Today I Remembered what I had forgot.

Today I got up and checked the news and weather, the news said 6 cops had been shot in the City I grew up in and worked in. One had died, the rest were seriously injured. I could feel the rage starting to build inside. I found out who the officers were. I knew some of them....worked with them, bled with them. We had our differences true.

Jumped on Face book and started to read the hatred spewing forth... People saying kill the fucking cops, and hating on the cops.... other people saying the same shit about the guy who shot the cops.... every one hating angry and hurt.  Then I jumped to a friends page by this time I was near blowing up. Anger boiling over... My friend is an old adversary from the street. Yes, we were adversaries, a definite line drawn between us. Me a cop, gang cop no less on one side......him a Crip, banger, street reputation as a soldier on the other. Between us is respect... Hard to imagine for an outsider how two adversaries can have that respect. But there it is

Guess who is teaching his FB. friends about respect... respect of another human being. The Crip,  take a look at the post I cut and pasted from his page:   "Its a sad day in the O! Rip to the fallen.. now on to you feeble minded clowns praising death on a public servant! He was a father of two & a husband!! You fuccin toy tuff guys make me shit sick!! Kings & true LEADERS dont wish death upon anyone so continue to be followers!! Ps pussie muthafuccas...."

then there is another:  
Its too funny how you brilliant minded fb friends of mine can say fucc tha police! But at the same time when you go out side your not being attacked bye your enemies on a every minute bases! Why because of the veil of police protection you & I live under! And I read a females post that said we're being dramatic about all this and fucc the police! Wow with out them who's gonna stop a mob of rapos or molesters from getting to you! Oh wait your enemies are to scared to pop at you or ain't nobody gonna take nothing from me! !! I commend all you billy badasses of the world! 

Other old school bangers jumped in as well.... these are not wanna bes, but hard core, been there done that:

"The police have nothing to do with your choices....nor do they sentence any of us that choose to violate others....when called they are called by many around you...either to protect you or others around you...encounters with the police are choices we choose....good or bad....death is a spiritual fight amongst good. and evil..."
 
and then..........."In order to understand ....you must first experience loss...not loss of life...nor loss of freedom...but loss of ones own hate..."

 I was stunned. To be painfully honest this brought tears to my eyes. No one will ever know how these street soldiers tried to make others realize we are all in this together.... we all make mistakes, some really big damn mistakes, take lives in anger, hate others we don't know. Fire weapons in rage.... people on both sides of the law have done that, myself included. 


To me this is the difference in the world today. The old school, be they cops, gang bangers, criminals or what ever had a code... Respect. No matter what, respect was present. You may be adversaries, you may end up in life and death battles with each other... but you respected each other as human beings. The new up and coming on the street on both sides.... have forgot the code. Today a soldier died....he has the respect of both sides of the old school.  These are my thoughts... had to put them out there in the Web... cant let this go unnoticed. Z

What a difference perspective makes!

The following are two different comments posted on Goodreads. The are of the same book, Curbchek. Same edition, within 24 hours of each other. Always amazes me how different people are in what they see and expect from the world around them. Take a look..... The first reader has grasped exactly why I wrote the book,  the second reader is bored with the entire book.... what a difference their perspectives make.  What are your thoughts?

The readers venture into the darkest realms of the world after "Daywalkers" have safely crawled into their beds for the night. In the whirlwind rides under the cover of darkness, Zach Fortier tries to remain human and relatively normal while patrolling messed up streets and neighborhoods. The author does a great job presenting the grit police officers face on a daily basis as well as the tension that arises between officers. He also stresses frequently the need for officers to listen to people, pay attention to detail, remain loyal to their code of honor, and find some comic relief in all the madness. Anyone who has ever had police officer friends hears tales told in this same way. Police officers take whatever calls come in during their shift; these calls range all over the board from the ridiculous call of the woman locking herself inside her car to vicious acts of murder. When recounting the calls, there is typically a hint of arrogance, extra added fluff, and sometimes all around madness. 'Curb Chek' portrays a fairly honest image of real life on the darkened streets from a police officer's point of view and recounts comical, sad, and other stories in the fashion expected if sitting down with him at the end of his weekend shift.

 "Curbchek chronicles the experiences of a police officer, describing different patrol calls he answered and trying to balance some kind of a "normal" home life.

The premise behind the book seemed very interesting, and I was really looking forward to reading it. I was quite disappointed and totally bored with the whole thing. Each story was only a few paragraphs long, leading from one story to the next without any sense of organization. Even going from chapter to chapter seemed pretty random. I suppose that another police officer could relate to what he went through on a day to day basis, but I believe that is as far as it would go.

Had the author went into more detail and grouped the stories together in a way that related to each other, it could have had the potential to be the mind gripping novel that I was hoping to find.