Another Installment of 'What Were They Thinking?'

Love can make people do irrationally stupid things.

Take Deniz ( pronounced 'Denise' ) Martinez, for example.

Martinez lives in Lake Wales, Florida with her boyfriend, Jason Drake. Drake is on probation for an unspecified crime and has to submit to urine testing when he reports to his probation officer. Martinez dropped Drake off for a scheduled meeting last month at the County Probation and Parole office in Winter Haven, where Drake told his PO that he couldn't summon enough fluid from his bladder for the urinalysis; the PO told Drake that he would have to detain him until he could pee a sufficient amount for testing.

Enter Martinez. Drake had communicated to her that his urine sample would be 'dirty' and was delaying the process. Martinez, in an effort to get her lover out of having to submit urine, then called the Winter Haven Police Department and told them a man was standing outside the probation building with a bomb, who intended to detonate it inside the building.

She called from her personal cell phone. The same cell phone that's listed as an emergency contact on Jason Drake's probation paperwork.

The building was evacuated and searched by WHPD's bomb squad and given the 'all clear'. Martinez was later located at the residence she shares with Drake and arrested on a felony bomb threat; her boyfriend was also arrested for probation violation due to failing to submit a urine sample.

Then there's Brian Crume, also of Winter Haven.

Crume entered a local WalMart and shoplifted several packages of wiring. Store security caught him leaving without paying for the items and he was arrested.

When asked why he'd committed the crime, Crume responded by saying he was trying to raise enough cash to post bail for his jailed girlfriend....

....who was in jail for shoplifting.

                                                                    Crume

Martinez

Heroin Traffickers and the Cure

“…died of an overdose…”.

We’ve read that line far too many times in print media, heard those words too often during the evening news. Now, more than ever in the history of these United States, heroin addiction and overdose deaths are at their worst.

I drove a school bus part-time for fifteen years. Students who rode my bus in years past have died of overdose; kids who boarded as kindergarteners, whose little faces I can still see clearly in my mind, dead mere months after graduating from high school. Last week my wife and I attended calling hours for a young man whom I coached in summer league baseball, gone because of this plague of heroin addiction.

Law enforcement is scrambling, working hard to build strong cases against persons responsible for distributing drugs in our communities, particularly opiates. These cases are presented to a grand jury by the prosecutor’s office, traffickers get indicted and eventually end up in criminal court.

Yet time and time again I read of heroin traffickers sentenced to probation for their crime.

Why probation? Why are these people, convicted of or admitting to selling heroin and the death, despair and destroyed families that accompany it, allowed to roam among us on the streets and sidewalks, stand behind us in line at the grocery store?

“Our hands are pretty much tied”, a judge once told me, “Sentencing guidelines don’t mandate prison time for persons convicted of heroin trafficking on a first offense so, in most cases, we can’t send them to prison.”

Therein lies the problem. Unless we get serious about addressing the top of the heroin food chain and target the traffickers with something they fear, people will continue to die of overdose at an ever-increasing rate. Loved ones, neighbors and young people who formerly rode that school bus will die from injecting or snorting heroin. Crime will continue to rise, families will continually suffer, alongside those who have already been savaged by the loss of a loved one, unless opiate traffickers get mandatory prison for a first offense. The law, along with sentencing guidelines, needs to change in regards to heroin trafficking.

Of one thing you can be certain: heroin dealers don’t fear probation. 

Friday Odds 'n Ends

Late Wednesday night, two Boston police officers were responding to a disturbance call when, without warning, they were fired on by a man wearing body armor who was armed with a tactical shotgun and a handgun.

Officers Rich Cintolo, a 27-year veteran, and Matt Morris, with 12 years on the job, were both shot and seriously wounded by 33-year-old Kirk Figueroa, who had gotten into an altercation with his male room mate. The room mate then called police, which precipitated the shootings. Other responding officers were able to drag Cintolo and Morris to safety while also taking fire from Figueroa, who was eventually shot and killed by police.

