That sounds like a bunch of bull.
Posted by Erik | Filed under Uncategorized
Actual, worthwhile things to type about and people might actually have an interest in reading this one. At least I hope. It’s a blog dammit, people I know and random strangers are supposed to read these things.
Anyway - Last Saturday night I went on a ride-along with Chandler Police. I again rode with my friend Steve Waters and this time he’s a K-9 officer so Duke was in the backseat of the car. This was definitely one of the more interesting ride-alongs I’ve ever been on with several vehicle collisions involving the patrol car and the untimely demise of livestock.
It began as a simple ride. We cruised around the construction site for the new Loop 202 freeway that’s passing through Chandler. Lucky me got to be one of the first citizens to go under the overpass at Arizona Avenue. Then we were off to a domestic disturbance call. That turned out very peaceful. Even though the man who was the aggressor was arrested per Arizona’s tough-on-domestic-violence laws, he was extremely cooperative and really wasn’t a threat. The law doesn’t budge though.
From there we cruised around and then tried to locate a possible DUI vehicle called in by a citizen on a cell phone. It wasn’t where the caller stated but a quick check on the mobile data center (in-car networked computer) showed the owner’s name and address. Incidentally, that system’s cool. Type in a license plate # and you’ll get any stolen vehicle info, owner warrants, owner’s personal identification, vehicle info and who the lienholder is showing how much the owner paid. Anyhow, we cruised by the nearby apartment where the owner lived but instead found a vehicle southbound in the northbound lanes of Dobson at about 10pm. He’s attempting to make a right turn into a neighborhood from the wrong side of the road and traffic is stopped in all directions honking at the person. We pull up behind him and light him up. He yields as he’s supposed to into the neighborhood and puts the car in park. He starts to exit the vehicle but realizes something’s wrong which we could already see. The driver missed Park by a notch and instead left it in reverse. We begin backing up while the driver slowly tries to figure out how to fix his problem. Since Steve’s patrol car has a cage for the dog he has no rearview and we’re backing towards an intersection. He has to stop the car after 15 or 20 feet and lets the right push bumper take the impact of the other vehicle still backing up.
So. Now the guy stumbles back out of the car, still in reverse but stopped only because it’s backed into a patrol car. He denies hitting Steve despite being shown the reverse lights and claims he doesn’t know what happened except that the ground was moving. Definitely drunk as could be seen when he exited his car, the DUI process starts. When all is said and done, the guy is found to have a blood alcohol level exceeding 0.31 - that’s almost four times the AZ legal limit of .08 so this guy was gone.
We fill out paper, put me down as a witness to the accident and return to PD to fill out more paper since city property was involved in an accident. Only the push bumper was moved about a half inch and the other vehicle had no visible damage so there’s no problem but it’s required and routine. An hour later at about 12:45am we’re back out on the road.
We’re on our way to Whataburger since Steve owes me dinner when we join up with another group of officers at Frye and Ellis in front of a fire station. There’s a bull loose and he’s sitting tight by the station. For about 5 minutes everyone’s trying to figure out exactly how to proceed when the bull heads west down Frye. Everyone scrambles to follow and prevent traffic problems while hopefully cornering the animal. He runs into a construction site and all the cars surround the area while the bull sits waiting for 10 minutes or so. The he headed off west again down Frye.
The bull makes it to Price and immediately starts heading north along the frontage road of the Loop 101 freeway. He’s mainly up on the embankment for most of it and we’re fearing the bull jumping or pushing through the chain-link fence onto the freeway. They also don’t want the bull going north towards congestion and residential areas. We succeed in turning him around for a bit but he again ends up heading north on Price towards Chandler Blvd.
He jumps over a short wall into an industrial center parking lot and a number of officers jump out and give chase on foot. We know that if they keep squeezing the bull will keep running but they have no choice because of the public safety issue at this point. We moved onto Chandler Blvd facing east and are the only police vehicle on this road at this point. The bull breaks through and over another wall and is now east on Chandler. On the plus side he’s not headed towards the freeway on-ramp which could have ended this fiasco with a deadly high speed traffic collision but now we’re on a congested road. Other officers shut down interesctions and block traffic as we try to keep the bull from heading north which is the only direction this animal wanted to go.
We’re blocking his path with the bull riding against the right front panel of the car - so close I could have touched the bull with no effort out the window. He got caught a couple of times under the car and we believe at one point his left hind leg broke as we heard a snap. Unfortunately the bull did make it in front of and then around the car and headed north into a residential area. He then entered a shopping center (the one with Office Max and Lowe’s hardware) and we followed him as he ran along the storefronts.
