Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [25]
The first training officer I worked with outside the academy had been at a desk job in the communications department fourteen years before he’d been bumped back to patrol. Most officers didn’t like the communications department because it was so boring, but this guy liked sitting at his desk and not having to do anything. He was scared to death to work in Southwest Division. On our first burglary call, I had to enter the building myself because he was too frightened. When he got to know me a little better, I became his protection.
As a child I’d watched my dad and his coworkers and listened intently to all their stories. I’d seen their gratification when they’d put away somebody who was a threat to the rest of society. In the beginning, that was missing for me. But in my third month of probation, I was moved to the morning watch, 11:30 p.m. to 7:45 a.m, and my view of police work completely changed. Leonard Mora, Nick Savala, Ron Barker, Tommy McMullen, and Carlos Velasquez hit the street and made a difference.
By now, I’d noticed there seemed to be three types of officers.
The first type were ticket writers or radio followers, who always picked up the little calls because they wouldn’t require much from them. They did police work with people who would never be a problem. These officers would even write their mothers tickets. They chicken-shitted their way through their jobs.
The second type were middle-of-the-roaders, who pulled status quo and did just enough to handle their areas. However, they didn’t go looking for what wasn’t right in front of them.
The third type were big game hunters. These officers didn’t hunt rabbits, which couldn’t hurt them back; they hunted lions. They answered the hardest calls, went looking for bad guys, and put them away. That’s what I wanted to do.
My training officer, Leonard Mora, and the others on the morning watch were the hunters. It wasn’t a free-for-all, however. They taught me the balance between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. That the law is an immense power, but it’s there to protect people, not to crush them. That it’s all about dispensing the law in a rational way, with care and compassion. Under Mora’s lead, I found my place within the LAPD and my strengths were utilized.
As an officer, the more situations you get involved in, the more likely you’ll encounter a suspect trying to get away or fight. The less you do, the less chance use of force will be needed. It’s just basic math and odds. Every time you use what the department considers force, you have to file a report. If you file three in a month or six over a six-month period, the department can counsel you about use of force and even take you off the street if they feel there is a pattern.
In any profession, some people are more suited to certain tasks than others. I quickly gained a reputation for being willing to roll up my sleeves and get a little dirty. More often than not, I’d be called when others were having trouble controlling the situation. On a public street where a naked, sweaty guy on PCP was swinging a steel pipe, Tasering usually didn’t work well, and we never wanted to use deadly force. A sergeant would just have to point and tell me to take the man into custody.
I wanted to put bad guys in jail and didn’t mind dropping a few on their heads in the process if I had to. I was getting plenty of on-the-job training for my future profession as a mixed martial arts referee. Lateral drops and other wrestling takedowns worked well. I did as I was told, and it made me a viable part of the force.
If there was a job for a tunnel rat—a smaller guy who wasn’t particularly physical—I wasn’t the guy to send. But a few guys and I were the first ones sent to the front lines. We were also the first to reach the quota for use of force reports. I didn’t mind, though, because I finally felt like I belonged