost.

On George Floyd

Someone who knew I had worked 20 years in one form of law enforcement or another asked me what I thought about the riots in Minneapolis. I didn’t answer, because I was wondering what answer he expected or wanted from me. I guess I should have been happy he asked, rather than assuming I was already in agreement with his take on it.

MY take on it is: It’s about goddamn time.

About time people start actively calling out the bullshit that everyone’s known about but most ignore because it doesn’t directly affect them. It’s tragic that it took a blatant, flagrant crime*- that, to paraphrase a quote from my case law books, “so shocked the conscience” ** of the public that it could not be ignored no matter your privilege- to bring this widespread outpouring of frustration about.

What? I’m not taking the cop’s side in this, even though I once was part of the Thin Blue Line?

No. Fuck no. Even though I was one of those people privileged enough to not notice how bad things were getting because I was in the middle of it. But then you get out, and turn around and see the forest that you couldn’t see around the trees… and notice it’s gotten drastically thicker and taller and wonder, as I feel my stomach sink, how I never noticed it before.

THAT’S a whole ‘nother essay or three.

There is no doubt that society’s impression of the profession of law enforcement is irreparably damaged. And the only way for it to be repaired is to finally stop paying lip service to the Code of Ethics every cop learned in the academy and actually enforce it. The one I learned- had to memorize and analyze, in fact- was right up in the front of the Peace Officer Reference Text, in the chapter on Ethics and Professionalism (right after the Constitution; remember the 14^th Amendment, fellas?):

“As a Law Enforcement Officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property, to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence and disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality, and justice.

“I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all; maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule; develop self-restraint; and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought and deed in both my personal and official life, I will be exemplary in obeying the laws of the land and the regulations of my department. Whatever I see or hear of a confidential nature or that is confided to me in my official capacity will be kept ever secret unless revelation is necessary in the performance of my duty.

“I will never act officiously or permit personal feelings, prejudices, animosities or friendships to influence my decisions. With no compromise for crime and with relentless prosecution of criminals, I will enforce the law courteously and appropriately without fear or favor, malice or ill will, never employing unnecessary force or violence and never accepting gratuities.

“I recognize the badge of my office as a symbol of public faith, and I accept it as a public trust to be held so long as I am true to the ethics of the police service. I will constantly strive to achieve those objectives and ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession…law enforcement.”

This is what “tarnishing the badge” means, former officer Chauvin. Law Enforcement has been tarnishing it for decades, but now I think the stain is well and truly set.

You may have noticed a lot of wiggle room in that Code of Ethics… While the intent seems straightforward enough, it’s this wiggle room that’s partly responsible for the rot that consumes any attempt to to create a truly ethical police force; and the reason such a simple concept as the Use of Deadly Force- Deadly force may ONLY be used to stop a forcible felony or prevent the death of or great bodily injury to the officer or third party- becomes perverted to whatever you can get away with; good luck! The deck is stacked in your favor, Officer!

…but that’s an essay for another time.

*…and don’t tell me it wasn’t a blatant, flagrant crime. I was a Use of Force and Use of Deadly Force instructor and the film is pretty damn clear on what happened. The officer had his knee on the side of Floyd’s neck, flat on the ground. It’s clear from his body positioning that he has most of his weight on that knee. Unless Minneapolis just puts them on the street from day 1 with no academy, he knew that was extremely dangerous, and it wouldn’t have taken 8 minutes to come to that conclusion. Not to fucking mention COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY AND EXCESSIVE as Floyd was secured.

**That quote, BTW, is from Rochin v. California in 1952; in which the Supreme Court of California decided that forcing a tube down a man’s throat and forcing him to vomit up the contraband he just swallowed was such a shitty thing to do that maybe that evidence outta be thrown out, dontcha think? Only took two appeals before they found some judges that thought that this may be, well, a little shocking.

Whoa! Weblogs, man!

Soooooo… It’s been… let’s see…

Years

Since I posted to this ‘blog.

Yeah.

No excuses. Let’s see if we can pick up where we left off… again.

Playing with several things… changed themes, cleaned up the menus… Added a new page, Live Weather Station; Neighborhood has been updated; Bedroom will be updated; and Workshop, Firearms, Webcams and Tattoos have been taken down while I decide what to do with them.

In the mean time, check out the Live Weather Station… I acquired an Ambient Weather WS-2902A weather station and set it up; just in case you had a burning desire to know just what the UV index was on my back deck. Using tacky realistic gauges because that’s the kind of 80s guy I am.

2014 is here

Had some apples that were going bad, so I put them on the stump in the backyard for the animals… and the contrast between their color and the stump made me grab the camera.

Tornado dreams

The recent tornado outbreak in Illinois made me think about the only time I’ve seen a tornado over land (I’ve seen several waterspouts). I remembered it was spring, my first grade year; but couldn’t remember exactly when. However, Weather Underground (my weather source of choice) had a link to the Tornado History Project, and I was able to find the record of this particular tornado.

As I said, it was spring of my first grade year; April 4th, 1977, to be exact. School had just ended, and I went to the steps by the first grade classrooms to wait for my mom. It was a pretty, sunny spring day; a few clouds in the sky, but nothing threatening. When I got to the steps, I found mom waiting for me; which was unusual… I normally had to wait for 30 minutes or so. I got in the station wagon and mentioned that she was early.

Mom was extremely tense. She said there was a tornado warning for Rome. I looked at the sky again; still sunny, but a little cloudier.

By the time we got to our house (marked by the red circle on the map), the sky was covered in dark, sickly-green mammatus clouds. I didn’t know that was what they were called then, but this event stoked a fascination with severe weather for me. My youngest two sisters (still older than me) were also home; my oldest sister was in high school and was still there. Mom herded us all into the small closet under the stairs and went to try and call the high school to check on my oldest sister… but our phone wasn’t working. (remember, there were no cell phones then.) By now the wind was up and rain was splattering. Mom decided to go across the street and see if our neighbor’s phone was working. My sister Susan begged her not to go, but Mom went out the front door and across the street. We watched her through the window next to the front door; and as we watched, we could see the top of a funnel cloud over the top of Horseleg Mountain (which you can see on the map).

The tornado never got close to our house, but just that little glimpse I got fascinated me. As I got older, I studied everything I could about tornadoes and thunderstorms; and they still intrigue me today.

Gratuitous beaver shots

Went to Bear Hollow Wildlife Trail in Athens with Flen and, as usual, drug the cameras along. Bear Hollow showcases animals native to Georgia; most are rehabilitated injured animals that can’t be released back into the wild.

And here's the gratuitous beaver shot — And here’s the gratuitous beaver shot

The great horned owl was hiding in his box, but here's his dinner — The great horned owl was hiding in his box, but here’s his dinner

Flen getting a picture of some other folks after they asked for one

Hey! Where's the damn honey? — Hey! Where’s the damn honey?

Gators! None around here, but plenty in south Georgia

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