Yeardley:  I’m Yeardley.

Zibby:  And I’m Zibby.

Yeardley:  And these are the minisodes.

Zibby:  They’re bite-sized-

Yeardley:  -stories about true crime.

[unison]:  That’s it.

[Small Town Dicks theme]

Yeardley:  Hi, Small Town Fam. Drinking From A Firehose, is a two parter. Part 1 tells the story of Detective Dan’s first days on the job, and now Detective Dave tells us about his. If you haven’t yet, we really encourage you to listen to Part 1 to get the complete twin tales. So Dave, you became a police officer how many years after Dan was already an officer?

Dave:  It was probably a couple.

Yeardley:  Okay.

Dave:  I was coming from the management consulting world, where you wear a suit and tie to work every day, and I had the luxury of having gone on several ride-alongs with Dan and other officers around here. So, I had an idea of what I might be encountering. And I’d seen how calls were handled from a ride-along citizens perspective. But my first day was typically, you get hired, you do a week of going through firearms qualification, going through defensive tactics, so you know how to fight, reading policies so you’re familiar with your agency’s policies. And then the second week, you actually get to put on the uniform and they put a gun on your hip and give you handcuffs and a radio and all the other tools we’ve got and send you out with an FTO, the coach.

 It’s weeks down the line that you go to the academy, because academy start dates don’t necessarily marry up with start dates for officers. So, my first day in uniform was uneventful. I actually don’t remember any calls, [Yeardley chuckles] probably because my second day was the, “Oh, shit, this is different.” So, I get assigned to an FTO, he’s 20-plus-year cop, and we’re out. I think were on swing shift so three to midnight, I think, is the shift that I was on. We did a lot of sitting around and talking that day prior to finally going on our first call, which was actually a self-initiated call. The FTO that I was with, he pulled up behind a car.

 The car didn’t use a blinker properly, and I think he was just wanting to do a traffic stop to kind of show me the contact and cover that we have so he’s the contact with the driver, I’m the cover officer on the passenger side of the car. And my job as a cover officer is to make sure that nobody sneaks up on us on the traffic stop and also keep my eyes on the passenger and the driver. Basically, look inside the car to see if there’s anything that can hurt us or be used against us. Something like a gun or a knife or some sort of furtive movement from a passenger or driver so. I’m big ears, big eyes, no mouth unless I see something.

 And right away on this traffic stop, the driver’s not so much the problem, but the passenger is a huge problem. His window’s up, but I can hear him screaming at the police officer. Police office in this case, a black male, the driver is a black male, the passenger is a white male, and the passenger is screaming at the officer for racially profiling the driver. This was broad daylight. When you’re looking from behind a car in traffic, all you can see really is profiles, the silhouettes,-

Yeardley:  Right.

Dave:  -given the shade inside of a car, you can’t see what skin color they are. You don’t know what race or ethnicity you’re coming up on. Sometimes you don’t know what gender you’re coming up on because of the head rests in a seat. So, it’s a surprise when you get up to the car. And immediately I get the introduction to someone playing the race card. So, I can tell that they’re not getting along very well. Our officer’s trying to do as much as he can. Well, where this car pulled over was on the street in a gravel area right in front of a residence. And the passenger goes to get out, and you can imagine me with an eight-hour shift under my belt. I don’t know anything. I am as green as they come, totally unprepared to deal with this guy, other than to know that I need to limit his movement, keep his hands out of his pockets, and make sure that he doesn’t become a problem for my partner on the driver’s side.

 So he gets out, he’s screaming at me, gives me the, “What the fuck are you looking at?” And I said, “I’m just here to cover my partner.” And I’m unsure of myself, insecure, and probably didn’t possess any command presence at that point. And he probably recognized that and just walked past me. So, I follow him around the back of the car, and he walks up into his house. So, he goes through a little waist high white picket fence gate, and he’s on his way into the house. And his family comes out onto the porch, and they begin screaming at us that we had been racially profiling the driver. All this over an improper turn signal.

Yeardley:  Is the driver still in the driver’s seat?

