Wired Pig's World

Kids and Stickers

Where I work we pass out badge stickers to the kids who come in. This tickles me to no end when we give one to some scumbags kid. This story has nothing to do with the kid being related to a scumbag... rather a cute comment.

That aside, today we gave one to a cute kid.

As the boy was leaving, I said, "Night Sheriff".

The boy replied, "I'm not a Sheriff."

I said, "Yes you are. Your badge says Sheriff, mine only says Deputy."

To which the kid replied, "I cant be a Sheriff, I dont have a cowboy hat".

That made my day.

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Just saw this...

and was wondering why it was under the AP's Strange News section.

"The new rules are on a sign posted at the jail entrance, the South Bend Tribune reported Tuesday. See-through tops, mini skirts and short shorts are out, and underwear is required to remain invisible. Hats also are banned, since they can be used to smuggle items into the jail or may be a gang emblem."

This is something we've been doing for years where I work. Were we the only ones up until the St. Joseph County Jail in Indiana started it?

"We've had women flash the men they come in to see," Rininger said.

Oh my? In the visiting rooms they do that? We have it there and out in the parking lot that faces the housing area.

"I don't know how to put it delicately, but when men are locked up for a long time and they see their girlfriend, or their wife, or someone else's girlfriend, it can cause tension. That's not a good thing in this kind of environment," he said.

You should hear the banging on the windows that the inmates do when they see ANYONE in the parking lot.

Welcome to the deasert of the real... this is Jail... nothing more. What do you people expect them to do?

Be safe.

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Police Attitudes Over Time

seem to change. At the least to me they did. When I first started out as a cop some 15 years ago I was The Law and nothing could stop me. Everyone was scum. Even that old lady who had her car broken into. Didn't she know that it was all her fault for leaving those Christmas presents in plain view of any thief? Everyone I came into contact with got NO sympathy. It was, after all, their own fault for doing something, being someplace or with someone.

Now, looking back, I can see that yes - I was badge heavy. No one could touch me. That was the culture. Your a cop and they aren't. Speeding? No problem, just charge it to MasterBadge and your on your way. 7-11 has free coffee for cops... and I used to get my fill. Half off you meal at IHOP, I was all over that.

Going from a patrol officer to being a jail officer was an eye opener. You can see it in the eyes of the officers working the housing modules. They are THE LAW in jail. They are the keepers. The jail is where the court sends the inmates for them to lay down judgment on. The jail is where the court sends inmates. But it isn't my job or my fellow officers jobs to be the punitive aspect of detention. That is the jails job as a whole. The jail is an adult time out. My job is to make sure that the inmate is safe, has food and toilet paper. There were some rowdy inmates. I asked (very naively)why he didn't just follow the rules. Rules? He said he wasn't in jail for following the rules and didn't want to start doing it in here. WOW, what an epiphany for me. He was right and it changed how I looked at the whole of it.

It wasn't the people I was working for that were wrong. It was my attitude. They did what people do. They lived their lives and made mistakes. It was my inmate and his fellow compatriots that were wrong. I know.. I can be a bit slow at times. But I finally got the message. I don't need to be an ass to Billy who had his car taken or to Marry who was just robbed. They were the ones in the right. That was 6 years ago.

So, if I was a badge heavy cop when I started, what's changed? Now if (when) I speed I expect the ticket. I have a badge in my wallet still, but its under a flap that under pictures of my kids. Its much harder to get the badge out and say 'charge it'. I treat the people with all the respect I want to get in their spot (yes, I've had my car burged). Would I take a free drink at 7-11 now? No. How about that half-priced meal at IHOP... no way. I work like everone else. Does the carpender working on that new house get a break on his meal at lunch or a free drink at 7-11? I doubt it. I'll be happy to pay for mine thanks.

Are there still badge heavy cops out there who think like I did when I started? You can bet there are. Some have been in law enforcement as long or longer than I have and still act that way. Hopefully in time they'll learn that there is more to being a cop than carrying the gun.