Figueroa, who claimed to own a company called 'Code Blue Protection Corporation' with alleged assets totalling $75 million dollars, was a licensed constable in Massachusetts although he was not licensed to carry a firearm. Constables in that state serve legal papers and civil summonses. Neighbors, along with Figueroa's ex-wife, stated that the deceased suspect had severe anger issues.

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, in praising the coppers who rescued Cintolo and Morris, said "...I commend our officers for running into that building with no fear...". While it was an act of extreme heroism on the parts of the officers involved, I suspect there was a lot of fear involved. Ask any police officer who has been shot at or who has responded to a call involving an active shooter and, to a person, they'll tell you they were very afraid. Bravery, according to WW II General Omar Bradley, is the "...capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death."

Very true. Any cop who says they were never scared on the job are either liars or spent their careers behind a desk.

Cintolo and Morris, after emergency surgery and several blood transfusions, are recovering in a Boston hospital, though both are still in critical condition. In an unusual twist, Cintolo's' father, himself a retired Boston police officer, was also shot in the line of duty while responding to a disturbance call, in 1980. He survived his wound.

                                                                     ******

Some things people say concerning the world of law enforcement, particularly media reporters, drives me up a wall.

I read numerous news sites on the internet every morning while drinking a hot cup of Tim Horton's black gold; yesterday, a TV news reporter stated on a website that a man had been sentenced for '...felony murder.'

Folks, there is no such thing as 'misdemeanor' murder. Doesn't exist. Murder is a capital crime, not a misdemeanor offense. I've also heard it on prime-time Hollywood versions of cop shows..."you're under arrest for felony murder!"

Insane.

                                                                     ******

Locally, a man involved in the homicide of an elderly woman was declared mentally incapable of understanding the law and that he had done something wrong. Never mind the facts that he and his female accomplice, who also has been charged, knew enough to dismember the victim and scatter her remains across northern Richland County, use the decedent's credit card in order to flee the state and then hide in a roadside camping area in a park located in Tennessee.

Sounds to me like he knew exactly what he had done.

BPD officers Rich Cintolo and Matt Morris

Racist Public Servants

Demetrick Pennie. I'd bet my next pension check that 95% of you have never heard of him.

 Remember that name.

Pennie is a seventeen-year veteran of law enforcement, serving as a Sergeant with the Dallas Police Department; he is also Executive Director of the Texas Fallen Officer Foundation. Sgt Pennie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminal Justice as well as a Master's in Counseling and is working towards his Doctorate in Higher Education. He is also an adjunct professor for two major universities, specializing in the areas of cultural diversity, ethics and criminal justice. Pennie is also a veteran of the United States Army.

Recently Sgt. Pennie, who is a black man, has come under attack by a Texas judge and a Texas State Representative. Judge Andrea Martin of the 304th Circuit Court, via social media, compared Pennie to a clueless slave, eliciting a round of insults which included calling Pennie a 'coon', while Johnson compared Pennie to the Samuel L. Jackson character in the movie 'Django Unchained'.

Martin and Johnson are also black.

Why are they doing this?

It seems Demetrick Pennie, who grew up in inner city Houston and witnessed the slaying of his cousin mere days before her wedding, had the audacity to file a federal lawsuit against Black Lives Matter for inciting violence against police officers and advocating a national race war. Also named in his action are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Al Sharpton, Nation of Islam cult leader Louis Farrakhan and a host of others who have expressed support for BLM in the face of police shooting deaths involving black citizens.

Since filing the suit, Pennie has received death threats numerous times and has requested investigation of those threats by the FBI.

Here's what those named in the suit, along with Martin and Johnson, either choose to ignore or simply don't understand: the vast majority of police shootings, including that of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Tamir Rice in Cleveland, were found to be justified or that no criminal conduct on the part of police had occurred. Those decisions were made by grand jurors, citizens just like you and I.