Dave:  Driver’s in the driver’s seat, and he’s totally cooperative. Our officer is right at the driver’s window talking to him. He’s not being violent, he’s not being uncooperative. It’s all the outside factors which I’m responsible for. [Yeardley chuckles] And so I tell this guy, “If you’re going to go into your house and leave us alone, we’ve got some business with the driver. And he gives me that, I’m on my own property. You can’t fucking tell me what to do.” And he goes inside of his yard and then comes right back out. And now I’m basically trying to stay between him and the officer who’s dealing with the driver. So that quickly turns into where our officer recognizes that I don’t have the command presence. Plus, we’re dealing with three other people up on the porch, including this passenger’s kids. So, I’m sitting here going, “Do all traffic stops go like this?” Because this is the only one, I’ve been on with this officer, and this doesn’t seem like it’s going well. [Yeardley laughs] So we asked for a cover unit, and that cover unit arrives, and it’s an FTO with his new recruit, who started the same day I did.

Zibby:  Oh, my God. All these new babies.

Dave:  So we got two cops that know what they’re doing, and we have two cops that have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. They’re just wearing the uniform that makes it look like they know what they’re doing. And this passenger continues to be a problem, and the cover officer shows up, and he starts to take charge of the situation. He walks up to this guy and says, “Hey, you need to go back inside.” And this is fairly cordial, despite this guy who’s just screaming obscenities at us the whole time, calling us racists, and giving us the whole, “You guys are profiling people. Why are you profiling people?” The passenger just I mean, he’s escalating to the point where I’m like, “This is going to be a fight.” Now, I’m recognizing it probably about 10 minutes later than I would now. And I would have taken much quicker steps to deal with this guy nowadays, but back then, I had no idea what I was doing.

 This cover officer starts to deal with him and trying to separate him from this traffic stop. So, we’re moving back towards our police car that was stopped right behind this vehicle we pulled over, and the passenger starts to step up into this officer’s face. So, he’s got one officer right in front of him, one officer to his right, and one officer to his left. He’s surrounded, there’s nobody behind him, and his family’s still jawing at us from the front porch. And this passenger pushes the cover officer, the FTO who had showed up. It was one of those where I said, “Well, I don’t know what crime that is, but I’m pretty sure you can’t do it.”

[laughter]

 You can’t put your hands on an officer. You can’t push him away. So I go to, they call it going hands on. So, I go hands on with him. The other recruit goes hands on with him. So, the recruit is on the left side, I’ve grabbed ahold of his right arm, and the other officer has gone for what’s available, which is this guy’s upper body. He’s trying to get him in a headlock.

Zibby:  Mm-hmm.

Yeardley:  Is he behind him or in front of him?

Dave:  He’s in front of him. We’re trying to take him down. And I’m thinking, “I’ve watched cops before. They always take him down to their feet. This should be simple, right?”

Dave:  [chuckles] No.

Zibby:  Okay.

Yeardley:  You mean you’ve watched Cops, the television show?

Dave:  Yeah. I’ve been on lots of ride-alongs with Cops.

Yeardley:  I see.

Zibby:  Sure.

Dave:  You know, I watched that since I was a little kid. [Yeardley chuckles] I go to wrap my arms around this guy’s whole body, and he’s not throwing punches, but he’s actively resisting. He’s trying to push our hands away, but he’s not trying to punch us. And I think, I need to get him off of his feet. I put my left leg next to his right leg, and I’m thinking, I’ll just leg sweep him and kind of trip him up, pivot him over my leg, and dump him to the ground, and then we can get him in handcuffs.

Zibby:  Yes, Bruce Lee. [Yeardley laughs]

Dave:  The passenger weighs about 320 pounds, and he’s a raging asshole at this point. He’s not winning. We’re not winning either.

Yeardley:  Is he on drugs?

Dave:  No, he’s just angry man.

Zibby:  Who’s very big.

Dave:  He’s big. Not fit, but big. So, I go to sweep his leg, and I feel a pop in my lower leg. Then I get kind of folded over my knee in a very awkward and unnatural way. And I remember being on the ground. They fell on top of my left leg. And I remember thinking, “Well, I got to get my leg out from under them, but it hurts really bad.”

Yeardley:  Ah.

Dave:  And they’re still fighting with him. But I put my left hand down my leg, and I could feel my kneecap had rolled to the outside and was almost behind my knee.

Yeardley:  Aww.

