WHERE ARE WE GOING???...
I wonder how often we take the time to check on the above question...
Some days are very, very active... Some days are very, very slow...
Some days there is little trouble... Some days trouble comes so fast as to cause us
to reel back from the demands...
Some days our plan works well... Some days nothing in our plan gets accomplished.
Some days we are strong and healthy... other days we are ill... or injured...
or incapacitated and cannot act...
Some days life goes our way... Some days life seems to be against us...
Each line holds two extremes of the same thought...
Most days fall someplace in between these extremes and most of us cope with it
satisfactorily...
Following are some extremes faced by Peace Keepers this past week;
=================================================================
PoliceOne.com, week 223, vol. 3, 04/02/05
Officers Share Dramatic Details of Tuesday's Deadly Encounter With 300-lb.
Naked EDP
PoliceOne Exclusive By Chuck Remsberg, Senior PoliceOne Contributor When their unit
caught the call about a 300-pound man walking naked down a major thoroughfare in
Kenosha, Wisc., with three naked children at 2:13 a.m. in the cold, FTO Dave
Monson turned to the rookie riding with him and remarked dryly, "That's not normal
behavior." Minutes later, with nine direct hits from Monson's .45 S&W pistol, one
twisted life was taken and three young lives were saved ...
Handcuffed Suspect Steals S.C. Cruiser, Starts Wild Chase;
"Give (People Who Are Under Arrest) a Little Hole, and They Can Get
Through It." Police say a suspected shoplifter had somehow opened a sliding
window in the partition and wriggled from the back of Hanahan, S.C. Police Sgt.
Sam Chapman's cruiser into the front seat Tuesday. He commandeered the
unmanned vehicle and went on a joyride through North Charleston before being
arrested ...
Panama City Beach Officer Killed; Suspected Gang Member Arrested -
03/28/2005, Kevin Kight - [Panama City Beach, Florida]
================================================================
VIRGINIAN-PILOT, NORFOLK, VA, 04/02/05
IRAQ
U.S. TROOPS KILLED - 8
COALITION TROOPS KILLED - 1 BRITISH
U.S. TROOPS WOUNDED - 126
TOTAL U.S. TROOPS KILLED SINCE 03/03 - 1533
TOTAL U.S. TROOPS WOUNDED SINCE 03/03 - 11, 568
================================================================
Received this in an email. Frank is one of my most prized, professional acquaintances.
I find it enlightening:
"A billion"....
The next time you hear a politician use the word "billion," casually, think about whether you want
the politician spending your tax money. A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one
advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into perspective in one of its releases.
A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
A billion days ago no one walked on two feet on earth.
A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate the government spends it.
Thought for the day:
If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in theater during the last 22 months,
it gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000. The rate in DC is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that
you are more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun
control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.
Conclusion: We should immediately pull out of Washington, D.C.!!!!
<>What do you think?</>
<>Frank Borelli</>
President, BCI
410-394-1004 (office phone & fax)
240-375-2476 (mobile)
frank@borelliconsulting.com
frankborelli@comcast.net
<>"If you find yourself in a fair fight, you failed to properly plan beforehand."
===================================================
All week I have been thinking about the lives of Peace Keepers saved by battle
dressings.
</>I did a lot of research, calling and asking questions. I found resources. The kits
sound expensive... but what is your life worth?
Think about your days and maybe even this past week. How often did you go into
situations where you really did not know much... except that someone called... and
someone had a need? How often did you walk up to a car at night and find
something different than you expected to find? We did learn to have managers
step outside to meet us on store and bank robberies and other similar calls. We
did learn to put shields in all cars that might be used to transport prisoners. We
did learn to put better emergency lighting equipment on patrol cars. We did learn
to research and find weapons of offense and defense in the intermediate range
so that we do not have to immediately resort to deadly force. We learned to
train in officer survival and furnish body armor... all these and many other things
we learned because someone paid with serious injury... or with their life.
The operations manuals were all written mostly because someone fouled up and
a rule had to be written to cover the liability problem... then we all had to adjust to
the new rule and/or new methods. The ops manuals have continued to grow in
both scope and size. Length of training time has expanded... material has
changed many times over... constant retraining is also a necessity. What was
acceptable yesterday or last week may not be acceptable this week.
