Page 346 - NIXBOOK

I only used my taser once in my career to actually shock somebody. There were plenty of other times when all had to was pull
the weapon out, turn it on, and put the laser dot on somebody’s chest, or even just mention that I was about to consider that
option. That all by itself worked great every time. The one time though that I had to taser a prisoner-to-be it actually it didn’t
work, mostly because the guy was a complete lunatic. It surprised me greatly because I hadn’t had a backup plan ready at that
moment. The lunatic actually shrugged off another tasering attempt from another officer at the same time, so we had to go
hands-on to subdue him. I thought about that incident a lot after that, and realized that if one is going to go hands on with an
uncooperative customer, one should always have a contingency plan B ready to be implemented within about one second, when
and if plan A does not work. I’m reminded of that when I see a physical altercations of any kind on YouTube, for example. There
are a lot of folks out there who get caught up in the moment and without thinking much, hit somebody or try to knock them
down and they have absolutely no follow up or follow through with the next step. You see it especially when a woman runs up
to a bully and hits him on the back or even jumps on his back. That’s not enough to end a fight, you know? There has to be a
pre-planned series of moves and maneuvers that come after that first strike. BTW, that lunatic who we eventually subdued and
took to jail? He was a problem child in the jail for a few weeks. One of the jailers told me “I had to punch that guy straight on in
his chest. I’ve never hit anybody that hard as I did that guy. I fucking punched him HARD!” The jailer looked at me and added
“That fucker didn’t even flinch.”

On a related note, guess how many times in my career a citizen filed a complaint against me for excessive use of force. If you
guess “none times” then you are correctamundo. Because I was not the kind of cop who thumped on people for no reason, thank
you.

Now, on to handcuffs: I usually had two pair, just basic silver metal Peerless brand. One chain link, and one hinge cuff. Yes I
needed two because sometimes I arrested two bad guys at once. In fact there were several times in my career when I needed 3
or 4 with me.

The hinge cuffs were more heavy duty, for the really bad bad guys. Once on, they could not be twisted freely. It was very easy
then for an officer to grab the middle part and control a bad guy wearing them; a slight twist downward would put pressure and
pain on both wrists, and so once a bad guy had those on, the officer pretty much owned him.
The cuffs were originally available in one color only; silver. Then somebody started inventing handcuffs in different colors! Blue,
green, orange, black, and even pink. I knew some female officers who couldn’t resist getting pink colored handcuffs. Any fleeting
thought I ever had of getting my own pair of pink cuffs quickly evaporated the day I saw one of our reserve officers (he was not
a female..) cuff a client with his pink cuffs. The suspect had overdosed on meth and was literally running around naked through
people’s yards. When the aid crew showed up to haul him away they stopped for a moment and stared at us, raising their
eyebrows at the spectacle of the naked man proned on the grass with pink cuffs behind his back. “Hey those are NOT my cuffs!”
I had to explain, while pointing to the reserve officer. “Those are HIS!”

For the last several years of my career, switched over to some nice black cuffs. They looked tactically bad ass. A little better than
the silver.
Some of my coworkers bought their own lightweight cuffs made with new alloy metals in an attempt to lighten the load off their
duty belts. You might think a couple of lighter handcuffs wouldn’t make that much of a difference but the weight difference
actually is pretty significant. But I was fine with my normal weight handcuffs.