The Road to Jericho Runs Through Zion

Long ago, Jesus told a story of a man taking a long journey.

He said, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?"

Four young adults were far from their home in another State when the transmission went out on their car.  They walked four miles along an Interstate Highway to a gas station to purchase transmission fluid - thinking that they might be able to add fluid and get the car into a town.

The sun was going down and it was beginning to rain.  Dressed for summer, and not prepared for a Fall storm in the mountains, their T-Shirts and shorts were soaked as they plodded along back toward their broken down car.

Their journey had brought them through the heart of one of the leading Stakes of Zion, but they looked a little rough around the edges.  One driver noticed them walking along and called 911.  Another driver passed by and called the Sheriff directly to report them.

But a certain Deputy, as he journeyed, saw them and stopped.  With only room for one in his vehicle, he drove one of them back to the car and helped put in some transmission fluid.  They got the car moving and limped it along toward a small country town.  Two miles down the road, and still a few miles from town, the car stopped again.  It would go no further.  They pushed it off the road.

The Deputy found the other three walking a short distance ahead.  The were completely soaked.  They said they would just stay in their car and call their parents for help.  There was no hotel for miles and they had family coming to help them.

The Deputy drove to his home and got blankets for them.  He then stopped at the local grocery deli and purchased some chicken, drinks and other food items and took it all out to them.  They were extremely grateful and thought it all seemed a little abnormal for a cop to do such things.

Maybe he could have done more.  Maybe he should have done more, but when asked why he did what he had done, he simply said, "Because that's what I think Jesus would have done and I try to follow Him".

Stress Reveals Character - Or Lack Thereof

Dear lady I just dealt with...

Hey, guess what, it's my night off, but I got called into work.  I should be home spending a rare, quiet evening with my wife and kids, but I'm out dealing with you and your kid.

Your kid was being stupid and crashed his motorcycle.  It's our job to respond to those kinds of things.  We drove 100 miles per hour to get there quickly... and then you treat us like crap.  Hey, I get it, your kid is hurt, but he's not dead nor anywhere near it, so get a grip and stop acting like an ass.

Oh, you don't like cops.  Great, we don't like people like you... and oh, by the way, I'd like to see how long you'd survive in this world without us.

There are a lot of things I like about this job.  One of them is that I get to see people as they truly are.  Not the mask they wear to church on Sunday or the pleasant facade they show people at the soccer game and around the community.  I get to see what you're really like.  I like that part of this job, cause I don't like two faced people.  I like seeing what people really are so I know where you stand and where I can categorize you.

I'd like to create a 'Do Not Respond List'.  It's kinda like a Do Not Call list, but in reverse.  We'd put all the people that don't like cops on it.  We'd put all the people that treat us like crap on it... and then the next time your kid is laying in the dirt bleeding, and you call 911... nobody will show up cause you're at the top of our 'Do Not Respond List' and you can deal with the problem all by yourself.

But... at least now I know what kind of person you really are.

In The Eye of the Storm

I often see people who are in shock and freaking out over some crisis.  I've seen witnesses at car wrecks who seem to be worse off than the people involved in the crash.  They can't figure out why I'm not freaking out and I'm wondering why they are.

I become very focused in a crisis.  Everything unimportant seems to fall away and the distractions of daily life are gone.  It's just me, the other people involved and the situation at hand.  No past... no future... just the present.  Someone inside of me just takes over.  I've never really been able to explain it until I came across the following passages from one of Steven Pressfield's books:

“I was remote. I was detached. I felt like another person was inside me. This other person was me, only stronger and crueler, more cunning and more deadly.
I never told anyone about this secret me. I was afraid they might think I was crazy, or try to take this other me away, or convince me that I should be ashamed of him. I wasn’t. I loved him. In sports or fistfights, in moments of crisis or decision, I cut loose my conventional self and let this inner me take over. He never hesitated. He never second-guessed. Later, in combat, when I began to experience fragments of recall that were clearly not from this lifetime, I knew at once that these memories were connected to my secret self. They were his memories."

It was like reading something from deep within my soul.  I experienced exactly what Pressfield described in this fictional account.  It sounds crazy and I doubt anyone will understand.  I've experienced those memories "not from this lifetime" and of battles I've never been in.  