Nearing Lowe’s, the bull heads into the parking lot. At this point there are probably 8 to 10 patrol cars trying to avoid each other while trying to stop this bull - we’re still the lead vehicle with the animal. Maneuvering so the bull is on the driver side, Steve fires his TASER at him with little success. Other officers try as well. The bull starts running north along the west side of Lowe’s with some officers on foot again and we tried to pin him between the car and the wrought-iron of Lowe’s garden center wall. Mis-timed, we only cornerd him on the passenger side. Steve jumps out and several officers are attempting to subdue the bull with TASER’s. Unfortunately the voltage isn’t high enough to do anything but irritate the animal. Another officer falls down and at that point an officer draws his firearm and more than half a dozen rounds are needed to stop the bull which was headed back towards the center exit and possibly across to the freeway on-ramp.
Since a firearm was discharged, it became an ivestigation scene and took up the remainder of the night or rather the morning. As of 4am Saturday they still didn’t know for certain who the bull belonged to or where it came from. It’s unfortunate the officers lacked the equipment necessary to deal with livestock but they may receive it now as is often the case after a bad example like this occurs.
Beth has left the City of Chandler. Good for her, I’m thrilled she’s going to be working somewhere else that will appreciate her level of skill and dedication and compensate her appropriately. Along those lines, I received my second Exceptional Merit Award. That means another monetary bonus. Plus something else is supposedly being pushed through which I’ll discuss in detail if it becomes reality. Nevertheless, I still want to leave. It’s more difficult when more money and training (and a really beneficial experience coming up) are thrown my way. With that, I’ll continue to narrow my focus. I desperately want to live and work in Ireland and that will continue to be where I put my efforts in job searching including when I’m in the country in 77 days. I’m also hoping the US Foreign Service will have a need for IT people in the reasonably near future. It’s the perfect kind of work for me, allowing me to work at any of 265 embassies, consulates and other US offices overseas for two to four year posts. A life spent living abroad, learning about and experiencing living in other cultures is the kind of life I would love.
I’ll be off to Albuquerque on the 23rd for Gaelic Storm’s concert at the zoo there. I just found out this week that the Clare Voyants will be in Washington on the 24th and 25th. They’ll be at Fado’s in Seattle on the 25th and I’m now trying to work out how to get back from Albuquerque and then up to Seattle in time. Sad that I follow bands? I don’t think so. These people have become friends already or do become friends as a part of this. What should I do instead? Sit at home? Drive to the coast and waste away my time on the beach? That’s dull and will always be an option. A good time with good friends and good music may not be and I’ll enjoy it whenever and however I can!
It is indeed only 77 days before leaving for London. I’ll arrive on the 18th, Ann and Christine will arrive on the 21st. I’m spending a lot of time figuring out the initial basics of where to stay when first arriving, which day and city to fly into and out of Ireland, obtaining my London Underground visitor farecard for the few days I have before my friends arrive and determing which day trip from London to embark on. It’s getting terribly close! 77 is still a large number but it’ll be only a few weeks away before I know it!
Lastly.. to the latest girl I’ve fallen in love with - again.
Share the Darkness - The Saw Doctors
Why can’t I say that I love you
I can’t say that I don’t
I can’t say that I couldn’t
And I want to say that I won’t
But I really like your company
I’m enjoying myself no end
But I can’t keep from thinking
Why don’t we share the darkness tonight
Make it warm and burning bright
I’m not saying nothing
I’ll be polite
Why don’t we share the darkness tonight
Life’s too short for wishing
For if’s and might have been’s
Life’s too short for wondering if
You could have lived your dreams
And its way too short for loneliness
Now that we trust each other
Why don’t you stay with me?
When the world belongs to distant dogs
And the air is dark and still
And drunken conversations beneath the window sill
And there’s someone singing
Elvis songs as they make their way back home
and all your fears and worries
69 Responses to “That sounds like a bunch of bull.”
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Anonymous Says:
July 6th, 2004 at 2:35 amHeh heh heh, what an interesting ride-along.
Kinda of like pinball with tha bull and all of those cars. ;p I’ll be forwarding that story to a Explorer friend of mine.Wow, to work in Ireland; how wonderful would that be! Hopefully something good like that will indeed come up.
-Erika.
http://skysailor.blogspot.com