Narc Frustrations - Pick One

I'm going way off focus today - diverting from the mission, so to speak. I'm throwing another log on the fire... literally. I don't need an excuse to use my fireplace, but it IS 47 degrees this morning, my house is quiet, and there's a special aroma in the air; the blend of fresh coffee and burning oak that accents the "safe harbor" appeal of my den - my favorite room in the house.

I've already put in 62 hours this week so, I'm only going to the office later to pick up my check. I'm one of the few that doesn't use "direct deposit". I need to hold that piece of paper for a few minutes, I need to see the fruits of my labor; the "results" of missing a million meals at home, missing my kids' games, not being here for my family when a crisis hits home, forgetting promises that I made at 2:00 A.M. while reaching to answer one of three cell phones that I carry, crawling into bed at 3:00 A.M. after watching an out-of-state mini-van that never moved during 12 hours of continous surveillance - only to find that it left sometime before I returned at 7:00 A.M....

I started this blog to remember and re-live some of the "highlights"; events and cases that I experienced and lived through while performing my duties. I never expected to make or even have "friends", drop-ins, other bloggers checking to see what I had written. Then one day, TRASHMAN left me a comment and linked my blog on his site. I started getting referals from the link and soon GRACE appeared, then MARTINE and SEX@STARBUCKS, and others came from unknown sources, and lately a few "suspicious" visits from "known" sources. I've tried to link to all of you in return. Thanks.

My intentions were to write only about the past; old cases and investigations that couldn't and wouldn't be compromised in any way by anything I wrote. My goal was to write about the events in the chronological order that I experienced them. Some of them, POISON comes to mind, were slow to develop. Some needed to be revisited when the time came to kick their ass. Even though they occurred over a span of a just few minutes, sometimes hours, sanitizing them for the interest of my colleagues' sake, took hours and hours of editting.

So, today I'm fast forwarding 14 years to the present. I'm gonna bitch today. Then tomorrow, well... maybe next week, I might resume with my intended mission.

One of the first things my unit's Commander told me, when I was a "Baby Narc" in 1990, was: "Have Fun. Be damn careful, but have fun doing it." I haven't referred to my old Commander yet, he's in the cards though. What he didn't tell me, but JR did, was that there were going to be a lot of things that I would see and hear that were going to frustrate me; push me to the point of "breaking cover". I'd have to let things go; not act like a street cop anymore. There have been a few instances where I've broken cover to protect a bystander or a victim. Undercover or not, I refuse to stand-by while a woman or a child is physically abused. I alluded to my first "fuck-up" in one of my earliest posts, "Rose's or Red's". I'll take days off as punishement or risk being "found out", but a defenseless woman or a child has my help if it happens in my presence. "F" 'em - I signed on to be a cop, to "serve and protect" in the first place - Narcotics was a by-product, and it's lasted 15 years.

So, the bitch. Last week, at about 11:00A.M. one day, we saturated a neighborhood with unmarked vehicles, stationary and mobile surveillance posts, even a helicopter. We had very reliable information that a vehicle loaded with Cocaine was preparing to leave for a destination in the East. I had already met two of the suspects in an undercover meeting and I didn't need to be seen in their "hood", so I kept a safe distance but remained close enough to react to any movement or trouble. I chose to wait on one of about fifteen streets that intersect the main thoroughfare into the neighborhood. It just happened to be at a four-way stop. So I sat there, listening to the secure radio and the Nextel chatter, occasionally hearing the "pop" of the chopper blades when the wind blew just right, and watched car after car run the stop signs. Some stopped - some slowed down but never actually stopped as defined by law. A few never slowed at all. I sat back and daydreamed about how easy it would be to sit in a squad car in the same spot and fill book after book of stop sign citations. I actually chuckled as I remembered the joke about the traffic cop pummeling a stop sign violator; "You want me to STOP or SLOW DOWN!?!?" Like shooting fish in a barrel - someday, I may end up back in uniform and I'll come back to this spot and easily fill my...

My daydream was interrupted when I saw something I haven't seen in YEARS. A hispanic girl, maybe in her early 20's, rolled her white Maxima through the stop sign without stopping. OK - One out of 50 cars so far. The kicker to this particular violator was that she had a toddler, barely old enough to stand, perched in her lap and he was holding on to the steering wheel as she sped by. ANY contact with another vehicle or another object and that kid is history. Dammit! Do I go after her and get her stopped? I pulled out of my spot and tried to find the car, but she was nowhere in sight. She could gave gone down any of the side-streets while I contemplated my move. OK. Hope she drives half-way safe and little Julio doesn't get blown away by the airbag. I can't be in two places at the same time, besides, traffic enforcement isn't my job. Go ahead -make yourself feel better. Justify NOT doing something sooner.

The surveillance lingered; the crooks never left (while we were there anyway) and about 2:00A.M. we "called it", go home. We met back at the office, put away some equipment and pondered the next course of action. I left around 2:30 and pointed my sled toward home. Tired, hungry, ass numb and I'll be back in a couple of hours to resume the surveillance. I pulled up to a red light and the only other vehicle on the street pulled up beside me. No. Not the chica in the Maxima. A couple in a Ford Expedition. Nice. Gold 2004 model. Hubby cracked the driver's window as he lit a cigarette while momma played with Junior, a baby, who she had standing in her lap. I reached back into my turn-out bag and pulled the red and blue strobe out, then barely plugged it into the cigarette lighter so it was ready to go but not powered up yet, then I dug for my badge. Get a gun out before you get their attention. They don't know you're a cop. I eased up a few feet and plugged in the light. The dim intersection was immediately doused in red and blue. I get "frisky" when that happens. Momma turned to look at me. I raised my badge case and motioned for her to lower her window. She pushed junior down into the floorboard and turned to look at her "prize" husband. Hubby glanced at me briefly then turned away, puffing on his Marlboro. "Get that kid in a car seat!," I yelled across the short distance. "Fuck you!," Momma shot back while flipping me the bird. Hubby laughed and pulled away from the intersection, running the red light. "Fuck ME?" I shut off the lights and followed them while I called for a marked squad. Within seconds, (late night guys LOVE to get called by the Narcs) four squad cars descended upon the Expedition. I haven't written a citation in over 14 years, so I had to ask a rookie for some help. "Hot damn! This is neat! I can write more than one violation on the same ticket!" "Unrestrained Child". "Running a Red Light". "Where's the box for "Being A Dumbass in a No Dumbass Zone?" I wasn't even pissed at Momma, until I saw the child carrier in the back seat... safely protecting a twelve pack of Bud Light. Hubby went to jail for seven (7) outstanding traffic warrants. Momma got several sermons and was eventually let slide on the "pissing off the po-leese" charge.

Sleep well, Junior... A nosey Narc got a second chance tonite, and may have saved your life in the process.