NO MAN’S LAND | Louisiana Public Broadcasting

This is interesting.

Louisiana is a blend of cultures.  Many people recognize the Cajuns in south Louisiana and the Creoles of New Orleans, but it is more than that. Western Louisiana represented a clash of cultures, from the Spanish, the French, the native tribes and the early Americans.

For a time in the late 1700s until the early 1800s there was a strip of ground that was not claimed by anyone. Under a gentleman's agreement where no government encroached and separated the land that Spain claimed and the land that the US claimed.  This became known as the Free State, or the No Man's Land.  Yet people lived there and because of the absence of government, banditry flourished.

This is the story of those people.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas morning, Belle and I are alone.  Not by chance, but by design.  We had our family celebration yesterday and today we're kicked back, enjoying life and a quiet day. For myself, I'm processing the carcass of the turkey for a gumbo this weekend, and trimming the remnants of the ham for snacks the rest of the week.

Lots of leftovers.  I won't cook this week, unless I want to.  This morning I stumbled on this video where the guy is telling us the difference between country ham and everything else.  I like his production style, so I thought I'd share it.

Y'all enjoy the rest of your day.

Dispatchers

 Ya gotta love a good dispatcher.  As a long-time street cop, we depended on dispatchers to tell us what was going on, and those folks could make or break a shift, simply through their ability to communicate and their knowledge of what we needed on the ground.

I worked the road before data links in the vehicle.  I didn't have a computer, only a radio. I couldn't see patrol notes or call volumes. All I knew was what the dispatcher told me.

So we come to this little lady, who professes to being a dispatcher.  And that's funny, right there.  Go ahead and click on it.

I never knew anyone who kept and alligator in his shop, but I did know one guy who kept a big, nasty gnarly cur in his shop.  During the day, the dog slept on a cushion in the office. During the night, the dog had the run of the place. Sometimes the owner would come in in the morning and find blood on the floor near an open window.

The yeast rolls are rising in the oven, and I have a ham in the smoker.  Family will start showing up closer to noon.  Y'all have a Merry Christmas.

Smoking a Bird

It's the 23rd, which means that our Christmas celebration is tomorrow.  It's been a busy season so far, and I haven't really gotten into the spirit but that will change soon enough.

Belle and I have for years hosted a Christmas Eve lunch, where we cook big and have family and friends over.  This frees up the kids to do whatever they will on Christmas Day.  It works for us.  Today, I have a bird in the smoker.  The smoker is running about 240F and I'm not going to mess with it.  The smoke is coming out of the seams of the box, and I have learned to trust the process.

One of my favorite carols is Allson Kraus and YoYo Ma playing the Wexford Carol.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

Trip Around The Sun - Martina Mcbride Jimmy Buffett

Well, I've done it again. By my count, this is 72.

Brown Shooter Found Dead

 Everyone is reporting that some homeless guy gave police enough evidence to identify and begin tracking the Brown University shooting suspect.  As they closed in, he was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The same guy is also suspected of killing an MIT professor on Monday.  The police are trying to unravel the various threads that hold this case together.  It's a sordid tale.

This shooter, like many others of his ilk, was an execrable coward.  He is worth neither comment nor memory.

University Police

 The first 20 years of my career, I was based in Natchitoches, LA.  Natchitoches is the home of Northwestern State University, a state college that, at that time, educated approximately 5000 students. It was mainly a teacher college.  It is also my alma mater, where I did both undergrad and graduate work.

During the late 80s, I was asked by the Sociology Department to adjunct a class on Tuesday evenings.  Introduction to Probation and Prole.  One Tuesday I was working an investigation, probably a Pres-Sentence investigation, and realized that i had to go over to the college to teach.  I grabbed my lesson plan, went over, climbed the stairs to the third floor and started the lesson.  

In just a few minutes, I glanced toward the door and saw the Deputy Chief of the University Police in the doorway.

He looked at me, grinned, and said, "Oh, it's you."

I asked, perplexed, "Who are you looking for?"

"We got a report of some guy in a white shirt and tie coming in here with a big magnum on his hip."

University Police, in Louisiana at least, a fully trained, certified law enforcement officers with the same standards of training as the local, parish (county), or state police. They have a tough job on a very narrow beat. In this case they got a report of a man with a gun, rolled on the report and satisfactorily concluded it within minutes.

I don't know what standards Rhode Islan has for their University Police, but the Brown shooting does not engender confidence. There are a lot of questions being asked, with very few answers. Law enforcement is tougher now, simply due to the amount of technology available. Security cams, dash cams and vest cams are ubiquitous, but require funding, maintenance and monitoring.  Equipment and manpower costs. These are challenges that every police agency struggles with. These are challenges that every police administrator has to deal with.