Welcome back ladies and gentleman to this month’s entry into the fast and furious world of San Francisco law enforcement. As there is so much to let you know about, lets get right to it.
Southern Station/Market Street Foot Beat – Officers Will Palladino, Ramonik Johal, James Funk, Michael Young and Giselle Talkoff were conducting a surveillance operation around the downtown Market Street corridor. While “spotting” for the litany of nefarious characters in this area, their attention is brought to a gentlemen sitting in a wheelchair. Well, cutting to the chase, our wheelchair bound hero was selling the devils weed (marijuana) to a bevy of customers. Nobody had a medical marijuana card I guess. The team swoops in on a “customer”, finds he did indeed buy the evil herb from wheelchair guy and now the team has cause for an arrest. Ahhh snap, not only does our hero have more wicked weed on him but a loaded .380 caliber pistol. Selling, distributing or smoking marijuana is victimless and does not promote violence, addiction, or victims. Just kidding. If there is money to be made and it’s illegal, there is going to be problems. Great job by this team, great report written by Will, and another gun off the street.
Southern Station – Meanwhile on the same day as the aforementioned caper, and just two hours later, Officers Tom Coffaro and Yossef Azim are driving near the area of Market and Jones Streets. They see a group of “dudes” hanging around the corner talking about the micro economic situation in eastern Europe. One of these said gents sees the coppers and starts to walk away from them; cops go to the corner to cut him off; he turns around and walks the other way; cops go to the other corner to cut him off; he then crosses in the middle of the street always looking back to see where the cops are. GIVE UP ALREADY. Tom and Yossef finally coral this dude only to find he has a fully loaded .25 caliber handgun in his jacket. My man spontaneously tells the cops he had the gun because his life was threatened. Well, turn the gun in, stop hanging around Jones and Market, get a job, eat a sandwich, or go to jail.
Park Station – Just your everyday theft turns ugly. My man wakes up and goes to work shoplifting on Haight Street. He starts his day stealing from a clothing store and attempts to flee. The storekeeper will not have it and gives chase, a violent struggle ensues. Now at the 50-yard line another merchant attempts to stop my man; the merchant gets stabbed in the face with a metal object for his troubles. Officers Priscilla Kenny and Will Kraus are en-route. Will and Priscilla were able to wrap this maniac up, get all the stolen property back to the owners, and send my man to jail for at least a day.
Airport Patrol – Officer James Cunningham is sent to a rental car company in regards to a car theft in progress. Upon arrival, Jim gets the info needed, the info to see the said stolen car leaving the parking lot. Ahh snizzle, get some! Jim jumps in his car effects a traffic stop right at the base of the freeway entrance; Hooked/Booked. Thankfully, due to Jim’s quick response, this did not turn into a chase on a busy freeway. Hey, by the by, oooo yes, there is plenty of crime to go around, even at the airport!
Bayview Station – Shots fired! 9-1-1 lines are lighting up. Officers Matt Cloud and Steve Gritsch arrive to the area in question only to hear more gunfire. Matt and Steve run TOWARDS THE GUNFIRE! Meanwhile, Officers Jose Macias, Alex Rodatos, Chris Leong, Ted Polovina, and Jeff Camilosa are on their way. Ted and Jeff locate a witness who tells them our hero threw a gun near a car, and a good description of the said hero. Jose locates the gun, and all the said officers were able to find and arrest the hero who more likely then not was in possession of the said handgun. At that point there was not “enough” to put the handgun on our hero but he did go to jail for a warrant that had a bail close to $100,000 dollars.
Bayview Station – A call comes in from Dispatch that there is a man with a gun at a location that caters to children, hosting parties for the most innocent among us -- KIDS. Sergeant Dan Cole and Officers Brent Cader, Edric Talusan, Kevin Rightmire, and Joe Gummo fire out to the scene. Let me lay this out for you. The coppers find a bunch of dudes hanging out in front, talking about modern film noir as opposed to 1950s film noir. All are handcuffed and the investigation broadens. A modified rifle, fully loaded, with one in the pipe is found in the play area where children are enjoying their party. Further investigation ensues. One of our handcuffed heroes was there with HIS SON and apparently had a “beef” with the new boyfriend of the child’s mother and had already threatened him. What might have happened if these officers had not intervened? God only knows. A loaded gun near children? I have no words for a “man” who would put any child in harms way. Great job, solid police work! Stick your chests out and swagger brothers, for you did Gods work that day!
Bayview Station – Officers Louis Hargreaves and Ali Misaghi respond to an auto burglary in progress. A citizen informs the officers that one of the suspects had an eye-patch. A search was made to no avail. Lou and Ali were not giving up on this one. A couple of hours later, a few blocks away from the original crime, walking down the street, two dudes, and one is Captain Jack Sparrow, with an eye patch. Jack and his pal are wrapped up, and taken to Bayview Station for further investigation. Well, Jack of course lies about his identity. However, Sergeant Sean O’Brien is working, knew Jack’s real name, which revealed warrants for his arrest. Ohh, snap, his second mate also had warrants! Ohh double snap, they both had burglary tools on them. Eye-patch, really? The Dread Pirate Roberts is Booked!
