I’ve written a lot previously about the LA County Sheriff’s Department (motto: “dumber than a bag of hair“). But not in a while: I haven’t been following the LAT as much, as it is basically unreadable unless you pay for it.
This came across Hacker News, however, and is a Justice Department press release, so I can cover it here.
I love “conspiracy to deprive rights under color of law” and “deprivation of rights under color of law”. Those are two of my favorite charges in the Federal system.
Six other people have been convicted and sentenced, including the ever-popular “disgruntled warehouse employee” who is serving 14 years. Former deputy Antrim testified at his trial, which is one reason why he only got seven years.
The big question in my mind: when is the movie coming out, and who’s going to play former deputy Antrim?
Two recent stories from the Statesman that I find interesting, but haven’t sorted out yet. So they’re noted here with minimal comment.
1. The Pflugerville Police Department (Pflugerville is a small-ish suburb of Austin) hired a new chief in 2017. She left in February and got a six-figure payout (including unused sick leave and vacation time).
Did she leave because she was a Hispanic lesbian (that’s an actual statement from the article) fighting a “good old boy” system?
Apparently, she wants her own court coordinator, specifically for her court, rather than court coordinators being appointed by (and answering to) the court as a whole.
I started out doing police training videos, but those have become thin on the ground. So when a new one shows up in my feed it is a cause for celebration.
Especially this one. I believe it is called “Out Numbered” and dates to 1968 according to the notes. Those same notes also point out that it features “Martin Milner of Adam 12 Fame”.
I want to point out that, while a lot of people knew Mr. Milner best from “Adam-12” (and I include myself in that category) he had a much broader and more interesting career beyond one cop show: “Route 66”, “Sweet Smell of Success”, both “Dragnet”s (the 1950s one and the late 1960s-early 1970s one)…
Bonus #1: totally unrelated to police work, but something I found kind of cool. This is a vintage (1969, maybe) promo film by Canadair for their CL-215 water bomber.
Bonus #2: “Testing a $600 survival tool”.
$600? At that price, not only should it include a tent, but it had better be setting up that tent for me automatically. And making me breakfast in the morning and dinner at night.
My personal feeling? He decided to leave town before he got run out on a rail behind the narcotics scandal. But that’s just my opinion: I could be wrong.
More interesting question that someone asked me last night: could Flint Ironstag Brian Manley be headed to Houston?
Well, it is close to home, and it is a larger department, and he does have a proven track record, and it seems Houston is slightly more reasonable (and less hostile to the police) than the current Austin city council. But: 30 years in at APD, 97+% of his salary in retirement…what incentive does he have to take another police job in the current environment?
Been a while since I’ve done any vintage police training videos, mostly because not that many have been popping up.
Here’s one for you, from the FBI apparently sometime in the 1970s: “Examination Of Stolen Cars”.
Bonus #1: Don’t you love stupid people getting what is coming to them? I know I do. Plus: CanCon!
“Bait Car Greatest Hits” from the Vancouver Sun.
Bonus #2: “Accident Investigation” from 1974. Not one of those traffic safety films, but more a guide for the patrol officer on how to handle these situations: use your car as a shield, don’t move injured people, watch for spilled gasoline, etc…
It could just be that, after 30 years, he wants to go off and do something else. At the 30 year mark, an APD officer gets 96% of their base salary in retirement. I think that’s based on your salary for the past two years, but I could be wrong about that. At “commander” rank, base salary ranges from $138,144 to $158,160 a year: I’m not clear on what chief pay is, but even 96% of the high end for a commander is still over $150K a year. Plus Chief Roll Fizzlebeef has a MBA from St. Edward’s University (one of the reasons I like the guy) so I doubt he’d have any trouble finding a job in private business.
Another person who shall remain nameless shared some speculation that Chief Punch Sideiron resigned as part of a deal with the City Council and city manager to get them to approve a new police academy class: we’ll bring in some new recruits who will (we hope) turn into officers, and in return you get to appoint the next guy to run the department. If so, that would be fairly noble on his part.
