rlfj: Blog

This story is going to be a bit darker than some of the others in this book, but I think you will like it. Enjoy!

I had an interesting comment from one of my editors on the FBI and HRT back when I was writing this section. The Hostage Rescue Team is an elite unit and routinely trains with other elite units. That sort of training involves plans and backup plans and backup plans for the backup plans. Against regular criminals and terrorists, these guys can rock and roll with the best. Unfortunately, every once in a while they run up against somebody who is just as well trained and who knows those plans. Bad things can happen then. It’s not always as funny as I wrote. Rogue special operators are the nightmare scenario for these guys.

On a separate note, I love the emails I get from non-American readers. It always surprises me how many overseas readers SOL has. I routinely get emails from European and Oceanic readers, going back to when I was writing A Fresh Start. It is always interesting trying to explain how our political and legal systems work, or frequently don’t.

One of the topics I get into with The Grim Reaper is the cost of being a cop in America. This stuff never shows up in the movies or police shows. Let’s consider just some of the costs the Matucket Police Department faces. All the costs I mention are realistic and from the period I wrote this story, 2018. Today, it would be even more expensive.

Police cars aren’t cheap. Take a routine patrol car. A current popular cruiser is the Dodge Charger Pursuit model. These cars need heavy duty brakes, heavy duty suspension, heavy duty engine, etc. Figure about $30k minimum. Small departments might pay more than large departments, because of economies of scale, but often group together under a statewide association. That’s just the start, though. Now you have to add in all the ‘cop stuff’ - radio, mobile data terminals, cage between the front seats and back, big first aid kit, breathalyzer, support weapons (AR-15 or tactical shotgun), body armor and helmet, etc. Every item you add to the car runs at least $500 to $1,000. Figure a final cost of $45k or more. Some departments use SUVs or pickup trucks, depending on local circumstances. These can cost even more. BTW, these vehicles are nonarmored. If you want Kevlar and ballistic glass, add a minimum of $10-20k.

The police officer himself is quite expensive. A patrol officer is carrying, at a minimum: a duty belt, a pistol plus spare magazines, body armor, handcuffs, collapsible baton, pepper spray, maybe a Taser, and a very expensive radio that ties into the equally expensive radio in his patrol car. Even the uniforms cost money; they might belong to the officer, but he probably gets some form of clothing allowance every year. Just getting out of bed and going to work, a police officer is carrying around thousands of dollars of equipment.

Special units aren’t cheap either. SWAT teams are sexy as hell, but very, very expensive. First, these units are very selective. Rookies need not apply. They choose from officers with some experience, who have been on the force for a few years. Since most police officers are in some form of collective bargaining agreement, the contracts specify that more experienced officers get paid more. Second, these officers get a lot more training, and that ain’t cheap. Officers in training aren’t officers on patrol, so you have to hire extra officers for when your SWAT team is training. Even simple stuff costs extra. Shooting is a perishable skill. SWAT officers might shoot 2,500 rounds a year, or more, per weapon; many officers train on more than one weapon. Even at bulk police discounts, each round can cost $.15 to $.25 each. Ammo alone can run $1-2k per officer per year, and more exotic weapons cost even more.

This gets very expensive very quickly. Following 9-11, the federal government opened the coffers to just about any police department that could come up with any conceivable reason to ask for money. There is no possible way that a mid-size department like the MPD could afford some of what they have without federal funds. Many departments have people who do nothing but file paperwork for grants and programs for federal funds.

For an overall analysis, consider the NYPD, the largest police force in the nation. The NYPD has an annual budget of $5.6 billion, supporting over 55,000 employees, 40,000 of whom are police officers. Granted, New York is much more expensive to live in than West Georgia, but that works out to about $140k per officer a year! The Atlanta PD, which is much closer to Matucket, has an annual budget of over $20 million, supporting 2,000 officers, a cost of about $100k per officer. (God bless Wikipedia!)

One point I want to add - the costs of the police do not include the costs of jails and prisons. Totally separate departments! When somebody is arrested, they are typically taken to the local police station, but that would have nothing more than a few holding cells and drunk tanks. If they don’t get arraigned and released, they typically are moved to the local jail, which would have its own officers and costs and budget. They are typically stuck in a jail until they go to trial, and if convicted move from the jail to a state prison. In New York City, the NYPD has an annual budget of $5.6 billion. The NY City Department of Corrections, responsible for the infamous Riker’s Island jail complex, has its own force of officers and an annual budget of about $1.4 billion. Then, if somebody is sent to prison, they become the property of the NY State Department of Corrections, with a budget of $3.2 billion.

This stuff ain’t cheap!

Somebody wrote the most amazing complaint about my writing: “I quit! Story comes across as having been written by a biased northern negro. MSM has enough of this!” A biased northern negro? I think the last time I heard somebody called a negro was at least fifty years ago. Hey, if you don’t like it, fine, but at least use an insult current within the last half century! I mentioned it to my wife, and she couldn’t remember that usage since the 1960s! MSM stands for - Main Stream Media. As one reader put it: “MSM=main stream media, aka what folks who get their “news” solely from Infowars call journalists of any flavor but their own.” Fascinating!

