I’ve had my nose to the grindstone with day-job work these past few days. It’s like the rest of the world ceased to exist for a time. Didn’t read any of my normal message boards or other web pages, watched almost no television, read nothing, wrote nothing. But now the project is in beta testing, so I can relax a little, though I’ll likely be inundated with error reports.
Last night was Crisis Intervention night at Citizens’ Police Academy. I went into it thinking the discussion would be about handling domestic violence calls (reportedly the riskiest call an officer can respond to), but it ended up concentrating on dealing with mentally ill people. Domestic violence calls are dangerous because tempers and emotions are high and people do things they wouldn’t when cooler heads prevail. Many of the homeless in big cities have mental health issues and they behave as if their emotions are running high most of the time. We watched a case study where a San Jose police officer merely placed his hand on a man from behind (the man was schizophrenic and had been observed talking to himself and various inanimate objects all morning). This caused the man to erupt into a fit of violence that ended up with two police officers being shot fatally and the man himself killed, after taking in 28 bullets and shotgun pellets. Turns out the guy was a former linebacker, so his strength and speed caught the officer by surprise. He also believed the government was after him and that the president had a message for the owner of the local deli.
The session wasn’t so much about how to handle people suffering psychosis, but why it is so important for police officers to be trained to recognize and handle people suffering breaks from reality.
I had first contact with the folks putting together next year’s MWA (Mystery Writers) anthology. They asked me for an e-copy of the manuscript and a 50-150 word bio as they prepare to prepare contracts. I also found out the book, which had the working title Burden of the Badge will actually be called The Blue Religion, which is a term editor Michael Connelly has used in the past to describe the brotherhood of police. I resisted the urge to reread my story when I sent it off to them, because then I might have been tempted to tinker with it, which I probably shouldn’t be doing at this stage in the process. I had forgotten that I wrote the darned thing, over 5000 words, in present tense. I usually reserve present tense for very short (<1000 word) stories. Can't recall my rationale for doing so on this lengthy piece. I'll have to rummage around in my various blogs to see if I commented on this back when I was writing it. "Rule Number One," it's called, by the way.
I'm looking forward to the weekend. Getting caught up on some sleep. Reading some more of Relic by Preston and Child, which is an intriguing thriller. Watching TV shows from last week, including Jericho, CSI, Gray’s Anatomy and Survivor, all of which have been stacking up on my VCR and DVR machines. Writing, even. I had an idea last night on my way home from Police Academy for my October Storyteller’s entry. Scrawled some notes on a piece of yellow paper as I was falling into bed. I’ll have to look at them again to see if they still make sense.