The big question in my mind right now is: who gets the job? Somebody local (which is another reason I liked Chief Rip Slagcheek: he was a local boy), or will they bring in someone from California (like they did with the previous chief, Art damn it! Art Acevedo). I suspect the latter, but would be pleasantly surprised with the former, depending on who they do appoint. (Ken Cassady, the head of the police union, is probably right off the list of candidates.)
I wish Chief Buck Plankchest the best of luck in whatever he does next, even if it does mean I don’t have as many chances to use selections from the Dave Ryder Wiki entry.
As I’ve said before, I don’t like using TV shows here unless it is a short video to make a point, or a documentary series.
I’m fuzzing things a bit here, but I think it is justified. Also, it pushes some of my buttons.
Between 1962 and 1963, there was a television series called “GE True“. It was called “GE True” because it was sponsored by General Electric, and featured stories from True magazine that were adapted for television. Gene Roddenberry was one of the scriptwriters, and the series was produced and hosted by Jack Webb. Webb directed some of the episodes: some others were directed by William Conrad.
It was 25 minutes long (though some episodes were multi-part ones) and there were 33 total episodes. A small number of episodes have been uploaded to the ‘Tube.
I’ve written before about Earl Rogers, Clarence Darrow, and the LA Times jury bribery trial. From “GE True”, original airdate January 13, 1963, “Defendant: Clarence Darrow”. Robert Vaughn plays Earl Rogers, and Tol Avery (a prolific actor I was previously unfamiliar with: for the record, he appeared three times on “Mannix” before his death in 1973) plays Darrow.
Bonus #1: “V-Victor-5”, co-written by Gene Roddenberry. On a hot summer day in NYC in 1933, a lone off-duty NYPD officer in the days before radio cars, and surrounded by a hostile crowd, holds five armed and dangerous fugitives at gunpoint until backup arrives…two hours later.
(I know the YouTube title says “Commando”, but this one is really “V-Victor-5”. Also, there’s a punchline at the end that I won’t spoil for you.)
Bonus #2: “Commando”.
Oh, wait. Wrong “Commando”. Sorry. This is the right one.
Seriously, do you ever feel like the days are just an oncoming freight train, constantly bearing down on us?
(I am obligated, of course, to point out that, as all people of goodwill know, the Christmas season actually runs through January 6th, and anyone who nags you about leaving your lights and decorations up is a Philistine and not a serious person.)
This is an odd one that didn’t pop up at random: someone on The Drive linked to it in the comments section. I have to apologize that it isn’t in English and doesn’t have subtitles, but I think there’s enough interesting imagery in this to overcome that.
According to the commenter, “Wehrhafte Schweiz / La Suisse vigilante / La Svizzera vigilante” is a 1960s Swiss military propaganda film, originally shot in Cinerama. I think this is a surprisingly good transfer: you might want to watch it on the ‘Tube in full screen mode. You might also want to fast forward past the opening, which is kind of trippy, but (again) does not have English subtitles.
English translation of the YouTube description from Google Translate:
The official doctrine is communicated after a lengthy prologue, which allows different positions on national defense to be heard. A large-scale, combined combat exercise demonstrates the interaction of various branches of weapon.
‘
Bonus: Since that was kind of short (especially if you skip over the tripping beginning), here’s something I didn’t know about previously: Wilson Combat has a YouTube channel.
What makes this interesting is that, starting in October, they started a new series: “Critical Mas(s)” with Massad Ayoob.
I’ve been thinking about my friends in the Austin Citizen’s Police Academy Alumni Association, how much I miss them, and how much I miss the CPA classes (which have been suspended due to the Chinese rabies). So I thought I’d highlight this first one, since it is relevant both to current events and to stuff we discuss in CPA: “Police Use of Deadly Force: Reasonable or Necessary?”
The article is by Peter Houlahan, who also wrote Norco ’80: The True Story of the Most Spectacular Bank Robbery in American History (previously mentioned in this space).
Summary: why was LA the bank robbery capital of the world? Answer: banks, cars, freeways, and cocaine.
Why did LA stop being the bank robbery capital of the world? Answer: the banks tightened up security (they couldn’t care less about the money that was being taken at gunpoint, but when staff started quitting and filing worker’s comp claims for PTSD, and when customers started suing, that got their attention), and the virtual abolition of parole in the Federal system.