The Spirit is eternal.  We each have a premortal, mortal and eternal identity and purpose.  We have all lived before coming into this world.  Some where, shrouded behind the veil, our spirits have memories of our past, premortal life.  

We bring that our identity, characteristics, and purpose into this world.  Pressfield states it this way, “We are warriors. Our trade stands a handbreadth from that of the murderer and the assassin. Perhaps in another lifetime, you and I have committed grave crimes. This life now may be our purgatory. How do I absolve myself of those transgressions, which I cannot even remember? By sacrificing my ego, my greed, my fear, my hesitation, and my selfishness on the 'altar of strife'.

How do I perform this rite? By striding into harm’s way for no cause, no dream, no crusade, but only for the striding itself and for the comrades at my side."

I doubt anyone will understand any of this.  You and I have no beginning and no end.  Birth was not our beginning and death is not our end.  

The 'secret me' is why I'm calm in crisis.  The spirit inside of me has existed for thousands of years - possibly even longer than what we can count or consider.  He was created for crisis and thrives in the midst of it.  He is a Guardian.

Life & Death Decisions

In the small, rural area where I work, most of our citizens think nothing dangerous ever happens.  In fact, I think a lot of them wonder why we even exist.

What they don't know, and would probably find surprising, is that we routinely respond to life threatening situations - situations where we expect someone is going to get killed or seriously injured before it's over.  I'm always amazed at how these situations go right to the edge of violence and then miraculously a peaceful, or somewhat peaceful, resolution occurs.

I was involved in such a situation last week.  I'll need to leave out a few names and details - as this is an on-going case, but I should be able to get the main point across.

A State Task Force was looking for a suspected child pornographer/molester in our jurisdiction.  He was expected to be armed and dangerous.  He was known to have AR15 assault rifles, multiple handguns, and various other firearms.  We were told to use extreme caution if we found him.  Under cover agents were in the area watching for him to return to his home.

I determined that we needed to find this guy and find him as soon as possible.  I decided that I would spend all of my available time on shift hunting for him.  I pulled up his photograph, got a picture of what his car would look like and memorized the license plate.  About an hour into my shift, I had a crazy thought, "just drive by this guy's house and see what's going on"... so I did.

I drove out to his neighborhood and turned onto his road... and to my surprise, there was his car parked in the driveway.  I drove down the block, turned around and positioned my car at an angle so he couldn't get a shot on me from one of the windows in his house.  I pulled up an email with the phone number to the agent leading the task force and called her up.  "Hey", I said, "are you still looking for this guy?"  

"Yes, we sure are", came the response.  "Well, his car is parked in his driveway and I've got observation on the house", I told her.

"What?  Really?  ok, we're turning around.  Give us a little bit to re-assemble our team and we'll come get him.... oh, he's super dangerous so be careful."

"Game On", I thought.  I unbuckled the webbing holding my AR15 rifle to the seat next to me and got out of my patrol truck.  I pulled out my heavy body armor and put it on and then put on my ballistic helmet.  I moved over into the backyard of a home and found some concealment in some bushes.  Another Deputy was on his way to my location (there were only 2 of us on duty at the time) and I sat there wondering "did this guy see me pull up and does he have a rifle pointed at my head right now".  All of the windows were closed and the curtains pulled so I figured unless this guy was really good, he probably didn't have a bead on me at the moment.

After about 10 minutes I got a call back from the task force leader.  They were ready and were planning on coming up to the back of the house.  Our other Deputy was with them.  "Ok, Where do you need me", I asked.

"Well, sounds like you've got the front of the house covered, so why don't you keep that", she replied.   From my position, I could stop him from leaving in his car.

"Got it", I said and pushed the red circle on my iphone.  I was about 125 yards from the front of his house.  There was a small pasture with a little barn about half the distance to his house.  It looked like better cover than what I had, so I started moving.  I got to the barn and realized it had windows facing his house so I went inside and found a good place to set up.  It had a lot of concrete between me and incoming bullets (if it went to that) and a stable place to shoot from.  Then I got another call...

"We know this guy has a lot of guns and it's probably going to get ugly if we go in that house" - it was the task force leader.  "We just had a thought, we're going to call him on the phone and see if we can trick him into coming out".