Zibby:  That’s not where the kneecap goes. [Yeardley laughs]

Dave:  Right. And I recognize that. So now I know that I’ve got this huge adrenaline dump, and I’m probably going into shock because I’ve got auditory exclusion where I’m not hearing anything. I’m just in this moment, and it really does feel like it was slow motion. And I had dislocated my kneecap before on my right side, but had never done my left knee, but my kneecap had always popped right back in. I was used to dealing with that on my left side I am trying to pull my kneecap back into its anatomical position, and I can’t get it because every time I dig my fingers under the kneecap, it slides back to the outside of my knee. I remember then trying to, like, jerk my leg back, bending at the knee, hoping that the kneecap would find its natural resting place.

Zibby:  No such luck.

Dave:  No luck. And so at that point, I recognize I’m out of the fight because I can’t get my leg correctly. So, I start scooting back away from this fight while this guy is reaching out, and he’s got hammer fists, so he’s hammering away at both my legs, and he keeps it in my left leg, and I’m like, “Aw, aw, aw, aw.”

[laughter]

 And so I finally get scooted away from him enough. Another officer gets on his back, and they start getting him into custody. At some point, somebody said over the radio, “Code 3 cover officer down.” I think they recognized that there was an issue with me. I’m in excruciating pain, but I’m also like, the fight is literally at my feet, a foot away from the soles of my shoes. And they get this guy in custody, and he’s screaming, “bloody murder.” The driver has stayed in the car the entire time, and my FTO is dealing with him at the car. There’s two officers on the guy that has just pounded my legs into submission with his hammer fist. And I remember after that Code 3 cover call, I hear the city light up with sirens. At that point, I’m seated on my butt. My back is resting against the front bumper of our police car, and I remember thinking, “This is the greatest job on fucking earth.”

[laughter]

 So the pop, it turns out, was my ankle dislocating and me breaking my fibula down towards my ankle. And so that movement had broken my leg and also dislocated my ankle. So, my foot and my lower leg are at this awkward angle.

Zibby:  Straight gumby.

Yeardley:  Eww.

Dave:  it looks wrong. And once I got this guy into custody, my FTO walked up and looked at me, and he’s like, “Ah, shit, what happened?” And I’m like, “I think there’s an issue with my left leg.” [chuckles] And he looks at me, and they’re calling for an ambulance. And I remember everyone telling me, “relax.” And I’m trying to relax with a dislocated knee. I can’t get my kneecap back into place. The ambulance shows up, and the medic walks over to me, and he’s like, “Hey, I’m not sure if you’re aware, but you have a dislocated kneecap.” I said, “I’m acutely aware of that, [unison laughs] and can you help me out?” And he said, “Well, I need you to relax.” And I said, “I can’t relax. I have a dislocated kneecap.” And he says, “Do you want some morphine?” And I said, “Ah. Absolutely, I would love that.” He gives me morphine and within seconds, I relax enough, and my kneecap just slides right back into place.

Zibby:  Oh, my God.

Yeardley:  Aww.

Dave:  So he’s got his hands under my leg, supporting my leg, and he goes, okay, “I’m going to go get the gurney.” And he lets go of my leg and my kneecap dislocates again because I’ve got no tissue holding it.

Yeardley:  Oh.

Dave:  It’s basically connected to the connective tissues that go up into my quad, but nothing on the lower half is present anymore. I get transported to the hospital. I remember everybody showing up, including Dan, who was off duty that day. And our chief walks in, and I’m worried. I remember asking him, “I’m not going to get fired, am I?” Because now I can’t work

Yeardley:  Right.

Dave:  I know I’m out for a while.

Yeardley:  You’ve broken your leg, your fibula.

Dave:  I didn’t know that I’d broken my leg until the doctor who is going to assess my kneecap issue puts his hands on my lower left leg, and he put one hand on the inside of my ankle and another hand on the outside of my lower leg. And he went to kind of manipulate to see what kind of stability I had on my knee. And I felt a snap, and he felt it too under his hands, and it was actually him setting the fibula back into place. And he goes, “Ah, so, you have a broken leg too.” Well, that’s shitty. That explains the knee issue. I don’t have a lower leg to basically support that knee. And then all the pressure goes on to the kneecap, and boom, here we go.

