Police Academy: Week 8
Friday, June 30th, 2006Today started out on a very somber note. A Dekalb County officer was shot and killed last night. When an officer from a county so close is murdered, it really forces the reality of the dangers of the job to sink in. We lowered the flags to half-mast today in his honor.
This week seemed to fly by, but each day seemed to last a lifetime. We spent all week in the padded room known as the “Thunder Dome” doing defensive tactics (DT). Last week we learned what it takes to Constitutionally detain a person to perform a pat down or a frisk; on Monday, we learned how to actually do a pat down.
After frisks, we learned how to handcuff a compliant person. Next came handcuffing a non-compliant person. Handcuffing seems simple enough, but it’s actually a seven step process. It isn’t very difficult to handcuff a person, but it hurts like hell to be handcuffed over and over again. When I got home Monday night my wrists were cut, swollen, and bruised.
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent learning different holds and take downs. The greatest aspect of the moves that we learned is that they don’t require a lot of strength. The holds and take downs allow me to defend myself against a much larger and stronger person. On Wednesday I was repeatedly thrown on my right thigh resulting in a huge bruise. I was going to put a picture of it on here, but decided against it.
I had more fun yesterday than I’ve had in
the past eight weeks. Up until lunch we worked on different kinds of strikes. After lunch we fine tuned our skills and then held boxing matches. I’ve never been in a fight, so boxing was pretty intimidating until I got hit the first time. We were only fighting at 25% strength, but it was still pretty shocking to get hit in the head. What was more shocking was that I was pretty good. I actually gave one of the guys I boxed a bloody nose (it wasn’t bad, just a little blood). I went home Thursday very sore, but full of energy and hope.
I had been dreading today all week. It started out OK; we learned how to escape and overtake someone when we are pinned to the ground.
But after lunch we had to take on the instructors while they are dressed in the red man suit (see picture). Any person who puts on the red man suit is pretty intimidating, but when the person inside the suit is six feet tall and 230 pounds of pure muscle, it’s terrifying. The instructor wasn’t trying to take us down or hurt us, but they weren’t above hitting and charging. When we would get a couple of good hits on them they would take a knee, but then the fight was on again. The whole thing only lasted one minute, but it was the longest minute of my life. Even with an ASP baton in hand, I felt defenseless against the giant who wasn’t even trying to hurt me.
Overall, the week was painful but incredibly important. I feel confident now knowing that I don’t have to be the California governor to defend myself on the street. Unfortunately, we only received 40 hours of training in something that will take months to perfect.
The Al Gore part wasn’t that interesting or important, but the message that he tells in this movie is too important to pass up. Global warming exists, and it is going to destroy the planet as we know it. Within the decade, the snows of Kilimanjaro will be gone. If the glaciers of Greenland continue to melt the way they presently are, the sea level world wide will raise 20 feet. This will displace hundreds of million of people.