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A matter of time...

that all it really was.

A group linked to Al Queda has killed a US citizen in retaliation for the abuses suffered by Muslims at the now infamous Iraqi prison, Abu Ghraib.

The American identified himself on the video as Nick Berg, a 26-year-old Philadelphia native. His body was found near a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday, the same day he was beheaded, a U.S. official said.

You can read the news story here.

"For the mothers and wives of American soldiers, we tell you that we offered the U.S. administration to exchange this hostage with some of the detainees in Abu Ghraib and they refused."

"So we tell you that the dignity of the Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and others is not redeemed except by blood and souls. You will not receive anything from us but coffins after coffins ... slaughtered in this way."

U.S. officials had feared the shocking photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad would endanger the lives of American troops and civilians.

Am I upset with the alleged abuse at the Iraqi prison? Yes, who wouldnt be. Should there be accountability? Yes. Was retaliation expected? Oh yeah... how could this have been a shock that this would happen? Were the tables reversed here and WE were the ones being occupied would we not have had a group or groups do the same thing?

Well people. We really stepped in it this time.

And, so you know, I support the troops. Once and always a Marine. Its not an easy job to be where your not wanted.

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Image Hosting made easy....

Why am I posting this? Beacuase in my trek's across various blogs, I've noticed this -

While its not the worst thing out there... its pretty darn bad when bloggers cant even figure out how to post their images in their blogs. Angelfire and other free webhosts do not allow HOTLINKING of images on their server. As a result, you get something like the image above.

As a minor public service, I've listed below some FREE image hosting sites.

IMGspot
MyImgs
PhotoBucket
Image Shack

I know there are more out there... but c'mon... use something that will let others see the images you intended them to see.

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Yahoo! News - Robber Upset He Didn't Get Life Sentence

Hows this... the crook isnt happy he wasnt sent to jail for longer. Go figure.

"YAKIMA, Wash. - Ruben Ramirez, 45, was disappointed when he got an 8 1/2-year sentence for bank robbery.

...

Ramirez told a teller at the Wells Fargo Bank he had a gun, then sat by the front door and waited for police to arrive Aug. 23. He carried out his plan in order to be assured of a life prison term under the state's "three strikes" law. "

Click the post title to see the whole story.

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Amber Alert Issued Saturday May 8 2004

Please people, add the code from Code Amber to your site. You can get the easy to add HTML here!! So get the Code Amber Ticker added to your site ASAP!

Who knows, you could save a kids life. Isnt that worth the few minutes it'll take to add the code?

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My irk of the day

has to go to people and the validation stickers on their plates.

Listen people, how hard is this to do right? When you get your stickers you also get a diagram that tells you how to put them om (i.e where they go on the plate). Is this to difficult for you?


Its easy... 'c-mon... please get it right....

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Oddly Enough

I couldnt pass up this story. I'm amused by stories of other people who seem to get out of serious injury by blind luck...

LOS ANGELES - A construction worker had six nails driven into his head in an accident with a high-powered nail gun, but doctors said Wednesday they expect him to make a full recovery.
...

Mejia, 39, was atop an unfinished home when he fell from the roof onto a co-worker who was using the nail gun, Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Mark Newlands said.

The two men tried to grab each to keep from falling, but both tumbled to the ground. At some point, the nail gun discharged and drove the nails into Mejia's head.
...

Three nails penetrated Mejia's brain, and one entered his spine below the base of his skull. Doctors said the nails barely missed his brain stem and spinal cord, preventing paralysis or death.

Hows that for lucky?

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New layout...

I have changed the layout and look of the blog. Why? Because I can.

Now it'll be easy to see links... they look like this. Aside from that its a calm gray look... nothing to hurt the eyes. I've also added background images to the cells. Just something I can change later and I think look decent.

Okay, my fun with the creative side of the blog is over for now... return to your normal viewing habbits.

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Search Engines

We all know what they are... but I sure dont know how they work. How can a visitor get to this site by using "pig tits" as a search term? And why, should I really ask this, would someone search for that?