The fact is, police have contact with the public millions of times every day in these United States. Some of these contacts involve persons who are violent, engaging in threatening conduct and/or are armed. Police officers sometimes are compelled to make split-second decisions concerning use of deadly force and in a very few instances the decisions are wrong, such as the recent Tulsa shooting of Terrence Crutcher, an unarmed black man shot by a white female police officer. That officer has been charged with manslaughter...and rightly so by all accounts of the incident I've read.

That case has yet to go to court.

Inciting or endorsing violence against police, no matter who is involved, is wrong. Conduct of police officers are governed by law, departmental rules and regulations and standard operating procedures. We are a nation founded on the principle of rule of law, where all citizens are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Sergeant Demetrick Pennie, using this country's justice system, filed suit against those who openly call for violence against police and those who support them. For that, he has been threatened with death and called vile names that would be deemed racist if Johnson or Martin, who are elected public servants, were white.

Can African Americans be racist against those who are of the same race?

Apparently not, especially if the target of racist comments are police officers who just happen to be black.

                                         Sgt. Pennie's website is here: http://sgtpennie.com/

Media Circus Over Clowns

'MANSFIELD: 100 block of East Cook Road, Mansfield — A 20-year-old man told police he received a threatening Facebook message from "Kenny the Klown" and he feared for his life. 

Police told him not to accept friend requests from clowns.'


That one made me laugh out loud.

Which is what clowns are supposed to do. They're supposed to engage in goofy antics while wearing silly-looking clothing, garish face paint and bright orange wigs. They're supposed to unload a dozen at a time from compact cars, ride tiny bicycles and pull yards and yards of knotted silk scarves from their mouths.

That's what they are supposed to do. Make people laugh.

Not so much recently, however. Now that the 'Pokemon Go' media frenzy has passed, the creepy clowns have taken their places in headlines across the country. From right here in north central Ohio to Greely, Colorado to Kern County, California to Rainbow City, Alabama, clowns and clown threats are disrupting schools and terrorizing communities. Police and school resources have been redirected to combat a wave of social media terroristic threats alleging violent, imminent attacks at schools and colleges.

And that is no laughing matter.

In Alabama, two adults and five juveniles face felony charges of making terroristic threats via social media directed at schools...while posing as internet clowns.

Roll Tide! I'm with them whole-heartedly. In this day and age, especially in light of recent school shootings, law enforcement and prosecutors need to act swiftly and justly in making an example of those that would perpetrate such acts, clowns or not. 

As for the rest of us? Get off those social media platforms and stop believing everything you see and read on them. The less exposure these clowns are given the sooner this fad will pass.

Another 'What Was He Thinking?' Episode

Never, ever dare police officers to take you to jail.

Because they will.

James Massengale found that out. The Islamorada, Florida homeless man decided he'd enter the waters of Library Beach Creek, joining two adult manatees swimming with two calves. Massengale touched the mammals repeatedly, which is a violation of state game laws, and bystanders called law enforcement to the scene after he told them the only way he was leaving was if "...somebody with a badge..." told him to. Massengale then proceeded to ride one of the animals in the water.

Enter the State of Florida Fish and Game officer who DID tell him to exit the creek. Massengale was in the process of being issued a criminal summons in lieu of arrest for the misdemeanor violation when he began taunting officers, telling them he wouldn't even show up for court.

When the man started chanting 'Take me to jail! Take me to jail!', he was arrested and then incarcerated in the Monroe County Jail for refusing to obey lawful orders of a law enforcement officer.

It will happen every time.

                                James Massengale Jr.

Amish and 'Rumspringa'; Out of Control

I don't know how I could have missed this news item a few weeks ago.

Holmes County, the heart of Amish country in Ohio, was the site of a massive police raid on a 'Rumspringa' party a few weeks ago; 73 arrests were made in all, including 35 juveniles, almost all for underage drinking.

