Aftermath

The stuff I should write about leaves me cold right now. I expect criminals to try to ambush me, not colleagues. I expect some of the inmates to try to make my job harder, not senior administration.

Inmates don't bother us because, deep down, what do I care if a swindler who cheats little old ladies or a crack head or a child molester or a murderer thinks of me? We act honorably for ourselves, not because of what the inmates might think. But we do care about what other officers think.

It was a pretty ugly day. We had some information and we did a good hard search of one of the problem dorms with drug dogs and all available man power and we found a lot of contraband. Not all the contraband was important. Drugs, weapons and firestarting stuff are a bigger problem than someone stockpiling food or extra clothes.

It was a good job. The deputies did an outstanding job with excellent control, the sergeant in charge of the area busted his ass both on the search and getting the paperwork done.... and the senior administrator though it was odd that there was so much paperwork and dismissed it all...and tried to blame the people doing the job. Without a word to any of the people involved.

We deal with an ugly environment but morale, particularly with this crew, is usually very, very high. We do a good job. We take care of each other. Then someting like this happens and for MONTHS we'll be looking at anyone with brass on his or her collar as a potential enemy.

That was only one incident from that day, the less serious of the two.