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A few years ago, our special weapons team responded to a neighboring county to assist with a domestic violence call. A guy assaulted his wife, then barricaded himself inside when the police showed up. Since he was possibly armed, we used an armored vehicle to approach the residence. After several minutes of addressing the suspect…
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The photo above was taken in Bessemer, Alabama, around 1912. Annie is pictured standing front and center with her adoptive family. At the tender age of seven, Annie was one of nine children orphaned by family tragedy. Her mother died of consumption in May of 1909, and Annie’s father was murdered two months later in…
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I was sitting in church… minding my own business. Two young men came in and sat a few rows in front of me. During the service, they decided to put on a show to express their disdain for the pastor’s message. Every time he mentioned obedience to God, the men held up their hands like…
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Growing up, I always heard the ideal Christian was someone who didn’t drink, cuss, chew, or date women who did. Maybe because that’s an easy standard to achieve. That’s why it surprised me when a couple of high-stress encounters squeezed an old expletive out of me, one I thought I had long forsaken. For some…
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A few years ago, a high school kid reported a murder. He said an unknown suspect broke into his home and shot his mother. He claimed the man used their family-owned shotgun to murder her and then fled the scene. The suspect then ditched the gun in the sewer drain outside and disappeared into the…
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A violent criminal had just run into the woods armed with a rifle. He’d just shot a man in his attempt to avoid capture. The boss’s directive to us was simple: “Go in there and find him.” Unfortunately, we had no idea where the suspect was hiding, but he probably knew exactly where we were.…
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Cows aren’t bright animals. Sometimes deputies aren’t either. One night when I was a patrol sergeant, the two came together for the perfect storm of unbrightness. Joey was patrolling south of town, watching the oncoming lanes of traffic for speeders. A local cow decided that the middle of the dark road was where he needed…
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Beginning a career as a Jail Guard opened my eyes to a whole new world of scary people. Larry was one of them. One day, when I entered his cell, Larry stood with a large metal pipe in his hand. He had pulled a piece of plumbing out of the wall. Now he had a…
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“Unit 108, y’all meet me at the jail,” the evening shift Lieutenant said over the radio. It was around 1987, and we were one of three cars on patrol that night. LT stopped for a break at the Sheriff’s Office downtown. Back then, the jail was upstairs in the same building. While sitting in the…
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I once thought the stereotypes of outlaws in the rural South were unfair characterizations. Then, I began a career in law enforcement… I’ve come to realize that not all the caricatures are incorrect. There are pockets of people in rural America whose family trees do not appear to branch. And, I’ve interacted with a few…