According to Clarence White, who owns a large farm on County Rd 400 in Holmes County, there were "...probably 1,000..." teens and young adults at the annual Amish rite-of -passage event on his property, one he's rented out for the last twelve years. "The kids ordained me years ago when they first started having parties here as the 'Party Pope' ".

White estimated the crowd to be 1,000 attendees, not only from Ohio but also Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York. He charges $20 a head for the event, making a profit of around $5,000 after costs for portable toilets, a stage, bands and large tents. 

'Rumspringa', or 'running around', is a period where Amish adolescents are permitted to experience modern vices, such as drinking and/or smoking, and explore the world outside of traditional Amish virtues. 

True story: about 18 months before I retired from law enforcement, I was working midnights at Lexington PD with my usual partner, Capt. Troy Weaver. Now, if you don't know Troy, you're missing out on a very colorful personality, all-around good guy and solid family man. I'm thankful I was able to spend my last seven years behind a badge working with this man, a great cop who also happens to be a very funny guy.

Lexington is on a path from parts of Ohio's Amish regions to the city of Mansfield, a straight shot up US 42, right through the heart of Lexington. It wasn't unusual for Troy and I to witness a caravan of four or 5 Amish buggies rolling through the village on the way to Mansfield in the middle of the night. We had no idea where they were headed, but it would happen once or twice a month. Amish buggies weren't an uncommon sight.

One night Troy makes a car stop on US 42, on the southern outskirts of the village; he'd said "...with several occupants..." when he called in the stop, which meant I'd back him up.

I roll up to see the Captain talking to the driver; there were three other white males in the car also, so I approach the passenger side from the rear, peering inside as I move. All the windows are down and cigarette smoke is rolling out. I could also smell the distinct aroma of beer.

Troy asks me to get identification from the two right side front/rear passengers. The young guy in the front seat, a lanky, dark-haired youth who looked like he was 15, stared up at me with apprehension.

"I need to see some I.D., partner", I said.

"I don't have any, sir", he replied.

Perturbed, I responded. "Look, you at least gotta have something with your name on it, pal. Hand it over."

He hesitated, then reached into a back pocket and withdrew his wallet. Young dude opens it and pulls out a piece of white notebook paper, on which he'd printed his name, and hands it to me.

"This is all I have."

I immediately saw red, feeling that this kid was messing with me. "You gotta be kidding! Out of the car, NOW."

The sandy-haired youth in the back seat interrupted.

"Oh, no, officer! Wait! That's really all he has! We're Amish!"

Whaaat??!

As it turned out, all four of these young guys were Amish; three were on their 'rumspringa', the driver already having left the sect and joining the world. He had an Ohio operator's license and lived in an apartment in Mt Gilead. His three passengers were friends who were staying with him.

The guy who'd given me the note paper with his name written on it got out of the car; he was about six-foot-three and kept his arms folded across his belt line, in kind of a hunched-over posture. Troy and I found open beers in the car, which the two back seat passengers were hiding behind them, and a session of summons-writing ensued.

Tall guy, who'd been placed in the back of Troy's SUV cruiser, had been hunched-over for a reason. As he's stepping out of the cruiser, he tells Captain Weaver, "Well, you might as well have this one, too", and pulls an opened can of beer out of the front of his pants.

He hadn't even spilled a drop.

The driver, who hadn't been drinking ( chauffeur? ) agreed to take custody of the other three miscreants after promising to take them straight to his apartment. As we watched them pull away into the night, Troy and I laughed uproariously...two cops alongside a dark road, bent over, guffawing at what we'd just experienced.

Troy explained what 'rumspringa' meant to Amish youth, because I had never heard of it. I responded:

"Well, they sure experienced the world tonight....drinking, smoking cigarettes....gettin' stopped by the po-lice...."

We started laughing all over again.

I sure do miss working nights with that man.