I went to work thursday night after having woken up at 7am. I had a moderately full night but thank God I didn’t get stuck on a report. Me and my partner, Pat, went up to the locker room and doffed our uniforms of the night. The process began of changing into a fresh pair of pants, a fresh longsleeve shirt, polishing our stars, and getting our duty belts ready. Our Ike jackets were donned and our hats placed smartly.

A quick check in the mirror showed all was in order.

To avoid the projected traffic due to the rather large amount of officers that would be attending, we decided to drive to San Bruno BART and just ride the train in. I noticed while on the train the various pairs of eyes that were looking at us. I don’t know what they were thinking, it could have been anything from “Why are they dressed like that?” to “They must be going to the funeral.”

The train arrived at the Coliseum exit, and we both exited. There was a young lady exiting with us.

As we neared the stairs she turned to us and asked if we were going to the funeral. I replied that we were and she said “I’m sorry for your loss.” She then began to cry. I thanked her for her sympathy and condolences. Her reaction struck me deeply. She was a beautiful young African American woman. I make that distinction because after seeing this video that says that the African American community is occupied by an invading force of Police, and that the man who killed these four officers was standing up for the cause and was a hero in the community, it made me realize that this is not an idea held by everyone.

The idea that this was a racially motivated incident sickens my stomach and makes me angry. I myself do not know ANY officers that practice racially motivated policing. It boils down to we go after people that commit offenses…PERIOD. This idea comes from incidents that occurred decades ago, in another part of the country, when the thinking was different. There is NOTHING in our training that says certain races do certain things and that we should assume they are all criminals. What we do receive is training that allows us to be even more culturally diverse and sensitive. Every department has at least one General Order that addresses this issue.

The video also makes it a point to show that the killer was a father, a brother, a son. And what were the officers? They also had family, wives, children, friends and parents. We are all human beings that deserve to live.

Back to the post.

The walk to the Coliseum was a bit long. My flu was still in full swing. I was coughing and blowing my nose constantly.

I arrived at the parking lot outside of the entrance. It was a sea of blue. Officers from all over the country were present. All up and down the state, Reno, Las Vegas, Boston just to name a few. There were so many that it took us about 45 minutes to make our way into the Coliseum and get seating. As we passed through the interior, the screens on the wall were playing photo collages of each officer. I already had to begin holding back the tears.

The Coliseum was at almost full capacity, over 19,000 people in attendance.

Once we had our seats, OPD Chaplain, Father Jayson Landeza, gave a quick opening statement and then stepped down.

“Officers! Aten-HUT!”

The Coliseum stood at attention immediately.

“Officers! Preseennnnt…ARMS!”

Hands whipped smartly to brows. The bagpipes began to play. An honor guard began the procession. Each fallen officer, American Flags draped over their coffins, began the slow entrance. My arm began to tire. I fought off the feeling. If they can give their life, I can give up comfort during this time where we have all gathered to honor them.

After all the coffins were brought out and placed into position, the order was given.

“Officers! Ready…ARMS!”

We took our seats. Each officer had a member of the department present that related a story about their life with the department, their experience with them, their fondest memories. Then a family member would deliver the eulogy.

I have never cried so much. I had to keep wiping away tears. I had hoped that they would not be noticed.

The statements made, were to say the least, very powerful. There was a call to action, a call for change, a call for responsible media, thanks for the members of the public that helped during those horrific moments. Applause rang out.

Then came the presentation of the flags and stars. The folding of the flags was done ceremoniously, methodically, deliberately. They were then brought to the superior officer, inspected, and presented one by one to each of the families. A second flag, with each of the fallen officers stars, was also presented with just as much ceremony.

The end of the funeral arrived. We all stood up.

Honor Guard took their positions about the caskets. Each brought out one at a time. I had no more tears to give.

Rest In Peace.

In memory:
Sgt. Mark Dunakin
Ofc. John Hege
Sgt. Ervin Romans
Sgt. Daniel Sakai

Final Call

An angel in the sky must leave his place of rest,
Gently tucking his wings beneath his armored vest.
For duty has called, there is much work to do.
Little did he know, these ones are dressed in blue.

Arriving on the scene, he knows just what to say:
“Follow me, fallen brothers, I’ll show you the way.
Your duties have ended, your work is now through.
Come hang your hats beside mine. I’m a cop, too.”

Eric DeRenzis ©1999

There isn’t much new to report s far as work goes…I’ve been doing some more plainclothes work. The Captain and Lieutenant have had me and my partner working on a couple of projects. One is to see if we can find the guy that has been setting Porta Potties on fire around the City. Second is to see about working on the new spate of home invasions and burglaries that have been occurring. It seems to be a City wide issue, however.

I’ve been playing a bit with the Windows 7 beta install that I have. It’s interesting.

I do enjoy watching the frustrations that the FTO’s go through, although I haven’t seen anybody get as pissed off as my last FTO did (of course, it’s probably not gonna make it onto TV as it would look bad) but I’m sure that they do, it just gets edited out. Sometimes I can spot the mistakes that they make right away, sometimes it’s apparent later (not too often though)

Oh man…just stuffed myself with tuna quesadillas, derishus, but now sooooooo full , blech!

