Things I learned at work this week

1. If you want the police to leave you alone, shooting at guys in my squad is not an effective way of ensuring this outcome. In fact, it seems to have the opposite effect.

2. It is fun to help teach the new recruits how to fight and apprehend people until they realize that, yes, they really are supposed to hit you...in the head....as hard as they possibly can.

3. Even though it takes a long time to get them ready before and clean them afterwards, riding quads really is a good way to spend your work day.

4. Backing the trailers that quads ride in is probably harder than riding the quads. At least I didn't hit anything.

UpComiNg AcTion

A got a few pictures of the padded assailant training live and in color. I will put a few of them up soon so you can see them.

Oh, I should take a couple of pictures of the bruises and scratches I got so everyone can see how much I have suffered for the cause of training the Law Enforcement officers of tomorrow.

Trip Up The Mountain

We took a little trip up the mountain today, and here are a few pics. I always kind of go reluctantly, because it seems to be such a long drive to get up there. But, it was actually a pleasant diversion. I definitely recommend going when everyone else is not. We ended up leaving the city at about five pm.

It really could not have been a better contrast. Five o'clock traffic in the city versus five o'clock traffic on the mountain.

My Dad, who died just a week over a month ago now, really enjoyed hitting the mountains. One of the guys that got up to share at his funeral told us how he had been talked into buying a jeep by my Dad, so he could go up the mountains. Then, on his first four wheeling trip, he unexpectedly found my Mom and Dad.

I don't know if it was mostly because of proximity or because it was peaceful and aesthetically pleasing, but my Dad always felt closer to God when he was out four wheeling and in the mountains.

You'd Think....

I recently overheard a friend of mine say to his wife, "We've been married for ______ years. You'd think by now that you would have figured out the things that bother me and not do them."

I got a good laugh out of that, then I said it to my wife.

Race Reads I Recommend

I recently read a couple of books that outline some of the past failures we have had in this nation in regard to race relations. The first is The Execution of Willie Francis.

Willie Francis was arrested for the murder of a well known pharmacist in St. Martinville Louisiana in 1945. He was convicted entirely on the weight of two confessions, which were obtained by a Sheriff that was investigated by the FBI for beating, harassing and running off black citizens that were getting "sassy", including a school teacher and doctors.

His attorneys made no defense and the jury deliberated for 15 minutes before handing down a guilty verdict. Willie was sentenced to death. The time limit for the appeals passed without his attorneys filing any motions and the date was set.

A poor black kid convicted of murder on a sham trial in the deep south. So far, this story is sadly unremarkable. But it takes an intriguing turn.

When the hungover executioner and his prison trustee assistant throw the switch on the portable electric chair that the state sent to local municipalities in a truck, the current surges through Willie's body. As his body convulses he manages to call out "I am not dying". And he did not.

A year later, after Willie's father finds him an attorney who takes on the case and fights the decision to send him to his death again, Willie is executed in the same chair.

The story was especially interesting to Diane and I as it takes place in St. Martinville and New Iberia Louisiana, where we have visited. St. Martinville is also the home of the Evangeline Oak, known mostly because of the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie.


The other book is Buried in the Bitter Waters: the Hidden Story of Racial Cleansing in America. It is an account of twelve counties in the U.S. where, between 1864 and 1923, the entire black community was driven out and the counties today remain almost exclusively white. Many of the communities where this happened have largely forgotten about it as the stories were not passed down from one generation to the next.

Here is an excellent interview with the author, Eliot Jaspin, by the History News Network.

As shocking as it is to me, we still carry the scars of horrific acts that were done in the name of not wanting people with a different skin color and different culture to be be anywhere near us. The home that we purchased in West Sacramento in 2001 had a clause in the CCRs that only Caucasian people could purchase in the neighborhood. The clause was voided, but served as a reminder to me that racism is very real.

I think we still see the remains of racism socially. Do I dare say it remains, as it is still quite real? In any case, much of our lives are still segregated. Churches are still predominately one ethnic group, as are many neighborhoods and other segments of life. And we are all the poorer for it.

A couple of Pics

Here are a couple of pics of the wedding of my friends Nick and Amber. Amber just sent some pictures over, so I thought I would share a couple. Of course, they are the ones with me in it. Thanks to Agent and Mrs. Pipes for watching our kids that night so Nick and Amber could get hitched.

Confuseus Say....

I recently heard someone respond to the idea that we have to have illegal immigration because no-one else will do the jobs they do. The response was that we should re-institute slavery, because slaves will do the work that no-one else will, because they have to.

Of course, this is a ridiculous thing to say. But, this argument for illegal immigration is the same argument that was used for slavery. We have to have slavery, because citizens won't do the work that slaves do.

So, think we need to come up with better arguments for why illegal immigration is a good idea, rather than recycling the same old ones that really degrade people that are not like ourselves and show our arrogance in refusing to do anything that we deem beneath our dignity and pay grade.