ACTION

Education is when you read the fine print. Experience is what you get if you don't.
-Pete Seeger

Today was a very long day of special duty. This week is the 400th
anniversary of the planting of the cross on the shores of Virginia
Beach by the settlers before they moved inland to Jamestown. Today
members of all units of the police department stood special duty
manning displays at the oceanfront on the Boardwalk to demonstrate and
celebrate our history.

We talked with thousands of people and exchanged greetings with
thousands more. Although the day was long it was enjoyable duty for
myself and three other chaplain personnel. Each of us wore a different
uniform to represent the four levels within the unit. We had many
people express much interest in the fact that a police department had
chaplains... and what do we do... We spent much time explaining the
work and the opportunity should they be interested or know someone who
might be interested.

This morning at 0 Dark thirty as I was fighting to awaken and rise
from a short night the thought for this message entered my head...

Have you ever had an opportunity arise... one upon which you should
act... your heart pounded as your pulse quickened... You knew this was
something that must be done now!... But you hesitated and the
opportunity was lost... The moment passed... The opportunity
disappeared... It was too late to act and it was past and over???
Later you wished for the opportunity again but it was gone.

I am a people observer. On duty such as we served today I make it my
practice to closely observe people as they pass through my duty station
and my field of vision. I saw all kinds and sizes of people from
dwarfs to giants... small to large... different colors and both
sexes... All ages. I am good at seeing. Long ago I learned to do this
very well.

I like to pick out the military people... Current and veterans... And I
like to make sure that children are matched to adults... especially
when the children seem to be aggressive or adventurous. Most of the
day went very well until late afternoon.

As I was watching a very heavy crowd I noticed a most attractive little
boy about 2 1/2 years old moving past me. Occasionally he would look
up at the adults passing by him and those he was passing by. Once he
even shouted "mommy", but no one responded to him. Just as I was
making a beeline toward him a woman stopped the child and asked where
his mommy was... He did not respond to her as I was there by then and
was reaching out to the child. He readily took my hand and went right
along with me when I told him I would find mommy.

We put out a BOL for parents of a lost child and spent a few minutes
enjoying the company of this beautiful little boy. He was just
precious. As I was watching I spied a frantic group coming from the
direction the child had been coming from when I first observed him.
They were frantically looking about when one of them saw him with us
and waved and shouted to others close by. This was the family of a
military man from Spain stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, with NATO. The
young father had become very frightened. He was afraid for his child.
The child was restored to his family but it took some time to calm the
father. Some reassurance and some calm conversation made it all better
and they went away happily reunited.

The child thought he was following his parents when actually he had run
ahead of them so far in distance that they could not see him nor find
him. He was running forward trying to catch them. They were frantic
thinking they had left him someplace. One moment of alertness brought
a quick resolution to a difficult situation. Had I not been watching
and observing I would have missed the child... and missed the
opportunity to safeguard his welfare.

Throughout my long career I have been faced with many decisions that
required quick action. Sometimes this quick action safeguarded others
but placed me in jeopardy. Sometimes it was take a chance on the quick
action or see others put into mortal danger.

One Saturday afternoon I was working the evening shift on a very warm
day. Traffic was extremely heavy. I received a BOL for a suspected
drunk driver in the neighboring county. I proceeded to the area in the edge of my county to watch for him. As
I was making this move I received a call for a hit-and-run accident in
the area where I was going. When I arrived at the location I had not
seen the car. Witnesses gave a description the same as the DUI call I
had received. There was only one other way he could have gone so I
checked that route and did not find him there either.

Just as I turned onto the main highway there he was right in front of
me and I tried to pull him over. He acted as though he were stopping
by pulling off onto the right shoulder. As I dropped back to pull in
behind him he gunned the old car and took off down the fourlane
undivided highway as hard as he could go. I pursued and called for
assistance from units that I knew were close by. We sped past one of
them as he was trying to get into his vehicle. Another Trooper caught
up to us just as I was observing this wanted driver going all the way
over into the far lane of traffic going in the opposite direction and
running cars off the road as he tried to elude me. I caught up to him
and pulled up beside him in the left lane. He took one look in my
direction and cut sharply left, right into me and pushed me across the
highway on a hilltop... all the way into the far right lane where there
should have been two lanes of solid traffic... and there was no
oncoming traffic at all. I slammed that Plymouth into 2nd gear and
floored the accelerator simultaneously turning sharply to the right...
I pushed him off the highway into a very wide graveled area near the
entrance to a trailer park. There was another Trooper behind him in
the right lane chewing up the rear of the car trying to knock him off
the road also.