Wouldnt Pig Teets work better to find pig parts??

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Waiging of war

on the net continues.

Over at DP Review's Canon 10D Forum there is a post asking Is this photo altered - how good are you?.

To say that the topic has gone from a 'Do you think this is altered' to a anti-war would be wrong. But it has gone very off topic.

The original poster asked -
This is a very controversial photo that is being emailed around the world right now. The marine claims the pic - specifically the writing on the cardboard - was photoshopped. The media(and here and here) is all over his butt and Marines are having the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigate to see if it was altered.

What do you think? It is small and very compressed but I think the writing is a little too light. I wish I could see the writing instrument to know for sure.

And that post has gotten comments like -
As for the folks who tortured the prisoners by heaping them naked and sodomising them and all, they should get the same treatment from their victims' hands - only then will they realize what sin they committed and how degraded they will feel.


If you want to make your own sign, you can go to http://www.ryano.net/iraq and make one up yourself. Is the image above PhotoShopped?

You can click the links above to see related stories, or here - Smoking Gun, Marine Corps Times, Snopes, Balloon Juice,
Personal Page... or follow this link for my MSN Search.

Purportedly there are two versions of the image...


I'll let you know the NCIS version of the story when its released. Until then... hell... I dont know.

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Taser use in the news...

and its not the most flattering... but accurate.

What is never addressed is that like OC (pepper spray... mace to you who think its all the same) it falls in OC's spot on my agency's Use Of Force policy. So I need to wait until I get hit to Tase someone? I need to see a gun before I use it? Its shorter lasting than OC (the OC pain lasts 60 + minutes) comparred with the Taser and its 5 second ride.

And yes, I've been hit by both the OC and Taser. I know how both feel. Can you fight through OC spray? Yes. Can you fight through a Taser shot? NO. Yes both hurt. But 5 minutes after I did the Taser shot I was out doing my job again. When I was hot with the OC I was out until I had it all washed off and I was 'clean'.

I dont get it. Give me a tool and then have the ALCU or someone else tell me not to use it. Kiss mine. If it saves their life, I'll use it. If it saves mine or my partners life, I'll damn sure use it.

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Worth Reading - Or 'I'm reading it now'

Those of you that have yet to read Douglas Adams 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' series of books... what can I say... your missing out.

Its a great series and quite funny... if you dont have a copy... get one today. I have mine... Its with me at work (where I do most of my blogging mind you)... on my Axim Pocket PC.....

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Qwest

the local phone people turned off my phone. Its not that it was un-warranted... its just so damn cumbersome to get it un-turned off (that is turned on). I was late on the bill... had I read the last bill I would have seen thier ultimatum on one of the pages saying I needed to have a payment to them today...

Anyway, its payed now... and the line should be up again later today. I'm just pissed... not at Qwest mind you. At myself for letting it get disconnected. But alas, all I can do now is complain to myself about myself.

Welcome to my world.

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Those people....

over at Thoughts Media have come up with Digital Media Thoughts. A place to get news and chat about all of the NEW and cool items out there for Digi-Photo... Audio and anything else Media related.

Check it out.

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For those with a Canon EOS 10D

this is THE site to see. Run by DPReview, the forums are great. A wonderful resource for anyone with a digicam or dSLR.

There are forums for Canon (which the link above takes you to), Nikon and all the talk about the new D70... and every other digicam you can think of.

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Work....

and more work. Mondays are soooo hozed up now. Used to be we would run 60 in-custody's up to see the judge. But lately its just plain bad. About 100 or so a day... Monday and Tuesday. Not that its bad for a county with 500k people in it. It really isnt. But it is a far cry from a year ago.

When I started our jail population was about 400... with a max capacity of 480. We would bemoan when we had over 72 inmates in a housing module... that was 1994... today your happy if your module isnt maxed out at 96 inmates. With the addition of 768 more beds its only going to climb higher too.

But they call this job security. Not like every crook is going to call it a day and get a job at Wal-Mart...

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