Holy cow, the questions I read for this month were so horrible I decided to round-file them and just come up with my own issue to spout off about. The worst question ran about 5,000 words (4,500 or so too long). This thing outlined everything from bad leadership to official corruption and asked for a direct response not in the magazine.
Those are reasonable issues for Bullethead to take a crack at, but I've got some news for you, jackass: We here at Law Officer might be in the safety business first and foremost, but we're also in the entertainment business. That's right, we want officers all over the country to read the magazine and enjoy it. How's that going to happen if I'm giving out personal advice?
If that guy or anyone else needs a life coach whatever the hell that is feel free to contact my editors with a price quote, and I m sure we can work something out. As for the rest of you, drop the donuts, get to writing and ask a question or two. With our circulation as high as it is, it doesn't seem like too much to ask that one or two of you string together a few complete sentences and ask a good question. Until that happens, stand by to get peppered by both barrels of pure Bullethead anger about everything I can think of.
Enough of that. To calm down, I'm gonna tell you a story about a trip I took to the mountains a while ago. The whole Bullethead clan was up in the Sierra Nevada mountains chilling for few days. I needed to go break a sweat, but I wanted to do something a bit different than typical flatlander exercise, so I decided to run up a mountain.
The mountain I picked is a ski slope. This slope started at about 6,000 feet and stopped at about 9,000 feet. In my relaxed vacation state, I figured How hard can it be? I'll run until I need a rest, and then I'll alternate between running and walking to the top.
Turns out ol Bullethead is at least as stupid as I look. Maybe. In any case, it turned into one hell of a transcendent experience.
From the parking lot, the top looked high but not too bad, sort of like the way an ocean wave doesn t look too big until it s about to break on your head. I took off at a good clip across the parking lot and up the hill. I was maybe 5 percent of the way up the hill when my legs turned into jelly, my lungs burned and I could no longer even see the top. I could see a fire road a little way up and figured I could at least make it there. There was no more running, but I made it to the fire road.
As I caught my breath, all I could think about was how mentally weak I ve become over the years and how quickly I lowered my expectations from the top of the hill to this fire road maybe 25 percent of the way up. I thought about all the men and women out there chasing the radio or kicking over some rocks looking for crooks and not lucky enough to be on vacation in such a great spot. I thought about all the troops away from their families and fighting a war. I was ashamed at myself for lowering my expectations, so I sucked it up and started up the hill.
Let me tell you, this was a steep SOB! Hell, I could have used ropes on parts of it, but I made it to the top. I simply needed to remember my goal and refocus. It wasn't easy, but it was doable and ultimately enjoyable.
That s about the time I started to get angry thinking about the last defensive-tactics class I taught. In every class, we get some hard-charging cops who give it all they have. We get others who try to learn and don t whine. And, we get the chumps who complain about everything we do.
These bozos have a good job that people stand in line for. They're in training, so no reports. No complaints and they might learn something that will save them. Yet all they do is bitch.
In my mountain experience, I decided to go to the top, and then had a few moments of weakness when it started to hurt. After I refocused, I was able to move past the physical pain and accomplish my goal.
The amount of whining in police work is out of control and shameful, and it needs to end now. If you're one of the many whiner cops out there who's feeling some sort of pain, refocus and get back toward your original goal of being a good, hardworking cop. Otherwise, move on and find something else to do.
Got a question or complaint?
Let Bullethead hear about it. He'll give you his opinion with both barrels.
E-mail him at [email protected] or fax him at 619/699-6246.
