rlfj: Blog

A final comment on politics. If I have a character in a story saying something political, from either side, it does not mean I agree with them. It means the character as written believes in it. If I were to write a story about the Second World War from the German perspective, it does not mean I am a Nazi. Blaming a writer for depicting the thoughts of a character is unfair to the writer and intellectually dishonest with yourself.

Finally, let’s take a break from politics and have a little fun. Does this story have anything to do with police work? Not really. Does this happen? You bet! Happened to me twice! I have taken to calling my wife the Black Widow. If you can’t have fun with a problem like the one the Reaper family is facing, your sense of humor has been surgically removed.

In any case, this story is one where the readers who want to see more of the extended Reaper family get their wish. Enjoy!

Patriots and Players is my most controversial story, and my most involved. It was originally written and posted on SOL in 2017 as a stand-alone story. I was considering adding to the GR universe and this was the first story I wrote after concluding the original story. It was extremely controversial at the time and got me huge blowback from some (but not all, by any stretch!) readers. Others agreed with me. It got very political, very fast, and only the fact that my email address was hidden kept me from getting death threats directly.

Within the next year I wrote the rest of ASLE and decided to incorporate P&P into it as one of the stories. It fits the time frame and helps to build towards the conclusion. I then took P&P down as a stand-alone.

Despite the animosity at the time, I am not ashamed to have written it and will stand by it. Whether you are a fan of DJT or not, some of what he does is sheer madness – he comes up with an idea and then just blurts it out to the world on social media, whether he has thought it through or not. While I like some of what he’s done and hate some of what he’s done, he is pure chaos.

Like Grim, I believe the players have the right to their opinions. Like Grim, I am not at all sure this is the best way to protest. I think the best response I got, and one of the most intelligent was from a reader, pcant:

“I felt the need to express another viewpoint. I do feel that the kneeling is disrespectful, but like Grim, I would never dispute someone else’s right to protest. My issue is the politicizing of a nonpolitical event. I can't think of any other profession (outside of Hollywood, a lost cause IMHO) where you can hold a protest, in corporate uniform, on the company's dime, and not get fired. If there are no consequences to a protest, then it's a pretty meager protest. If the football players have nothing to lose by protesting, then it doesn't mean much. I support their right to protest. That doesn't mean I wouldn't fire each and every one, given the opportunity. Let them protest before or after the game, in civilian clothes.”

He's right. At the time, I worked for my wife’s family, and I was a part owner of the company. This type of behavior by our employees would not have been tolerated. If I dressed in a corporate uniform and used corporate communications and corporate television to protest something, anything, my ass would be in the front office in a heartbeat. The second time I did it, I would be on the unemployment line, family or not.

Lots of elements in this story. The main story, about the Headless Horseman, was from a tale told me by a Texas police officer, and like Skinny Mike, the officer involved managed to get over the incident and went on to a long and honorable career in law enforcement. Several of the other stories I can personally bear witness to.

The story of the late-night antics in the Wal-Mart came courtesy of my wife, who used to be a graveyard shift cashier at a local grocery store. She would come home and tell me the damnedest tales of who and/or what came in at 2 or 3 in the morning. In one instance she reported a guy coming in stoned and looking for beer and condoms with what seemed to be the loose change he had pulled from the couch. I dread to think of what had happened to the poor couch! In another case a different gentleman came in looking for flowers and condoms, and then told my wife that if he didn’t have the one, he wouldn’t need the other. She couldn’t believe people would blurt out this stuff to total strangers. As for the outfits I described, just search for ‘ugly Walmart people photos’ and you will find many sites with pictures that will make you want to leave the species, also.

The accident on the highway in Alabama happened to me, though it was in Pennsylvania, not Alabama. As I mentioned, my beloved decided I needed to sleep on the couch for a few nights. I also had to hire a couple of criminal lawyers, one of whom had as his last defendant a serial killer named Lewis Lent. I used to drive home from work wondering if the NY State Police were going to be waiting for me in my driveway with a warrant. Just like in the story, I told my wife that my name and extradition are never used in the same sentence!

Enjoy!

The further adventures of the Grim Reaper. This is a collection of short stories that share a theme. It is a few years after the finale of the original Grim Reaper book. I will post these vignettes mostly as a whole, so some posts might have one chapter, and some might have several. Only the finale will take longer.

The title comes from the first episode of Miami Vice, the groundbreaking police series from the ‘80s. At the end of the episode, Sonny Crockett, a Miami cop played by Don Johnson, asks Rico Tubbs, a NYC cop played by Philip Michael Thomas, “Hey Tubbs, you ever consider a career in southern law enforcement?”

Before I go further, I absolutely have to thank my two ‘police editors.’ These gentlemen, jjmcdonald and grynslvr2, are both current or former law enforcement professionals, both south of the Mason-Dixon line. They have provided the basis for some of the stories (but not all) and have helped with both accuracy and editing. They have worked with me on earlier stories and were indispensable here.

The first story is Block Party, which was suggested by jjmcdonald. Interestingly, this story was the only one my two editors had a disagreement on. grynslvr2 considered this a ‘Man Bites Dog’ story, rather unusual. Many gangsters, he reported did not treat their families nicely and were prone to beat and rob grandparents. I don’t have any personal expertise on this, but I found it interesting that jjmcdonald commented that the African-American and Hispanic communities seemed to be more prone to respect for matriarchal hierarchies than other communities. Regardless, it is based on a true story.

A big element in the first story is about warrants. On TV we hear all about warrants and getting them and using them, but about 90% of what you see on TV cop shows is bullshit. There are search warrants and arrest warrants, and they are not the same thing, and the rules are very specific for each type. Fuck it up and the bad guy walks, and you might just screw up the entire case against him. Warrants can be very complicated and need to be very precise. I have heard from a few other police professionals and magistrates confirming this. Even the tiniest typo or misspelling can invalidate the entire thing. Judges can be very particular about what they will and won’t allow. The actions of Officer Hanover could have easily landed him and the department in some very hot water.

In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

Now we see the dark side of fraternity life. For all of you who have been complaining about Carl joining a stupid frat and how evil they are, well, now you get to say, ‘I told you so!’ No, it didn’t happen in my frat. Still, it is the sort of thing that happens every year, somewhere.

On the other hand, it’s actually pretty rare! How many thousands of frat houses are there across the country? It’s only a handful every year, nationwide, that get truly stupid, where people get hurt or killed. When it does happen, it’s usually stupid shit like this, where a handful of brothers get out of control. That’s not an excuse, but it doesn’t mean we have an epidemic of abuse, either. Anyway, so much for the soapbox.

As many of you have suspected, or as I have admitted, portions of this story are semi-autobiographical, but the accent is on the ‘semi’! My real family is nowhere near as fucked up as the Buckman family. We’re only average fucked up, since we’re just an average family. Even though we live 300 miles away, we try to get there several times a year. Two years ago we took my mother on a cruise; she was 94.

We’re taking another break from Carl Buckman and going back to the Grim Reaper for a few weeks.