Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [22]
I spent the next six months at the Los Angeles Police Academy in the twenty-one-acre Elysian Park complex, located outside the cluster of skyscrapers and government buildings of downtown Los Angeles. The academy is actually quite a beautiful place, with buildings atop a sprawling hill, surrounded by fountains, waterfalls, and streams. It wasn’t what you’d expect from a police academy at all, and you might mistake it for a well-kept private college.
Elysian Park was the location of the 1932 Olympic Games pistol and rifle competitions and has been immortalized in countless films and TV shows, including Dragnet, which portrayed officers in a dignified light. In fact, creator and lead actor Jack Webb often visited the park in the 1950s and ‘60s to observe the training and boost the authenticity of his show. When he passed away in 1982, his character Sgt. Joe Friday’s badge number 714 was permanently retired by the department.
Among the buildings at the police academy at Elysian Park, you could find the outdoor shooting ranges, classrooms, and even a cafeteria. This is where I and seventy-two other cadets reported for training Monday through Friday at 5:00 a.m. dressed in our navy-blue sweats, with our last names plastered in bold white lettering across our chests and backs so our instructors could tell us apart.
As a class, we all quickly figured out who excelled at what. I’d handled a gun before, so the firearms training wasn’t a problem. My dad had allowed me to hold a gun, in his presence of course, from the age of ten on. He always told me if I wanted to pick one up, all I needed to do was ask him. Still, I’d sometimes sneak behind his back for the thrill of ogling one on my own. In fact, the bigger the gun, the more I liked it.
A part of our tactics training took place in the DEFT simulator, which stands for “development and evaluation of firearms training.” In 1985, the DEFT simulator in Los Angeles was cutting-edge technology. Inside, you shot wax bullets at a large aluminum screen on the wall while a film projector ran different vignettes for you to react to. It was as lifelike as it could get, with real actors playing out the parts. The scenario itself lasted about a minute, but it took about twenty for the instructors to get the results, then reload the program for the next cadet. You were evaluated based on when you drew your firearm, where you landed your shots, your verbal commands, and taking cover.
In my six months at the academy, we were put through just two scenarios in the DEFT simulator. I got in a little trouble with one of them, which had me standing in line at a bank waiting for a teller when an armed robber suddenly pushed his way to the window and demanded money. There were civilians everywhere, so accuracy was key. I unloaded six rounds into the robber. Later models of the simulator would compensate for gunshot wounds and a target would fall when you hit him, but this guy just kept going, so I kept shooting and reloading, firing a total of eighteen rounds into his head. I got reamed by my instructors for that.
We also practiced at the standard outdoor firing range and Hogan’s Alley, where we’d have to shoot on the move against targets popping up or coming at us. We were taught tactics, the universal guidelines for dealing with specific scenarios in police work, such as the proper technique for stopping cars or pedestrians and how to react in high-pressure situations. We also took classes on applicable law and learned the definitions of robberies, burglaries, and domestic violence. We studied traffic law and how to fill out reports, took a required