"Ok", I said and got ready for whatever the next 60 seconds or so was going to bring.  I calmed my breathing and scanned the house and yard through the optical sight on my rifle.

Prior to all of this happening, they had seized his computers and electronic devices.  They called him up and told him they were outside and wanted to give his computers back.  They asked if he could come outside to help get his computers out of the car.

Well.... sure enough, he came out unarmed, and thinking all was well, and they took him into custody without incident.  Now you won't read any of this in the news... because nobody got shot or killed.  You only hear about what we do when it goes badly.  Nobody ever hears about it when it goes right.

The whole thing reminded me of incidents from the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon.

"And thus it came to pass, that by this stratagem we did take possession of the city of Manti without the shedding of blood."  Alma 58:28

The Book of Mormon records situations where tricks and strategies were used by the Nephite army to take an objective, or capture a city, without getting a bunch of people killed.  Moroni, the great Nephite Captain was described as, "And he also knowing that it was the only desire of the Nephites to preserve their lands, and their liberty, and their church, therefore he thought it no sin that he should defend them by stratagem;..." Alma 43:30

God's word has application in every aspect of life.  There is always something in scripture that we can learn from and apply to our life today.

We go to great lengths to protect everyone's life - even the people we're trying to arrest.  It doesn't always work out that way, but usually it does.  So we hope for the best while training, planning, and preparing for the worst.  We routinely make life or death decisions - and we're happy when it's all over and everyone lived through it.

People Don't Like Us Much, But Think About This...

People don't like cops very much.  We give you tickets, break up your parties when they get too loud and generally seem to make people mad..,.. but we are a consequence to your actions.  I recently had a couple of experiences that made me reflect on this.  I arrested a lady for DUI and she got angry at me and wondered why I was bothering and hassling her.  I also dealt with some jackasses at their drunken party.  They were pissed that we came on their property to hassle them.  But guess what, we are simply a consequence of their behavior.  I didn't want to deal with that lady and I sure didn't want to deal with those idiots at their party.  I'd rather be seating on my couch, watching a movie and drinking a cold Mountain Dew, but someone has to deal with stupid peoples' actions....

A couple of times a week, I get an email relating the line of duty death of a law enforcement officer somewhere in America.  And here's what I want you to think about... is there any other profession (outside the military - and I've been there too) that routinely gives their lives as part of their jobs?

So next time you're facing the consequence of your behavior, cut us a break.

No One is Beyond His Reach

President George Q. Cannon said this about how God has prepared you and me and our children for the tests we will face: “There is not one of us but what God’s love has been expended upon. There is not one of us that He has not cared for and caressed. There is not one of us that He has not desired to save, and that He has not devised means to save. There is not one of us that He has not given His angels charge concerning. We may be insignificant and contemptible in our own eyes, and in the eyes of others, but the truth remains that we are the children of God, and that He has actually given His angels—invisible beings of power and might—charge concerning us, and they watch over us and have us in their keeping.” (from https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/to-my-grandchildren?lang=eng)

Shattered Hearts

The human heart is the only thing I know of that can be completely shattered, but still continue to work.  Tonight I crossed paths with a young woman who's life experience is beyond anything I can really comprehend.  When I think about what she has been through, it weighs heavily upon my heart.

I ended up taking her to jail.  I hope it was the right thing to do.  From her long list of involvements with law enforcement - many of them as the victim of bad men - I felt so sorry for her.  I hope that getting her back into the justice system will help her find a new path in life.  I don't know that it will.  

Mortal life will never work out for some people, but I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all of their sorrows, pains, and suffering will be removed from them.  Most likely in the next life, but He will heal them of all their sorrows and all that has been inflicted upon them.  I know that He knows her and one day He will make everything right for her.  

As the sun comes up on a new day and I go home and get some sleep, before falling into bed, I will kneel and pray for her.  I hope she can find a new start in life and find some joy and peace.  Maybe our paths crossed for a reason.  

Cops are Real People - Believe it or not!

Most people think cops are all the same.  We're not.  In fact, I've never worked with, or even seen at any organization, a more diverse group of people that I find in law enforcement.  Who becomes cops?