SO IT GOES IN THE LIVES OF ALL PEACE KEEPERS!!! Not only constant
vigilance against crime, destruction and evil... but vigilance in knowing what is
right today... and then doing it correctly. Peace Keepers are subjected to a
constant requirement to be right and function correctly wherever our battlefield is...
IT IS TRUE ON EVERY FRONT... and if we do not keep ourselves vigilant...
it could just cost our job... or a fellow Peace Keeper's life... or even our own life.
Think on the opening statements above... and where are we going? If you give
deep thought to the subject you will see that except for education, practice,
training, and planning/preparation... we have very little to no control over where
we are going in any moment of duty. The radio crackles to life with a priority
call... the computer beeps with an assignment... we see something that just does
not look right... some passerby gives a bit of information... these and other things
change the course of our duty world without warning. We are required to be ready
to respond.... and over all these years of my journey I have been very pleasantly
surprised at how well most Peace Keepers handle the job so very well instead of
allowing the job to handle them.
But there also have been others who did not fare so well with the job's demands.
Some others could not juggle the demands of the job on duty and away from loved
ones for any length of time because personal lives became too demanding. Still
others had to learn that Peace Keeping just was not for them.
You are intelligent and educated. You have journeyed into life far enough to have
learned some very important things... and you learned most of those by experience
personally... sometimes you learned when you were very close to someone who
had a very difficult learning experience. All of us CAN learn by the experience of
others. It is just that most of us do not choose to learn by the experience of others
until we have no other choice.
Most of us go through a stage of life where we believe ourselves to be invincible...
or at the very least we act that way... Why is basic training so demanding? We
design it that way... because every moment of the life of a Peace Keeper IS
demanding. MOTHERS AND FATHERS KNOW THAT LIFE IS DEMANDING...
BUT IN MOST CASES WE DO NOT OR CANNOT CONVEY THE REALITY TO
OUR YOUNG ONES. In some cases they will not listen. In some cases we do not
try very well. Each Peace Keeper candidate/trainee/recruit comes into the ranks
with a somewhat different level of experience compared to others. Background
investigations cut down much on the range of variation but the differences are still
there... and adjustments must be made on the part of each individual.
Each succeeding generation has a choice to make. Each person in each
succeeding generation has a choice to make. Some people become parents by
default... de fault was that they did not do or did not know to do any thing to avoid
it. Sometimes de fault is a lackadaisical attitude... they just do not care. In each of
these cases any surviving offspring take on the same attitude because it is all they
ever hear and see and it is normal life to them. They were not given a choice...
they learned to live by instinct and observation... their attitude is an observed,
learned condition. When they must be integrated into society in general they have
very few useful social skills and they become problems for the whole community
and specifically problems for the Peace Keeper.
Whether we are talking about neighborhoods or nations... the result is the same.
With neighborhoods it becomes a police/local government problem. With nations
it becomes a military/national government problem... AND THE KEY TO THE
CAUSE OF ALL OF THIS IS ALWAYS THE SAME... PEOPLE WHO
REFUSE TO ADJUST THEIR ATTITUDE TO ONE OF PEACE! SOMEONE
HAS TO BE THERE TO TAKE THE BULLY DOWN. A SYSTEM HAS TO BE
THERE THAT CAN AND WILL DICTATE AND GOVERN PROPER
BEHAVIOR. THERE MUST BE LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS... AND
BOTH MUST EXHIBIT CARE AND CONCERN FOR EACH OTHER TO
THE MOST ATTAINABLE DEGREE.
That sounds like Utopia does it not?... yet that is exactly what our founding fathers
designed to happen to the population of these United States of America. Their
system intentionally included checks and balances. Peace Keepers are part of the
checks... laws and moral codes are supposed to be part of the balances... and the
courts are supposed to see to the proper function of each. When it works properly
it is the very best system there is available to most people of all levels of the
population.