 So that turned into two knee reconstructions and three ankle surgeries and was an immediate eye opener. I remember suspect and I ended up at the same emergency department and the hospital that we went to. They are well known for taking very good care of police officers and first responders. They take care of suspects as well. Dan and I have transported plenty to this ER, but the service and care that I got there was great. He got great care as well. But he and I are two rooms apart and I can hear him. He’s still screaming at the police.

Yeardley:  What?

Dave:  Some people are only ever interested in fighting with you, and they’re not interested in complying. They’re not interested in being cooperative. They’re just assholes and they’re going to cause problems.

Yeardley:  Sounds like it. And when you asked your chief, “Am I going to get fired?” He said–

Dave:  He said, “Why would you think that?” And I said, “Because I know I’m on probation.” They don’t need a reason to fire you when you’re on probation.

Yeardley:  But are you on probation or just like desk duty because you can’t walk?

Dave:  Well, it shows my naivety. I’m hurt in the line of duty. I had mentioned that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I didn’t understand the process either. But I really was concerned. I wasn’t so concerned about my leg. I had morphine on board at that point, so I felt pretty happy. But I just remember worrying about that. And the medics, as they always do, they cut your clothes off. And those were brand new pants. And you’re like, “Son of a bitch, now I got to buy a new pair of pants.” Of course, the department pays for them. But I remember worrying about just minutiae, trivial stuff rather than going, “Hey, I just got in a fight on my second day and I lost. But that was a poignant moment in my career. I took it easy on that guy because his kids were present and it cost me several months of light duty and follow-up surgeries for years, actually.

 My last knee reconstruction was three years after this incident. So, lots of issues as a result of one valuable lesson. When you’re fighting with someone, it’s the police officer’s job to get it over with as soon as possible. When we fight with people, a lot of people say, “Well, they dogpiled him.” Well, it took three officers to get this guy in cuffs.

Dan:  Of course we want to deescalate, and there’s not a lot of room to be gentle or passive.

Zibby:  That makes sense.

Dave:  Right. I watch use of force incidents differently than a regular civilian would. That use of force is never pretty, because when you use force on somebody, it’s not going to be pretty. It’s a use of force. And it’s our job, we’re taught to go hard and to end that fight as soon as possible, because cops can get hurt, suspects can get hurt in that situation say I was fighting him one on one. I am completely handicapped at that point. I’ve got a broken leg and a dislocated kneecap. It’s not like I could run anywhere. He could have come over to me with his family, grabbed my gun, and done whatever. We look at a lot of those use of force issues, and people cry foul and say that the cops are being brutal. And there are times where I look at a use of force, and I’m like, “Eww, that does not look good at all.” But a majority of them that I’ve seen in person and been a part of, they’re justified. We got way too much on the line for us to be losing fights. We can’t lose a fight.

Yeardley:  Right.

Dan:  And in the end, it’s the suspect who makes the decision.

Yeardley:  You don’t start the fight.

Dave:  We ask them to turn around and put their hands behind their back. We told this guy just to go up into his house and be with his family, and he wouldn’t, all because he thought it was a racially motivated traffic stop. Honestly, it was a tragedy training opportunity. Had no idea what ethnicity or race we were going to encounter up at the car, and this passenger turned it into a verbal dispute and then a fight for something that the guy was just going to get a warning and we were going to drive away. Wasn’t going to be anything.

Yeardley:  Right.

Zibby:  All predicted by the passenger.

Yeardley:  Wow. Welcome to your first days on the job. [laughs]

Dave:  Lesson learned.

[music]

Yeardley:  Small Town Dicks is produced by Zibby Allen and Yeardley Smith for Paperclip Limited.

Zibby:  This minisode was edited by Soren Begin, Logan Heftel, Yeardley Smith, and Zibby Allen.

Yeardley:  Music for the show was composed by John Forrest. Our associate producer is Erin Gaynor, and our books are cooked and cats wrangled by Ben Cornwell.

Zibby:  If you like what you hear and want to stay up to date with the show, consider visiting us at smalltowndicks.com.

Yeardley:  And feel free to subscribe to us on YouTube to see trailers for past and forthcoming episodes.

[Transcript provided by SpeechDocs Podcast Transcription]