My right front bumper was locked into his front left wheel well and he
could not get loose from my car. We spun off the road together with
two Troopers behind him and another approaching from the opposite
direction to block the road on him. The Trooper immediately behind him
was out of his car and over the hood of the perp's car before I could
get around the car to him. The other Trooper pulled him out the
driver's door window of the perp's car and laid him onto the hood of
the perp's car. The perp was either out cold or doing a tremendous job
of faking it... So we cuffed him and put him into my car to take him to
the Justice of the Peace.

This was one of those do it now moments... Take a chance on injury to
me and/or him by trying to stop him from driving further... Or follow
him and take the chance he would run into and kill or injure someone
else... I chose to try and stop him and we succeeded.

He was diabetic and intoxicated. He was charged with multiple felony
charges and incarcerated. Then he was sent to the hospital for the
criminally insane to be evaluated. Thirty days later when we had the
hearing on the charges the judge listened... Read the hospital
report... Asked me a few questions... And made a ruling. The accused
had been in custody 30 days... He was under the influence of
intoxicants according to the blood test... He was reported by the
hospital to be a man with absolutely no morals. For him there was
nothing that was wrong... Nothing at all. The judge discovered that he
was from the far southwestern part of the State... We were in the
northern part of the State...

This man had tried to kill me... He was intoxicated... He had committed
a Hit-and-Run...
He had tried to escape and elude apprehension... He had endangered the
lives of dozens of other drivers on the crowded highway. The judge
ruled that if this man would go back to where he was from and promise
to never come to our part of the State again that he would be found
guilty, receive credit for time served and be released from custody.

As Peace Keepers we have a job to do. Sometimes doing the job requires
a split-second decision... a blink of the eye in which to make the
decision and even less time than that to carry it out. Courts and
others will have all the time they need to come to a decision where, at
the time, we had little or no time. We must go with training and
knowledge. We must do all that we can to preserve life and peace. We,
by our own oath, must act.

I am deeply, troublingly, concerned about some headlines that I read.
Peace Keepers voluntarily breaking the law... Taking illegal actions...
Taking immoral actions... Taking unethical actions... even sometimes
aiding the enemy or the lawless people that we are supposed to be
apprehending or stopping. I cannot fathom such activity. By the
Trooper's Pledge, The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics and our Oath of
Office we have all sworn to uphold and support the Constitution, law
and justice. I just cannot understand how any Peace Keeper can do
other that what we have sworn to do... I just can't.

Be prepared... Train Hard... Act when it is necessary... Do what you
know to do... And thank you for being there and for what you do for
all of us.

Monday night just past we had a marvelous Celebration of Life for my
dear friend. If a funeral can be called marvelous, it was indeed
marvelous. Thanks to all who responded with messages and prayers.

This week we have lost many more Peace Keepers of the military and law
enforcement.
Sometimes things do not go well for all of us.

"BE CAREFUL OUT THERE!" Take the very best care that you can of you.
Be watchful, alert, suspicious and wary. See to the best for your
spiritual welfare.

Call or write if I may be of any service.

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!!!
THEY SEE IT ONLY BECAUSE OTHERS HAVE MADE THEIR ETERNAL
PAYMENTS OF SWEAT, BLOOD, TEARS AND LIFE FOR THAT VICTORY!

WITH THE DEEPEST OF APPRECIATION AND RESPECT...
BE BLESSED (A CONDITION TO BE ENVIED)...
BE SUCCESSFUL... BE SAFE...
[My injunction to be safe means doing all you know to do as you do your job... it means
doing the best you can with what you have where you are using all your faculties to get
the job done well and with good results conquering evil and keeping or restoring peace...
it does not mean to avoid duty and honor... it does not mean to cower or allow anything
to hinder you in the process of duty according to rules, law and ethics... it means that if
the demand takes your earthly life you destroy as much evil as possible in the process.
That is my definition of being safe... doing the best you can and leaving the rest to God
or whomever else is responsible... being best employed for the sake and protection of all
the things and people that we hold dear.]

I represent, write for... and give the credit to:
God the Father (my Commander-in-Chief),
Jesus Christ the Son (the Eternal Captain of my life) and
the Holy Spirit of God (my Eternal Teacher, Keeper and Guide).
In Christ I live... with Him and for you I serve...
And I rejoice that you are there whether you are Christian or not...
D. R. (Don) Staton, Chaplain to Peace Keepers,
VIRGINIA STATE POLICE ALUMNI,
RETIRED Police Officer, Certified Police Instructor,
757-431-2190, chpln1@verizon.net
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
=================================================
All rights reserved. May not be duplicated without permission, except
to be forwarded with all source information for any quotation intact.

To subscribe to this free e-mail message for Peace Keepers, 
write to Chaplain D. R. Staton at chpln1@verizon.net or at 
3709 Beacon Lane, Virginia Beach, VA 23452.

If you are a Peace Keeper you may subscribe to 
the BLACKWATER TACTICAL NEWSLETTER  by going to the 
website at BLACKWATER USA.