I stumbled across an old episode of Dragnet the other day. ‘The Shooting Review Board’ first aired on September 21, 1967 and boy was it a beauty. It falls right in line with what interests many of you, and that is the subject of deadly force. Now there are TV shows and there are TV shows and then if you’re the police type there’s Dragnet. Stiff, straight to the point and rapid fire machine gun staccato lines delivered without emotion – quintessential Jack Webb.

Here’s the premise: Sgt. Joe Friday (Jack Webb) is involved in a shooting. It’s off-duty and is designed solely with the purpose in mind of enlightening the viewer of the seriousness and complexities inherent in an LAPD O.I.S. (officer invoiced shooting) circa 1967. That’s a mere 9 years before I joined the force by the way.

This episode is full of historical goodies. For one, you’ll see the combat pistol qualification range which still exists to this very day at the Elysian Park Academy facility. Think I have been joking about the one-handed crouched LAPD “Combat” stance all these years? Think again. There it is depicted in all its glory and it’s an actual combat qualification run to be sure. Those are real cops, real six inch guns and real clamshell holsters.

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Combating random terrorist acts is challenging. Unfortunately the events in France are likely a foreshadowing of the future world situation. The guys who conducted the raid outside Charles de Gaulle airport were members of the prestigious GIGN, a group we worked with some years ago. (We have not had the pleasure of working with the police who did the entry at the kosher grocery store.) This is the beginning of a new era of terrorism and a new brand of terrorist. Some will be extremists and some will not. Some will be mentally unbalanced and others will have personal agendas. In a free country the ability to move about without being detected can be enticing to those who would do others harm.

If you view the footage of the two individuals shooting on the streets of Paris it is readily apparent that they had some training, but not to the extent that one could term them ‘highly efficient’ as some newscasters have stated. Unfortunately the response mechanisms in place disallowed them from being countered quickly.
Using cover and knowing your pistol in conjunction with a good caliber could have neutralized the two men as they exited their vehicle on their second stop. It is frustrating to watch. The view from the balcony’s illustrated a fairly close range down-angle shot which could have also been accomplished. Without firearms at distance it is all but impossible to neutralize suspects such as these.

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I will soon return to police work in this column, but while I still remember them there are some events which shaped me prior to the ‘force.’ I was a Naval Midshipman at UNM (University of New Mexico). This meant that when it was most unpopular, I was wearing a Midshipman’s uniform to classes with shorn hair at precisely the time that long locks were all the rage. Vietnam was in full swing as were the protests. Back then in 1971, chicks did not necessarily ‘dig’ the uniform to the extent that one’s options concerning this arena could be said to be narrowed down considerably.

As a ‘Middie’ we arose at approximately 0430 hrs. then PT’d and ran from 0500 to somewhere around 0600 to 0630 hrs. and then it was back to classes. Weekends could entail extra duties such as cleaning the sports arena for funds for the unit or drill. It wasn’t bad and coming from a long tradition of Naval Officer’s down the line, I viewed it as a very natural progression.

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This story has to do with my formative years leading up to the department. As I had lived throughout the world I had many unique experiences. One memory that stands out the most were my days in Marshfield, Massachusetts. I became involved in surfing while in Rhode Island in 1968. We lived on the island of Aquidneck in Portsmouth. We lived right on the water in a cove called Black Point Farms. After my very first session in the water I was hooked, which leads me to the point of the story.

We had moved from Rhode Island to Massachusetts and again, were by the water. We were by the North River to be more specific. Marshfield is about 45 minutes south of Boston proper. From the end of Eastward Lane where it met the North River there was about a 2 -3 mile paddle east towards the mouth of the Atlantic Ocean. At the mouth there were sandbars which constantly shifted but provided some fairly good waves under the right conditions. I would paddle out the winding river through the marshes and surf as fishing and lobster boats passed me by on their way out to sea. It was great fun with one itsy-bitsy, tiny, teeny caveat… The Atlantic is cold! I mean really, really cold. In the winter it is even colder than cold. Salt water freezes at about 28 degrees all things being equal and dependent upon the salinity of the ocean. My board had ice dings from striking pieces of ice when plowing down the face of a wave. That’s cold. Now when you have to paddle through salt water ice slush to get to a surf break it illustrates a couple of points.

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