Close Calls and Quick Wit

Detective Zeke started out in Patrol like everyone does. Most big cities you must do a minimum of two years in Patrol before you can apply to a specialized unit.

Looking back on Zeke’s early days there are some memories to take us back.

One night while sitting in his Patrol car, facing the correct way on a one-way street, a call comes over the radio about a stolen Ford Explorer and this vehicle also struck an officer during the pursuit.

As Zeke is listening along on the pursuit, the radio calls are coming into his area. The East Side. Okay! Ears perk up. Now the calls are on streets he’s super familiar with. Then…

A Ford Explorer turns onto the street that Zeke’s Patrol car is parked, except the Ford Explorer is going the wrong way. The driver probably didn’t expect to see a cop car. The Explorer aims right at Zeke’s car and hits the driver side door, smashing off it, and keeps going.

The closed window shatters in crystals, hurling glass all in Zeke’s face. When Zeke gains a sense of “what the hell just happened”, the driver side mirror is sitting on his lap.

The Explorer crashed nearby, and the pursuit team catches the driver.

As they check on Zeke, he must go to the hospital to make sure there is no glass in his eye…And that’s the first time he had to call his wife and say, “I’m okay, But I have to go to the hospital”.

Other times as a skinny Caucasian kid wearing the uniform Zeke would get tested by the punks in the neighborhood.

On one day, a young man decides he wants a shot at the title. He and Zeke are sharing some pleasantries back and forth, then turn into the young man saying, “let’s go pig”.

Zeke takes his badge off his uniform and slams it down on the hood of the Patrol car. “Alright let’s go, the badge is off”, says Zeke. The young man says, “awe man you gotta take off that Batman belt”.

Zeke was quick witted and with everyone watching says, “sh!t if I take off this gun belt you’ll steal it, I don’t need it to whoop you’re a$$”. Everyone watching starts cracking up laughing and the young man backs down. That is de-escalation.