Snow!

After driving to work in the cold gray rain (and marveling anew at how many people in Portland of all places don't know how to drive in the rain), I get to my desk and half an hour later snippy calls.

"Do you have access to a window?" she asks.
Yes. I look outside to see huge fat snowflakes. Lots of them. Apparently it chilled down quite rapidly, and all that rain has turned into big, fat, fluffy snowflakes. So I marveled at the snow for a while.

It didn't stick. Not here downtown, anyhow, though rumor has it that it accumulated quite rapidly in some outlying provinces of the mighty Portland Metro Area. And by now (1:30 p.m.) it has stopped snowing downtown.

Which is just as well. I'm supposed to drive Twoson down to visit with his dad for four days, and I'm just as happy not to have to deal with snow on the way. Or find my trip foiled by heavy snow (or more precisely, by the idiocy of people who don't know how to handle it). snippy and I are looking forward to having a four-day holiday from parenthood. Twoson is a great kid, but even great kids are work.

Three Golden Rules

...for making decisions in law enforcement (as told to me by a friend at Orycon this past weekend).

1. You want to go home safe at the end of the day.
2. You want the bad guys in custody.
3. you want to avoid being sued.

He also spoke of the Continuum of Force, from physical presence (a cop in present) all the way up to lethal force. Apparently many people think that calling it a continuum implies that you must work through each stage in turn before going on to the next. Which I know is bunk. You want to use the lowest level of force possible--but as much as necessary. If that means, for instance, jumping from giving orders to using pain compliance or inflicting injury or using lethal force, you do it. [This applies every bit as much to you and me in self-defense as it does to the police.]

But that misapprehension is one that he deals with even when teaching other cops, apparently. And (referring back to the three golden rules) he makes the point that using Level 4 force in a Level 5 situation will get you hurt; using Level 5 force in a Level 4 situation will get you sued.

He talked about a lot of other things with me this weekend, including learning some things that he really didn't want to know. And I agree. Nobody should have to know those things. It reminded me that he really does live in a different world than I do much of the time. Knowing him as I do, I don't think any other job would suit him as well as his does, but even so, it takes a toll.

I've been lax about keeping in touch with him. The last time I saw him before this weekend was last year's Orycon. I need to do better.