Family Business

Posted by: Blue

There's one family in my district who is no good.  Actually there's a number of them, but one of them in particular seems to grab my attention more than others.

On Friday, we arrested one of them that I had never dealt with before.  He had been out of jail 7 days before being re-arrested by us on new Assault charges (domestic) and Breach of Probation.

At ident, the tech looked at him and commented "That's not a very common last name.  There was another guy in here with that last name last night.  For Robbery I think"

"Really?  If he's from the city, I'm related to him." He said, laughing

After getting back into the car, he asked me to look up the report.

I told him which of his family members I was betting it was before pulling up the reports.  I told him my guess was that it wasn't a big old fancy robbery of a commercial business but rather that he tried to take some beer at knife point or some such offence.

"That's considered Robbery too?"

"Yup.  Robbery is Theft plus Assault.  The crime is complete if you have a weapon or imply a weapon or violence plus attempt to cause something to be converted to your use or possession.  A Theft at it's root definition doesn't necessarily mean that anything was actually stolen.  Just begun or even attempted to be stolen.  In the same way, an Assault doesn't necessarily mean that anyone was contacted by a fist or a weapon.  Pointing a firearm at someone for example, is an Assault with a Weapon (among numerous other firearms offences).  So is handing over a note which implies violence if one's demands aren't met, whether it is expressly written or if only the impression is given."

"Huh."

"Yeah."

I pulled the report.  It was a cousin.  The offence wasn't Robbery after all.  It was Possession of a Controlled Substance for the Purpose of Trafficking (drug dealing charges).

I don't like that family.

Semantics

Posted by: Blue

JT on the phone to a homeowner: "Hello.  It's the police calling... Not to alarm you but we've had a distress alarm at your house..."

He immediately turned to me and silently rolled his eyes over his ironic choice of words.

Safety Lesson

Posted by: Blue

The other day, we responded to another district for a high priority domestic.  The wife was calling in on the husband, stating that he had been threatening to play Russian Roulette with his revolver and "take a bunch of people out".

While on scene, the male was calm but obviously depressed and emotional.  As we were clearing out the gun safe of the firearms that he had agreed to turn over to us for safekeeping, he asked one of the other district's cops if he could go and change.  The officer agreed and the male went into the study.

I was looking through the safe with some of the other officers at the time and hadn't seen him go into the room and close the door.

I came around the corner to find no sign of the male.

"Where'd he go?" I asked.

"Changing." Said the other officer, gesturing towards the closed office door.

"What!? No! Hey, c'mon out of there bud. I don't want you behind closed doors with no one around you right now.  It makes me nervous."  I said, giving the senior officer an admittedly dirty look.

He came out and looked frustrated.  I told him he was welcome to change in a few minutes when we got things sorted out, but one of the officers would need to be in the room with him.

Later on, we discovered a loaded revolver in a holster under the coffee table in that office.

The (un)Usual

I often find myself laughing at how unusual our lives have become now that Blue is a police officer, but how normal the unusual now feels. I suppose it's more that Blue's life is on the crazy side of things as mine is still pretty uneventful with being a stay-at-home-mom (Although, I signed-up for a boxing class. That counts for something, right?). From time-to-time Blue's work experiences spill over into our home life through stories, texts, phone calls or random things that make it through our door. Sometimes the things are shocking and sad, sometimes they are hilarious, sometimes they are down-right frustrating but they almost always leave me thinking that Blue must have one of the most bizarre jobs out there. If only more civilians could see what police actually have to deal with.

Yesterday I was yet again reminded of the absurdity of Blue's line of work when I got a text from him later on in the day which read:

Probably some OT. Guns. Bullets. Crazy drunk Russian. The usual. 

I find it funny, and only slightly off-putting, that this is Blue's usual. 

Back to Work

Posted by: Blue

Tonight is the shift Christmas party.  We're headed for ribs and drinks and then to one of the guys houses.

Sunday I head back for Nights.

Kitchens

Posted by: Blue

Two down.  Two to go.