So today we were inspected by our new Sgt (Sergeant). He gave us fair warning last week that his standards were extremely high for our class. Shirts had to be creased with heavy starch, shoes shined to perfection, minuscule loose strings cut from clothing, tie clips placed perfectly, gig lines perfect, hair cut low, no facial hair, ect. During inspection the Sgt walked face to face (so close you'd could smell what he had for breakfast) with every individual Recruit and assessed our uniform and grooming standards. He made comments to other Recruits such as "this is bullshit, I can't believe they gave you a badge and a gun" or one of my personal favorites "who the fuck are you the Good Humor man? You better stay away from those little kids Recruit!"

When it was my turn to be inspected, I was extremely nervous. Not only do I have to stay in attention (looking straight forward, no eye contact, no physical movement, or facial expressions) with the rest of the class, but I also have to pray that the 2 hours of shoe shining paid off the night before. Surprisingly he said I did a good job. He wasn't impressed by the shine on my boot, but he said they looked much better than the day prior. Right when I thought my portion of the inspection was over he asked me about a scar on my ear, and where it came from. I took the longest 5 seconds I could and nervously responded "HIGH SCHOOL SIR!" Dumb answer right? Yeah I know, but I just said the first thing that came to mind. Thank God he walked away after that.

Unfortunately several recruits didn't meet his standards, and if one recruit doesn't meet his standards - we all are in trouble. One recruit left his name tag at home, another recruit had 2 loose strings on his shirt that could hardly be seen by the naked eye, and another recruit had a very small piece of "honey bun" on his upper lip (Angelo). Needless to say, Sgt was pretty pissed off and told us we would all pay for it on "our time." What did he mean by "our time?" Well technically we get out of the academy at 2PM everyday. However the Sgt knows after 2PM we don't get paid. Put 2 and 2 together and you'll realize the Sgt intentionally made sure we'd work for free, doing God knows what.

Here comes to the good part....

So after a long 8 hours of the academy, we were told to meet our Sgt in the hallway in full PT gear with our orange vest that reads "POLICE." We stretched out for several minutes then headed out the door. Just our luck as we exited the building it began to pour down raining. Regardless, the Sgt took us on a run that surprised most of us. Not only did we run past the local housing projects (YES THE PROJECTS), but we were all soaked and filthy from the splashing of the water puddles. Usually when we go on group runs, it's 5 or 6 in the morning. This was different because it was in the middle of the day, therefore it was much more pedestrian and vehicular traffic outside. Seems like everywhere we ran people turned and pointed. We got some laughs, we got some smiles.....but all and all we didn't give a shit. Hell we were 28 Recruits screaming and hollering "I LOVE THE RAIN" as a form of motivating each other.

After running several miles it was clear that our Sgt was there not only to punish us, but to teach us how important our career is at the same time. This was evident because he took us to a police memorial 2 miles away from the academy where an officer was shot and killed in an alley. The memorial was placed there by the city after the officer's death. Our Sgt gave us a very motivational speech, and reminded us how dangerous the job is. During the speech I couldn't help but remember the discussion we had an hour prior in class with another veteran cop who was shot in the throat while responding to a Domestic Violence call. Needless to say it took this officer a year to learn to walk again, and he still has a very visible limp in his walk to this day.

Back to our run, after Sgt's brief but unforgettable speech we picked up where we left off and ran more. I made sure I was in the front of the group, because I wanted to show the Sgt how bad I wanted this opportunity. By the time we returned to the academy we had ran a total of 6 miles according to our Sgt. Everyone including my self was extremely out of breath and gasping for air. I secretly have asthma, yet I don't tell anyone because I think too many people use asthma as an excuse in life. Sure there's nothing fun when your lungs tighten up and you have to go to the hospital to get on a breathing respirator (been there done that), but there comes a time when you have to man up.

Before dismissal Sgt told us we will do the same thing tomorrow if he finds anything wrong during inspection. Besides not getting paid for an hour, it doesn't bother me a bit. Sure 6 miles isn't a cake walk by any means but I love being challenged. The average person can't run 1 mile at our pace let alone walk it. So knowing that I can run 6 miles in under 40 minutes is something to be proud of.

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Injury Update: I split my lip while in a training exercises a week and a half ago. The training exercise included 3VS 1 (3 Recruits attacking 1 Recruit) and 2VS 1 (2 Recruits attacking 1). These drills are great because they test your endurance and your "survival" skills. We actually get a chance to use all the techniques we've been taught during this exercise. Trust me although it's no fun getting attacked by 3 people at once, it's a hell of adrenaline rush.

During a 3VS1 exercise I was hit several times with a padded baton. My mouth piece fell out of my mouth in the process, then I was slammed to the ground. Without the knowledge of my mouth piece not in my mouth I bit down in my lip causing a huge chunk of flesh to come out. It was pretty bloody for a while, and it stung like hell. I'd rate the pain level at about a 6 on a scale of 1-10. I was disappointed in my self, because not only did my instructors MAKE me sit out for the rest of the class, but they also MADE me go to the hospital afterwards to get stitches. Anyone who knows me can testify that the last thing I want to do is go to the hospital. I much rather suck up the pain and continue as if nothing ever happened.

The doctor told me although my lip was cut pretty bad it was optional if I wanted stitches. She recommended them, but again it was optional. I refused, so she end up clipping more skin off the lip to avoid any infection, and giving me different types of medications to accelerate the healing process. Needless to say here's a picture below of my lip I took while in the hospital. It looks a lot worst than what it is. There's nothing like crusty blood on top of open flesh.

Well a little over a week later, and my lip is fully healed as seen in this picture taken 3 days ago. Surprisingly enough we do the exact same exercise this Thursday, except this time we have to be pepper sprayed directly in the eyes prior to the start of the exercise. Exciting huh?! I can't wait!

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I wanted to discuss a lot more, but I'm extremely tired and I need to get some rest. I graduate in about 5 weeks. I promise after graduation I'll make a major effort to not only improve this website, but also make it more entertaining. I have so many ideas, and I'm capable of designing and creating all of them - however these things take time.

Final Thought: The question I get asked the most lately from friends and family is "can you technically lock me up right now?" To answer the question I'll simply say 2 recruits in my class have made "off duty arrests" so far. In both situations it sounds like the Recruits were doing what they felt was necessary. In my opinion making an "off duty arrest" while still in the academy is some what ridiculous, but that's just me. Let's just hope I never have to make that decision.....for the next 5 weeks at least.