Ok, back on track now.

So last night I get to work plainclothes, which is always fun. On my monday I worked plainclothes and ended up getting a blue card out of my night. Me and my partner went and assisted another district on a attempted strong arm robbery. We ended up finding the guy, who was with a bunch of his friends at a house. Marked units were out of sight but close by. Me and my partner came around, walked right up to them and detained 5. The marked units then rushed in. It was…very interesting to say the least. All good though, it worked out.

Sorry for being vague, but of course there is always a good reason for that.

The guy then reaches the other side of the street, still yelling “nonononononono” the whole time. He does this crazy cartoon thing where he grabbed onto a telephone pole, swung himself around 360 degrees, and then kept running. The whole time I’m wondering what the hell this guy is running for, as he dumped something while we were running on the first side of the street earlier on…now this guy was no behemoth, but he was acting crazy, was about 6′ tall (which I know, me bein hella short means he’s much taller than me) so I pull out my baton, and finally catch up to him as he tries to run across the street again. I whapped him once and he dropped like a bag of rocks. I fell on top of him, my baton flying into the middle of the street, and locked him up till my partner could get there to help me cuff him. We got the cuffs on him, and pulled him up, and got him against a wall and did the regular customary search for weapons/drugs/contraband etc. Bunch of other units get there and it’s now all code 4.

I go back to see what he dumped, and it was a half eaten burrito. Beans and rice were all over the place. Wow. I ask him why he’s running from us and he tells me that he thought it was illegal to ride one of those motorized scooters. Plus he was on probation. He could have just taken his yelling, but he had to run. So, he ends up getting booked for some charges which became evident later on in the investigation, including riding without a helmet, riding without a license, resisting, and a few others. It was fun. Looking back, I should have looked for traffic before running out after him. But I was so focused, gotta control that for next time.

Onto other news…me and the Ramune are now officially engaged as of 1300 hours on 10-20-08. Tentative date in september. Hooray!!

Money is tight right now as I’ve got a bunch of things to pay for. My red light camera ticket, traffic school, replacing the ignition and catalytic converter for my truck after it got stolen, property taxes, xmas is coming, and there is really no overtime available for me in my current status. Sigh….tight tight tight.

Happy Halloween to y’all, be safe. I know I’ll be trying to stay that way.

Higher Love from the album “Songs Of Faith And Devotion” by Depeche Mode

Things have been going well so far. My Sgt’s have told me that I’m doin good at work, and are pleased with my performance. In all, I am havin a great time. No complaints. I just wish that I could fall asleep when I got home…that is still a problem. Sometimes I only get 4-5 hours of sleep, and sometimes it’s broken up by whatever is goin on outside. Sigh…the joys of workin mids.

Here are some pics of the day. Enjoy!

Ya gotta kinda feel sorry for a character like him at the point he falls to in the beginning of the movie. He had it all, then it just *POOF* vanishes.

Ramune is in Hawaii right now with her mom. That is her birthday present to her. She already got me a Honolulu PD shirt, trying to see if she can get some patches. YO RAMUNEEEEEE!!!

On other things, we were looking for a serious asshole the other day. He threatened the mother of his child with death, her sister and the rest of the family and also to kidnap their child. Then he tried to do it. After having previous DV issues, denying that the kid was even his, beating both of them, following mom around and stalking her, this guy now thinks he can get away…well, he’ll find that difficult to accomplish after we find him and lock him up. Rat.

I started riding my bicycle again through Golden Gate Park. It’s a good ride…and helps out with the cardio that I have been lacking. I need to find myself a workout partner. That should do the trick.

People rear ending a person at the red light, thus pushing them into the intersection where they collide with another car coming from the left.

A motorcyclist racing through the tunnel.

Person making a turn into a parking spot and hitting a bicyclist.

People not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks. (and hitting them)

And on and on

So far I guess I can’t complain too too much. It’s slower here than Ingleside, but there is still alot to learn.

On another note, Ramune turned 24 last weekend. Took her to a brunch at the Embassy Suites Hotel with her family and some friends. Good frickin brunch. I didn’t know what to get there was so much good stuff. I ended up with only a fifth of the available goodies.

I also finally broke my bike engine in. WEG. Waiting on the decals to come in the mail for my modifications. Pics to folow.

At least I started up a workout routine again…time to lose those 5 or so pounds I’ve put on since I swapped stations.

Ramune is sick, but I am taking care of her. Mochi is here trying to take care of her too. Bastard child…

I got my R6. I decided to buy it new, so it’s an ’08, black, and awesome. Just like the one that is pictured earlier here. Slipper clutch, fly by wire throttle, an exhaust that kicks ass…it’s fantastic!! The only changes I am looking forward to making are removing the passenger pegs, installing a rear seat cowl, removing all the turn signals and installing an integrated tail light in the back (duh) and flushies in the front. Mebbe some HID lights in the front with angel eyes or the demon eyes. I think that’s it. Yeah.