A Broken Family

Posted by: Blue

Last week, our last call of the night had an officer on our shift deploy the new Taser for the first time. He hit the accused with both cartridges, after the first blast wasn't enough to convince him to get off of his ex-girlfriend, whom he was straddling and pummelling to a bloody pulp. 

We arrived on scene a few minutes later. I learned that the two shared children had been trying to pry daddy off of mommy. The four year old was seemingly OK. But the two year old had blood covering his face, from one of his father's back-strokes taken to his nose as he rained blows down on the child's mother while the toddler tried to wedge himself between the two. 

I asked the mother for a cloth. She was already more concerned about the whereabouts of her cell phone than the wellbeing of her bleeding baby. I cleaned the boy, changed his day-old diaper and then put clothes on him that I found in a pile on the couch. He had been shivering each time the door opened. 

By the time we were finishing the video statement with the victim, she was expressing regret that her baby daddy was going to be locked-up. She refused the hospital for her injuries, instead deciding to head home and not pick up her children from her sister-in-law's until the next morning, so she could get cosy with the guy she had been beaten for texting to that night. 

Dad won't be convicted, and will almost certainly be out on bail long before trial. She wasn't going to show-up to testify for his upcoming case from the last time he beat her senseless. This time won't be any different. 

Love is Very Dumb

Posted by: Blue

Sunday morning at the end of our night, we arrested a guy for Domestic assault and utter threats. He had phoned dispatch during a spat (right after he pushed her out of bed, hitting head with the dresser on the way and then biting her finger at some point. He told dispatch that the police better show up soon or he was "going to fuckin' kill her".

We arrived. He was gone. Another unit nabbed him at the nearby McDonald's.

It was his first arrest, so he was released at 8:03 AM Sunday morning on a PTA with Undertaking including an NCC (no contact or communication) clause. I spent at least a half hour explaining to him that he would absolutely be arrested and go straight to lockup if I found him breaching. I had the feeling he wasn't going to abide by the condition. He told me I was wrong. I told him to prove it.

When we started shift again, about 14 hours later, the same date, we found him with her at home. I arrested him again right out of his bed.

After he was read his rights, and declined a lawyer, I asked him when he got back home. "Right after you released me." He said.

He went straight to jail.

Poopy Pants

Posted by: Blue

The jail was six cars deep in a waiting line for lock-ups two nights ago.

We chatted to the crew beside us. They had a domestic arrest.

He came home with a soiled bottom after drinking too much. When she wouldn't change his pants for him, he beat her and their unborn child to a pulp in front of their four other children.

He was unapologetic and denied being there during the interview, despite the video evidence from the apartment block's security cameras which showed him entering the apartment and later coming out covered in blood.

He's the half brother of one of the most notorious families of assholes our city knows. The family presents a solid case for evolution. They may be the missing link. Apparently not fully human.

Domestic Crap

Posted by: Blue

One of the other crews had a domestic assault arrest last week. The accused male pretended he was sleeping when they went into the bedroom to hook him.

He was naked.

When they cuffed him and started dragging him down the stairs against his will, he struggled, fought and then suddenly and violently shit himself.

The patrol sergeant who attended the call could smell the accused's rank stench from inside his SUV when he pulled-up to check on the crew and sign the Prisoner Log Sheet.

He went direct to Provincial Remand, still naked, covered in shit and crying.

Both of the officers were provided slips for new pants and boots.

The Shame of Canada

Posted by: Blue

About a week ago, an off-duty officer came across a domestic assault in progress. A repeat violent offender was beating his girlfriend senseless in a 7-11. The veteran officer stepped in, identifying himself as a police officer and attempting to pull the criminal off of the victim. The assaulter turned and began beating the officer, delivering a flurry of fists to his face in an alcohol and drug fuelled rage. The cop was beaten down, as was another citizen who stepped-in to help.

The officer received the worst of the injuries, including a broken orbital bone and the likelihood that he would be permanently blind in one eye.

The offender was taken into custody a short time later.

He received bail a number of hours later, despite the fact that he was already pending a number of other charges, not to mention the seriousness of the offence.

Sadly, Canada seems to have the position that the rights and freedoms of criminals are more important than those of the victims and the public.

I took my Canadian flag off of my vest yesterday. I'm ashamed to wear it right now.

Foot Chase the Sequel

Posted by: Blue

Today we responded to a Domestic where the complainant's ex-boyfriend was running away with their shared child.

We were close by and volunteered, pre-empting off of our held call.  We spotted the suspect almost right away, running across the street carrying a small, scared-looking 3 year old boy.

We shouted at him to put the child down, which he did, but then he took off running right away again.  The mother swooped in and grabbed her child.

It was like a circus watching us chase the guy in circles around the block.

We lost sight of him after one corner.  A passer-by shouted "Pine tree! Pine tree!"

A single pine was in a lawn about a quarter of the way up the block.  I passed by once but didn't see anything.  I doubled back and then I spotted him; peering out from beneath the lowest boughs.

"Police! Stop! Show me your hands! If you run again I'm going to Taser you!"

He jumped up to run.  I hit him with a textbook spread of the probes in the centre of his lower back, dropping him in his tracks.  I didn't give him the full 5 second ride.  He was locked-up and shouting "OK! OK! OK!".  I switched it off after 2 or 3 seconds and he was ready to comply.

I found out later that it was the third time he had been Tasered.  He had only been out of jail for a couple of weeks and was on two Probation Orders for separate Assaults on the same woman.

I scraped up my right knee bailing on a corner with loose gravel again and ripped my pants.  The Sergeant granted me a no-charge slip.