1. Family business - Law enforcement seems to be one of those careers that spans many generations.  Go to a graduation at any law enforcement academy, anywhere in the nation, and you will see families.  The job just runs in some families.  Grandpa was a cop, dad is a cop, and many of the sons and daughters are cops.... and married to cops.  It's all they know.  I think this is cool.... as long as each individual is doing it because that's what they want to do.  I don't think someone should do this job if it's just to make dad or grandpa proud.  But, for better or worse, that's what gets a lot of people into this line of work.  The people from cop families may or may not fit into the categories below.

2. Social Workers With Guns - A lot of people really buy into the idea of community service.  They want to make the world a better place.  They want to help people.  They want to make a difference.  I know some cops who I refer to as "social workers with guns"... and the only reason they carry a gun is because it's required.  These cops see the good in everyone, even the bad guys, and like to reason with and talk to people.  They believe any problem can be solved simply by talking about it.  They want to help people.

3. Idealistic - "To Protect & To Serve" - I think to some degree we all fit into this category.  Cops in this category view their work as service to others and the community at large.  They differ from the social workers above in that they simply see it as a job that needs to be done.  They may not have an optimistic outlook on humanity.  It's just a service that society needs.  It's kind of like being a garbage man.  Someone has to deal with the problem people and keep order in society.

4. Warriors - The warriors confront and hunt evil.  They are not so much concerned about violations of traffic laws or city ordinances.  Sure, they might pull over a lot of cars, but it's a means to the end of finding real criminals rather than enforcing traffic laws.  They hate people who bully, threaten and harm others.  They are interested in protecting people and prefer to spend their time on the job hunting bad guys.  They are ready for a fight.

5. Thugs - Unfortunately there are some bad cops out there.  They're thugs that gravitate to this job because of the power and authority that comes along with it.  They use their position to harass and intimidate people.  They like having power over people and it makes them feel good to give people a hard time.  Lots of people seem to think all cops must be power hungry thugs.  I don't believe this is true.  I think the thugs make up a very small minority in law enforcement, but they make people mad and make all the rest of us look bad.

6. Pretty Boys - These guys love the uniform, the brass buttons, and shiny belts.  They love driving around in a police car waving at people and being seen.  They don't really care much about doing the job.  They just care about looking cool and being respected as a public figure.

There are probably other categories of cops and reasons people become cops.  I've just listed the mains ones that I see.  But behind the uniform, badge and gun is a real person - in many ways a person just like you.  We laugh, love, hurt, cry (well maybe not cry), get tired, depressed, excited, nervous and scared.  At the end of the day, or night, we're just people - fellow travelers on this journey we call life.

So what am I?  Well... I'm not a Pretty Boy.  I'm not big on fancy uniforms and accouterments.  I'm all about function.  I want clothing and gear that I can work in.  I want to look professional, but I'm very pragmatic when it comes to clothing - it must be functional.  I'd say I'm an Idealistic Warrior.  I'm about 90% warrior and 10% idealistic.  I absolutely hate violent criminals.  I have a strong, innate sense of protection and want to stop bad people from doing the things they do.  I also recognize that law enforcement is simply a job that needs to be done.  I don't think we could have an orderly society without law enforcement.  I'm not much of a social worker. My solution to your life problems is to give you some place to sit and think about your messed up life - namely the county jail.  I'm a first generation cop, so it's not a family business for me either.  I guess it's just what I do.

Here's to Us and Those Like Us...

Why I Do This...

It's 1:14am.  I just cleared off an overdose that appears to have been an attempted suicide.  An adult female had taken a bunch of pills.  Her mother came home to find her unconscious and barely breathing.  She called 911.

Some where out in the darkness, a mother was alone, scared, and possibly watching her daughter breath her last breaths.  She called for help...

I don't believe I can make much of a difference.  I don't think I can save the world.  But when you call for help, I will come.  I will be there with you, and for you, on the worst days of your life.  When God placed us down here, He knew we would face overwhelming storms.  

I was born for the storm.  I'm at my best in crisis, conflict, and chaos.  You can lean on me... and that's why I do this.  So now I sit in the darkness... waiting for the next call.

Violent Robberies Increase in Utah due to Heroin addictions

All is not well in Zion. I'll do a follow up post on this topic soon....