Enjoy this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HoquUdlSfo&NR=1

Off for a while and sorry for that. Had a bit of vacation time and enjoyed it!

Past few weeks back have been a blur. The LAPD, specifically our sworn employees union, is negotiating with the city for a new contract. I don't doubt they are doing the best they can. And in a city this big, with this kind of economy, well...everyone is feeling the pinch.

There is no overtime. Expect to hand over your arrestee and evidence at EOW (End of Watch) to the next unit so you can prevent overtime. We are REALLY managing our time effectively now. In all fairness, this should be the norm, but it isn't. I am all for hiring 10,000 more officers over the next five years if we can. Build more police and fire stations right next to each other.

I feel for the guys who bought too expensive a house, too many cycles, one more trophy handgun. I told an old partner of mine that you know when it's bad, when you come to work and look at the employee billboard filled with SeaDoos and boats for sale. Coppers hate giving up their toys more than a 5-year old!

Back to the lecture at hand. When will these states and cities wake up and spend MORE on schools, police and fire instead of spending less. The more educated our populace, the greater benefit to society as a whole. Here in the Peoples Republic of California, we continue to fund and build prisons and jails at an alarming rate. Meanwhile, the amortized burden of that is borne upon the backs of our kids in the UC college system, with 10% or more in tuition hikes that they will be trying to reconcile for the next 15 years.

Good job.

I'm no socialist, but the more people that go to college the less IDIOTS out on the street.

On a lighter note, I want to minimize LA's crime burden by issuing a Cease and Desist order to HUD for all future Section 8 housing applications. Go the F*&% away. LA doesn't want you. And if you can't get off Section 8 in the next 5 years, guess what? You're cut off. And if you can't afford to live here - MOVE. Let market forces decide who lives here and who doesn't. Let market forces decide if we need to put in better public transit to get people here.

In the area I work, there is a master-planned community with apartments, condominiums, townhouses, etc. Beautiful shops, parks, close the everything. But guess what? A bunch of people living there are Section 8, and some of them are the same miserable, no account F*&%s that I dealt with in other areas of the city. And now the car burglaries and residential burgs are up! Well, when you don't have a job, the government is paying for your apartment, SSI is paying for your "bad back" and you have all day to case houses....hmmmmmm?

But, all that said, everyone knows how thankful I am to have a job. I say it every day. I tell everyone, and give thanks to the Lord above for being a sworn Los Angeles Police Officer. I will NOT get furloughed. I will NOT be fired. I will NOT be downsized. I will NOT be early-retired. I will NOT be promoted anytime soon either, but hey, I have the best job in the world right now.

I work the streets.

And as an old training officer once said, "You gonna work the streets or let the streets work you? You gonna be out there making moves, making lives better for people or you gonna let the whole thing wash over you like a wave? You work the STREETS. You work the JOB! Never let the job work you."

Thank you brave citizens of Los Angeles. You often surprise me, sometimes you have let me down, but you never bore me. And quite a few of you lift me up on a daily basis. The waves and thanks are always appreciated.

Watch your six.