BTW, for the record, I am a white male born south of the Mason-Dixon Line and a politically moderate Independent.

The incident at Darton State occurred in January 2016. I remember that when it occurred several readers asked what Grim would have done. A little investigation showed that what occurred was nowhere near as awful as was initially portrayed. It really was a misunderstanding and was rectified almost immediately. One of my readers commented that since it disappeared from public knowledge quickly there must have been a conspiracy among academics and liberals to bury it. I offer another suggestion - Darton State no longer exists! A year later it was folded into Albany State University. As for the idiocy suggested, I can’t make this stuff up. Several schools have various liberal groups arguing for eliminating campus police departments. The bit about whistles is true! You can pick up your safety whistles at the Campus Safety offices at the University of Redlands in California and at Bates College in Maine (as of 2018.) No word on whether you should use them to create safe spaces, so you don’t have to hear unpleasant thoughts. My generation’s version of a safe space was dodging the draft and running away to Canada (or going to college in England and smoking pot but not inhaling.) This generation is a bunch of pussies! Then again, I’m just a cranky old fart.

This sort of thing can really happen. Heart attacks can be caused by increased cardiovascular activity, and if you do it right, sex can really increase cardiovascular activity! In my case, this happened twice. The first time, in 2008, I collapsed but blew it off and my wife didn’t push me to go to the hospital until the next day. On the TV shows the paramedics run an EKG and go, “Aha! Heart attack!” Yes, that can happen, but in a lot of cases, by the time they get there the event is over. At that point, the doctors do bloodwork and test for various trace chemicals given off by the heart under stress. If the chemicals are there, but the EKG looks good, it means you had a heart attack in the last 6-12 hours. However, if you delay going to the hospital, the chemicals dissipate and flush from your system.

After my second heart attack, in 2016, my wife made me call the emergency squad immediately. The EKG was clean, but the bloodwork showed I had a problem, so I ended up in the cath lab later that day. That’s the gold standard, and they discovered 70% blockage in the ‘widowmaker’. I ended up with a stent and the ability to continue giving my wife grief with my persistent existence.

Lots of readers laughed about the antics of Riley and Seamus and wondered why Riley Fox’s namesake wasn’t the worse of the two. Trust me, all three-year-olds are pains in the tail, no matter their sex or who they’re named after! I’ve had three children and five grandchildren. I know about three-year-olds! As for the line, “Oh no! It’s Tio Grim! Run for your lives!”, my son’s girls (11, 8, & 5 at the time) pulled that on me once when they stayed with us.

A final comment on politics. If I have a character in a story saying something political, from either side, it does not mean I agree with them. It means the character as written believes in it. If I were to write a story about the Second World War from the German perspective, it does not mean I am a Nazi. Blaming a writer for depicting the thoughts of a character is unfair to the writer and intellectually dishonest with yourself.

Finally, let’s take a break from politics and have a little fun. Does this story have anything to do with police work? Not really. Does this happen? You bet! Happened to me twice! I have taken to calling my wife the Black Widow. If you can’t have fun with a problem like the one the Reaper family is facing, your sense of humor has been surgically removed.

In any case, this story is one where the readers who want to see more of the extended Reaper family get their wish. Enjoy!

Patriots and Players is my most controversial story, and my most involved. It was originally written and posted on SOL in 2017 as a stand-alone story. I was considering adding to the GR universe and this was the first story I wrote after concluding the original story. It was extremely controversial at the time and got me huge blowback from some (but not all, by any stretch!) readers. Others agreed with me. It got very political, very fast, and only the fact that my email address was hidden kept me from getting death threats directly.

Within the next year I wrote the rest of ASLE and decided to incorporate P&P into it as one of the stories. It fits the time frame and helps to build towards the conclusion. I then took P&P down as a stand-alone.

Despite the animosity at the time, I am not ashamed to have written it and will stand by it. Whether you are a fan of DJT or not, some of what he does is sheer madness – he comes up with an idea and then just blurts it out to the world on social media, whether he has thought it through or not. While I like some of what he’s done and hate some of what he’s done, he is pure chaos.

Like Grim, I believe the players have the right to their opinions. Like Grim, I am not at all sure this is the best way to protest. I think the best response I got, and one of the most intelligent was from a reader, pcant:

“I felt the need to express another viewpoint. I do feel that the kneeling is disrespectful, but like Grim, I would never dispute someone else’s right to protest. My issue is the politicizing of a nonpolitical event. I can't think of any other profession (outside of Hollywood, a lost cause IMHO) where you can hold a protest, in corporate uniform, on the company's dime, and not get fired. If there are no consequences to a protest, then it's a pretty meager protest. If the football players have nothing to lose by protesting, then it doesn't mean much. I support their right to protest. That doesn't mean I wouldn't fire each and every one, given the opportunity. Let them protest before or after the game, in civilian clothes.”

He's right. At the time, I worked for my wife’s family, and I was a part owner of the company. This type of behavior by our employees would not have been tolerated. If I dressed in a corporate uniform and used corporate communications and corporate television to protest something, anything, my ass would be in the front office in a heartbeat. The second time I did it, I would be on the unemployment line, family or not.