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.

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.

Tommy Solami Part III

Posted by: Blue

We got a call that there was a male at the complainant's apartment door with a knife trying to break the door down.

We showed up a short time later and found the apartment building quiet.  The suspect had apparently left and was nowhere to be seen during a search of the building.

We spoke to the complainant who clearly had a number of stab marks in his front door.

The trouble with his neighbour had started when he had found his neighbour's girlfriend standing in the hallway buck naked and locked out of her apartment a few weeks ago.  The neighbour was Tommy.  The girlfriend was Mariah.  The complainant had given Mariah a phone to use and a set of clothes to wear.  Tommy had become convinced that they were sleeping together and today he had gotten good and drunk and gone over the edge.

We decided to try knocking on Tommy's door which was a floor up.  We knocked and knocked and called to Tommy through the door, but there was no answer.  We were just discussing whether to write him up for warrant when we heard a noise in the stairwell behind us.  We both turned just as the door opened into the hall.

There was Tommy.  Shirtless again.  His stitches in his neck looked red and infected.  We both drew down on him, 'cause he apparently had a knife.  I pulled the Taser, my partner pulled his Glock.  We yelled at Tommy to get down.  I called him by name.  He had a series of facial expressions going from fear to acceptance to relief.  He recognized us just as he started raising his hands into the air and said "Oh thank God it's you guys!"  He continued onto the floor into the prone position and gave us no trouble.

"You still have a knife on you, Tommy?"

"Ya.  Ya, it's in my back pocket."

"OK.  Don't reach for it or you're gonna get either shot or tasered or both.  You understand?"

"Ya.  I'm just glad it's you guys.  You guys are good guys."

We cuffed him and took him down to the car.  I arrested him for all of the nonsense that had happened that night.

On the way back to the station, I asked him what his version of the story was.

"Well, about a week ago, we were having sex on the couch and then we finished and everything was good until she told me to get her a cheeseburger.  I told her 'forget it, bitch, I'm not your servant', but she wouldn't give it up.  She kept demanding a cheeseburger, so I threw.... I shoved.... I placed her gently outside the apartment and locked her out.  That guy from that apartment brought her into his place and she's been fucking him ever since.  Tonight I just lost it."

"Ya.  You kinda did."

JT and I laughed.  Tommy laughed.

"Thanks for being good with me guys.  I'm glad it was you that came to arrest me."

"Tommy, you've gotta get rid of the girl and quit drinkin' man.  No woman is worth going to jail over just cause she's screwing some other dude."

"Ya.  I know.  She's such a bitch.  But I love her."

Back at the station, we introduced Tommy to our Sergeant as "Tommy Solami".  The Sergeant snapped his head up from his desk.

"THE Tommy Solami?!"

"Yes sir.  The very one and only."

"How do you know about me?" Tommy asked.

Just then a few other cops walked by.  We informed them that they were in the presence of the legend, Tommy Solami.  They all raised their eyebrows and a couple of them went to shake his hand, playing along with our mock reverence (which of course didn't work because Tommy was cuffed).  It was clear that the attention was going to Tommy's head.

"Everyone knows you here, Tommy.  We were telling the whole shift about you when we were looking for Mariah."

As we carted him off to his cell, we passed the detective's office and Tommy hollered out "Hey guys, it's me, Tommy Solami!  Need an autograph?  I'm here all night!"

We finished our reports, hauled him away to jail and locked him up, still beaming.

The best part of the night was still to come.  When we came into the provincial jail, Tommy walked up to one of the grumpy senior guards and tried to shake his hand (once the cuffs had come off), introducing himself as "The Famous Tommy Solami".  It was clear then that his fame had not extended to the provincial jail quite yet, because the guard simply responded "I don't give a FUCK who you are!  Shut your mouth and listen to what we tell you to do when we tell you to do it and there won't be any problems."

Tommy Solami Part II

Posted by: Blue

Two days after we forced Tommy to see a doctor by promising him we wouldn't arrest his girlfriend that night, I ran her name to see if she was still wanted or if she had turned herself in like she had promised.

She had not.

We went and knocked on her door to try to find her.  Tommy answered.  We asked him where she was.  He said he didn't know.  He let us check the apartment.  We didn't find her there.

Tommy was shirtless.  I noticed he had a poorly done tattoo on his left shoulder: TOMMY SOLAMI.
I pointed it out to my partner.  We had a good laugh at the misspelt sausage variety he had permanently inked on his body.

When we got back to the station, the legend began.  We told our whole shift all about Tommy and Mariah and how we really wanted to arrest her on her warrant after she had lied to us about turning herself in.  The tattoo was brought-up, and Tommy Solami began to be a well-known name in the station.

We even had the nickname added as an alias on our system.

We searched high and low for Mariah the next few weeks.  We never found her, but all the while, Tommy's fame grew, as we continued to brief the Sergeants on the female we were looking for.  The true extent of his infamy will come to light in Part III.

Stay tuned.

Escalation

Posted by: Blue

Tonight we had a Domestic Assault arrest.

He had punched her repeatedly in the face and then choked her.  We were called because a neighbour heard her begging him to stop.  Her screams got quieter as she got closer to passing-out.

When we arrested him, he kept asking if she would be okay.  I said: "I think she'll be fine if she never sees you again".

Upon reviewing his record, it came to light that this was the fifth time he had been arrested for assaulting her.

She declined to provide a formal statement each time, including tonight.  Each time the charges were dropped.  Each time she went back to him 'cause he said "sorry".

Maybe he'll kill her next time.

We can solve the crime.  Not the life.