Most of you who have read this far are either a Peace Keeper, loved one of a
Peace Keeper or are part of the support systems for Peace Keepers. Each of you
need to understand the unpredictability of the life of a Peace Keeper. Any moment
may bring a demand that requires the Peace Keeper to go into some situation that
could injure or kill. While that is true... and while it is true that many Peace Keepers
are injured and some are killed... OUR PEACE KEEPERS ARE THE MOST WELL
PREPARED WE CAN HUMANLY BE AT THE MOMENT WE TAKE TO THE
FIELD WHERE WE MUST PLY OUR TRADE. ON THE JOB TRAINING
SHARPENS OUR SKILLS. RETRAINING KEEPS US UPDATED. NEW
PROCEDURES ARE INITIATED FREQUENTLY.
THE ATTITUDE IS TO SEE THAT WE GET BETTER. WHERE WE
DETERIORATE IS AT THAT POINT WHERE WE CEASE CHECKING OUR OWN
ATTITUDES IN RELATION TO THE JOB WE MUST DO... THE PEOPLE WE
MUST WORK WITH... AND THE PEOPLE WE MUST DEAL WITH OR HANDLE.
COMPLACENCY IS SNEAKY... IT CAN HAPPEN SO EASILY. WHEN DOING
THINGS THE RIGHT WAY GETS TO BE TOO MUCH TROUBLE... YOU ARE IN
TROUBLE... NO MATTER IF PROFESSIONALLY OR SOCIALLY OR BOTH.
SOUR, SARCASTIC ATTITUDE IS SNEAKY... TOO MUCH PRESSURE FOR
TOO LONG A TIME WITH NO RELIEF AND NO RECOVERY TIME CAN BRING
US DOWN TO WHERE WE CAUSE PROBLEMS RATHER THAN SOLVE
THEM.
PARANOIA IS VERY POSSIBLE... ME AGAINST THEM IF ALLOWED TO
HAPPEN AND THEN GROW CAN BECOME ME AGAINST EVERYONE
INCLUDING FELLOW PEACE KEEPERS. IT MUST BE GUARDED AGAINST.
YOU ARE IN A SERVICE PROFESSION. The raw material you must handle is
people. Some of them will be hostile. Some will be docile. Everyone else falls
someplace in-between those extremes.
IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE YOUR COMMITMENT SHOULD BE TO DO THE
VERY BEST YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE WHERE YOU ARE. ASK
FOR ASSISTANCE IF YOU NEED IT. AVOID TAKING UNNECESSARY
CHANCES WITHOUT HAVING ENOUGH MANPOWER IF IT IS POSSIBLE.
YOUR MOST IMPORTANT AND MOST USEFUL TOOL IN PEACE KEEPING
IS BEHIND YOUR EYEBALLS AND BETWEEN YOUR EARS... YOUR
OBSERVING/THINKING/DEDUCING APPLIANCE. CONSCIOUS THOUGHT
WILL KEEP IT IN PROPER ADJUSTMENT/ATTITUDE. NO ONE ELSE CAN
PERFORM THAT TASK FOR YOU. OTHERS MIGHT BE ABLE TO MAKE
YOU WISH THAT YOU HAD ADJUSTED... BUT WE CANNOT MAKE YOU
ADJUST.
THAT IS WHY I CLOSE EACH MESSAGE WITH THE SAME GENERAL NOTE...
"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE." BE ALERT, WATCHFUL AND SUSPICIOUS.
BE WARY. DO THIS IN ALL PARTS OF YOUR LIFE... MENTAL...
EMOTIONAL... AND SPIRITUAL. BEING WELL ADJUSTED IN THIS JOB
IN ALL OF THESE ASPECTS OF LIFE GIVES THE VERY BEST CHANCE
FOR SUCCESS AND SURVIVAL.
AS IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN... SO IT STILL IS...
"VICTORIOUS WARRIORS WIN FIRST...
AND THEN GO TO WAR,
WHILE DEFEATED WARRIORS GO TO WAR FIRST...
AND THEN SEEK TO WIN." Sun tzu
ONLY LIVE PEACE KEEPERS SEE THE VICTORY!!!
WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
Chaplain D. R. Staton (Don - C1) VBPD, VSP ALUMNI,
Officer, Instructor, Senior Chaplain, Director of Chaplains
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452