Southern Station – Officers Adam Eatia, Jim Funk, and Will Palladino are working the Market Street foot beat and again are in the area of Market and Jones. The officers see a group of dudes hanging out talking about radiation exposure in future outer space travel. One of the said gents sees the coppers and terminates his conversation, walks away, and crosses the street against the red light. BA BOOM! Probable cause. It seems after a short conversation and lawful search, our hero had a replica handgun in his waistband. Let’s skip ahead to later at the station; the pictures on his cell phone. Posing with my man in the pictures on the phone, assault rifles, handguns and drugs. Sergeant John Conway gets involved, writes a warrant for our heroes home in another county. Served; more drugs found with the probable intent to sell them on our streets. Booked! Outstanding follow up.
Park Station – Officers Dave Serrano and Rich Hastings are on patrol when they observe an individual sprinting around a corner. Being that the said sprinter was not on the track at Kezar Stadium, the officers found this suspicious and decided to follow Mr. Bolt. At this point, a young woman flags them down and informs the officers that Mr. Bolt just robbed her of her cell phone. Directly from page 211 of the bad guy manual, rob an innocent female victim, run from the cops, and start stripping your cloths off to the under-layer of clothing that will be a different color and style. Not our guy, he runs into a courtyard while stripping down to his boxer shorts! Just stop that, please. Dave had been chasing Mr. Bolt and lost site of him but KNEW he could not have gotten far and decides to backtrack into the courtyard. Oooohhhh snizzle, our sprinter pops out with his shorts and a T-shirt on. Remember what your mother told you? Always wear clean underwear, for you never know if you might commit a robbery and strip down to your shorts and have the cops catch you (page 212 B.G.M. Bad Guy Manual). Officer Brett Bodisco finds the missing pants, with phones inside the pockets. Dave recognizes the description of one of the phones from an earlier robbery, and contacts that victim.
Cold shows were conducted, and the first robbery victim was able to identify the suspect. Further investigation was done at the suspect’s home and more incriminating evidence was found. BOOKED!
Park Station – Sergeant John Lewis observes a woman pulling apart a box of Huggie diapers. The woman who had no child with her, and did not appear to need the diapers. This looked a little suspicious. John decides to investigate, and detains the woman. Diapers, baby wipes, and mail from a nearby address are items John finds. A quick trip to the address found on the mail reveals that a burglary took place. Bad guy manual page 459, if all you can steal is baby wipes and diapers go straight. A burglary suspect caught, more important -- I’m taking a stab at this one -- but there was an infant at home during this crime! Quintessential, get out of the car and take them on. Good job, John!
Taraval Station – A citizen watches two guys standing on the corner arguing about what is more delicious, hot foie gras, or cold? After the said discussion, they break into and burglarize a car. A citizen calls the Police. Officers Jose Hernandez and Brandon McKelly respond to the scene and catch out car theft suspects. A cold show is conducted, there is a positive identification, and two gents are off to jail.
Ingelside Station – Officers Matthew Seavey and Carlos Padilla see a vehicle driving erratically at high rates of speed. In addition, the said vehicle is stopping mid-block for no reason. Looking for victims are you? Not on Matt’s and Carlos’ watch! A traffic stop is effected after numerous violations. Mmmmmm, snippety-snap! The driver is on felony probation with a search condition, has felonious powdery drugs on him, and his female passenger has a purse with her and is clutching onto it like life itself. After a very short investigation, yes folks, she had a pistol inside of her purse, drugs in her underwear, and an old copy of the Bad Guy Manual, of which she was in complete violation. What terror was averted by this excellent traffic stop? We will never know.
Bayview Station – Paul Bunyon, without Babe the blue ox, decides to act like a lunatic and threatens a citizen with an ax. Officers Joe Kavanaugh and Eric Borghesani speed to this potentially deadly scene. Yes, there they find Paul wildly swinging an axe over his head. With guns drawn the officers approach this crazed suspect and order him to drop this deadly weapon. Of course he does not, and threatens the officers by swinging the axe over his head. Apparently the act of swinging wildly was too much for Paul, and the axe flew out of his hands into another yard. Still acting insanely, our hero then rushes the officers. They tackle him, and take him into custody. Most people would run from an axe wielding loon, but not SFPD. BOOKED! (Axe not returned.)
Bayview Station - Officers Leo Bernstein and Alex Lentz, while taking a nice drive through the 4-car Sector, see a young man walk against a solid red traffic light. Not only did he violate this infraction, but he is drinking a CapriSun juice, which is not really juice! The officers decide to investigate. Upon initial contact, our juice-drinking hero violates rule 12020, page 811, of the Bad Guy Manual (B.G.M.) and decides not to run from the police with a fully loaded pistol in his waistband. Instead, he decides to get into a fistfight with the cops. He lost; gun retrieved; cops uninjured; juice guy booked; another gun off the street; a violation of the B.G.M.; and excellent police work!
Bayview/Ingelside Stations – Officers Francis Graves, Pat McNichol, and Dave Aschwanden respond to a shooting. This is the real deal. There is a victim down; shot! These cops knew exactly what to do; render aid; set the crime scene up; and start to track the suspect. Officers John Norment, Kevin Rightmire, Tom Ly, Brent Cader, and Edric Talusan work the housing unit and were quick to identify the possible shooter. Officer Gabe Alcaraz finds video of the crime to further put our hero at the scene. These Officers were even aware of the vehicle our hero drives. Officers Uwem Obot and Al Johnson of Ingelside station are intently listening to this caper transpire. Ooooo snap! They respond to the projects, and locate the said vehicle and the aforementioned suspect. Quickly bag his hands and call for the “suits”. Sergeant Mike Brown (who never wears a suit) and Inspector Len Broberg respond to the scene. These two seasoned cops not only put together a solid case, but obtained a confession from the suspect. Solid police work in San Francisco; SOLID!
