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Thread: The old-school ways?

  1. #1

    The old-school ways?

    After reading all the roll-call stories and seeing other posts and comments, I keep hearing references about how it used to be different back in the day. I don't doubt it in the least, but how exactly were things different? Were there perhaps unwritten rules and things which both the cops and the baddies understood?

  2. #2
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    I would say that was part of it. There was less oversight, and less accountability....but you also had to be able to think for yourself and make decisions. I was talking to a couple of my peers the other night and all of us could remember vividly the times we had to call a sergeant for something, because those incidents were so few and far between. You had to be an independent thinker, and quick on your feet. We were also less reliant on technology, and what we had wasn't exactly reliable (those damn green screen analog MVT's crashed if you ran a guy with a hispanic surname). Revolver, 18 rounds, mace, and 26 inches of hickory. No cell phones, and no cameras everywhere. A lot of problems were resolved with wood shampoo's and dogpiles. The bad guys were assholes, they knew they were assholes, they knew you knew they were assholes, so there were no issues to be explored. There was a lot of goofing off and smarting off to people that cops just can't do anymore. I had a lady yelling at me one day that we had taken two whole hours to respond to her cold burglary report. I said, "Sorry, lady. The transporter is broken and Scotty's on his lunch break. We had to use the car!" Even something this mild wouldn't fly nowadays.

  3. #3
    Site Supporter Hambo's Avatar
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    Before your car/portable number came up on a computer screen at dispatch, you'd hear a lot of witty, funny shit. CAD pretty much killed that.
    "Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA

  4. #4
    The (late) police chief here referred to one of his officers (also gone now) as, "An artist with the sap."
    I don't think that would pass the political correctness test these days.

  5. #5
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    Some old school things I recall doing myself:

    1. Telling assholes to leave my town and meaning it.
    2. Telling assholes they couldn't come on my beat and arresting them if they did.
    3. Loading up an asshole on foot and "deporting" him miles up the road.
    4. Being pissed off when you caught an officer from "miles up the road" dropping off an asshole from their locale in YOURS.
    5. Routinely choking resistant suspects unconscious....like every week.
    6. Hitting resistant suspects with a flashlight...a lot.
    7. Farting over the primary channel on the radio.
    8. Chasing everybody who ran from you until you caught them or crashed out.
    9. Not being worried about how you verbally responded to assholes.
    Regional Government Sales Manager for Aimpoint, Inc. USA
    Co-owner Hardwired Tactical Shooting (HiTS)

  6. #6
    Member Sal Picante's Avatar
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    So ... some stories from when I was a kid in Chicago:

    1.) Being 16 and at a bar/club near Loyola U in Roger's Park. We came in the back way (buddy let us in) and our HS gym coach, coach Favaro, is the bouncer... Sh*t... He called CPD and they picked gave us a lift back home... My two buddies were the sons of a pretty well-regarded copper family. The message: "Do you want me to tell your father, you little pricks?! Go drink in the park, don't come back to the clubs!"

    2.) Getting pinched for joy-riding a neighbor's mustang while he was outta town - the cop was the guys next door neighbor, LOL - he knew us form the neighborhood and we weren't doing anything crazy; we were just trying to pick up girls (seemed like a solid idea at the time)... He followed us back, made us pay for gas, and said he'd check the locks on the house and garage everyday and if things weren't solid would beat the living shit out of us and drop us in Cabrini.

    I learned a lot about respect, what you can/can't do, and how to man-up for ones shortcomings.

  7. #7
    I'll sum this up with the exact words of Chief Wayne Simmons told to me and my fellow rookies in May of 1988.

    "My rules are simple, you will treat criminals like criminals, and citizens like citizens." After he left our training people told us that if you wanted to keep your job, don't ever let the chief hear that you treated a criminal like a citizen or a citizen like a criminal. Now, we treat everyone like citizens, especially the criminals.

    Also, discretion was not only allowed, it was expected, along with common sense. You were expected to be kind to little old ladies, small children, and puppies. You were expected to put people who hurt cops in ICU for weeks, to be able to beat criminals far bigger than you into submission by yourself, and to catch crooks far smaller than you by yourself. You needed to be great with creativity and showmanship, as well as with a sap, Maglite, and wood (and your steel revolver). You had to be able to drive like a racing pro in a vehicle with drum brakes and weighed in tons and had no designations in the metric system. You had to have the ability to write....with a pen, and write correctly without spell check. The Justice system was done on the street, the legAl system occurred in the courtroom. It was a different world.
    Last edited by Dagga Boy; 06-13-2016 at 11:24 AM.
    Just a Hairy Special Snowflake supply clerk with no field experience, shooting an Asymetric carbine as a Try Hard. Snarky and easily butt hurt. Favorite animal is the Cape Buffalo....likely indicative of a personality disorder.
    "If I had a grandpa, he would look like Delbert Belton".

  8. #8
    Site Supporter 41magfan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wayne Dobbs View Post
    Some old school things I recall doing myself:

    1. Telling assholes to leave my town and meaning it.
    2. Telling assholes they couldn't come on my beat and arresting them if they did.
    3. Loading up an asshole on foot and "deporting" him miles up the road.
    4. Being pissed off when you caught an officer from "miles up the road" dropping off an asshole from their locale in YOURS.
    5. Routinely choking resistant suspects unconscious....like every week.
    6. Hitting resistant suspects with a flashlight...a lot.
    7. Farting over the primary channel on the radio.
    8. Chasing everybody who ran from you until you caught them or crashed out.
    9. Not being worried about how you verbally responded to assholes.
    Back in the day, when Greyhound was a common form of transportation, you could get a connecting route ticket for just a few bucks. Things in my jurisdiction were remarkably quiet and peaceful for a day or two when a bunch of our town drunks decided to "visit" a larger, neighboring city about 20 miles down the road.

    The honeymoon didn't last very long however, and when they were "returned" to us from their little hiatus, they had grown slightly in their numbers.

    A handwritten note pinned to one of their coats read, "Don't repeat this shit again. We've got a lot more where these came from."

    I guess turnabout is indeed fair play ........

    :^)
    The path of least resistance will seldom get you where you need to be.

  9. #9
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    Living across the Golden Bridge , and through the Rainbow Tunnel, somewhere north of Fantasyland.
    That^^ is pretty damn funny.

  10. #10
    We had a town drunk who was one of those guys who at some point was a productive genius in society and became a roaring alcoholic. He was famous for stealing a female corpse from a local mortuary and "marrying her". Our guys found him with her body on his bicycle. He was also fond of taking his clothes off and assaulting whatever area he was in with feces that he would despot in his hands and cover himself in. This is a guy who got arrested weekly. I chipped in with a bunch of deputies at the jail and other local cops to put him on a train to Dallas. Deputies loaded him up right from the jail. The Texas cops had him on a train back in a week.

    Of course, I am sure many of us have performed the "touch my badge" divorces as well. And before video.....some of the fun you could have with drunks on field sobriety tests were classic.
    Just a Hairy Special Snowflake supply clerk with no field experience, shooting an Asymetric carbine as a Try Hard. Snarky and easily butt hurt. Favorite animal is the Cape Buffalo....likely indicative of a personality disorder.
    "If I had a grandpa, he would look like Delbert Belton".

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