Page 40 - NIXBOOK

At some point in my career I developed and retained a pretty strong level of confidence and fearlessness for approaching
potentially dangerous situations. Which is not to say that I never got scared because that did happen; it’s just that my courage
always overpowered my fears. I jumped into a few fights too eagerly and eventually learned that discretion and patience is the
better part of valor when dealing with violent people. I encountered a lot of hostile people with weapons. And there was the
surprisingly strong old man with the cane, the agitated homeless man with the baseball bat, the little kid with the stick, and the
unforgettable shaking young schizophrenic woman who greeted me at her door with wild eyes, brandishing a very large butcher
knife.

I have patiently talked people out of their cars and resorted to extracting them forcefully when needed. I crashed and ended
teen drinking parties and teen fight clubs. I broke up adults fighting and having altercations and confrontations, in bars, schools,
woods, homes, fields, stores, and parking lots. Some were mutual combat fights but most were actual unwanted assaults. I
calmed down or subdued a lot of out of control and enraged people. I met more than a few folks unconscious in public restrooms
and passed out in cars; all drug addicts, of course.

I watched surveillance recordings from schools, stores, and police cameras. I set up surveillance cameras in the woods and
recorded suspect confessions in police interview rooms. I interviewed hundreds of people for all kinds of police investigations.
A few were brutally honest with their confessions but most were liars in part or in whole for every reason imaginable. Some of
the more memorable liars included a nice old grandmother, a beloved but secretly pedophile school teacher, a well-respected
community newspaper editor, and a popular Catholic priest. I elicited confessions of every kind imaginable (sometimes by using
ruses and bluffs) and had a lot of people tell me very personal things I didn’t even ask about and didn’t want to know about. I
also had a lot of interrogations fail in whole or in part and I was not able to elicit the confessions I wanted. For some crime
victims I made photo montage line ups to catch the bad guy; sometimes the victims would pick out the correct suspect,
sometimes not. Although I was always tempted I never once tried to influence the victims to choose the correct perp. I
participated in set-ups and stings but never any illegal entrapments, despite what a lot of caught people thought. Speaking of
ruses and bluffs, on more than one occasion I successfully lured wanted persons out into the open by making a big show of
leaving the scene with lights and sirens, like I was going somewhere else important. Only to sneak back quietly a minute later
when they thought the coast was clear to flee.