Looking Back – Thoughts from the far side of the career
(Editor’s note – Editor Emeritus Roy Huntington sent this to me. He offered that the writer’s thoughts were worth my time. I’m sharing it as an OpEd piece with you all) In my younger days, I thought I had a destiny - to be an LEO. Oddly enough, I took the police job on a bet. It came with a $6000 pay cut but had good benefits. I left my good-paying job to be a [...]
We’re at a Turning Point
On May 25, 2020 Derek Chauvin a 19-year veteran of the Minneapolis, Minnesota PD knelt on the neck of George Floyd for eight minutes. Chauvin’s actions may have contributed to Floyd’s death, but his autopsy [...]
Doing The Right Thing
I was watching a short lecture video on TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design, www.ted.com) and it really got me thinking about my career. More importantly, it got me taking a hard look at the bigger picture of life. The lecture — or as they’re called on TED, “TED Talks” — is entitled “Should you live for your résumé … or your eulogy?” The talk is presented by New York Times columnist David Brooks and is only five minutes long.
Too Much Stuff?
A previous column (“Can Something Be Too Good?”, December 2013) prompted a lot of e-mails, most of which were in agreement with my opinion. My concern was that the amount of equipment carried by officers, [...]
Surplus Extravaganza?
The wars are deescalating and one of the byproducts is a flood of military surplus equipment into the civilian market. While some of it may reach regular folks, I doubt we’ll be buying anti-tank missiles [...]
You Gotta Use What You Got
Thanks to their Nanny State efforts to disarm the Crown’s subjects, it’s no secret that Great Britain now has the highest rate of violent personal crimes in the industrialized nations. “Yobs” — their term for [...]
No Pillow, Thank You
I don’t sleep on airline flights because it takes too much Jack Daniels to properly sedate me. And now, there’s another reason not to fall asleep on a flight — even more than the thought [...]
Wonder If It Works On Humans, Too?
For years, business owners in Australia and Britain have successfully dealt with loud, rowdy mobs of loitering youths by using “sound repulsion.” Effective means include playing the buzzing of mosquitoes at frequencies and decibel levels [...]
Criminal Detection At Its Finest
Last November, following a shooting in Fort Bend County, Texas, investigators were initially pleased there were several witnesses who saw the shooter’s “face.” The problem was, the face they saw was one of a man [...]