The Restless Sleep:

True Cop Stories

I was recently emailed about a web site called True Cop Stories. From the mission statement on the website:

"Sergeant S. is a twelve year law enforcement veteran. Like so many police officers and managers, he's frustrated by the constant negative press hurled at the men and women who patrol the thin blue line. Most police officers work hard to keep you and yours safe. Why doesn't anyone ever tell their stories? To that end, he created www.truecopstories.com, a site where real cops share real stories.

"These words come from the officers who patrol your neighborhoods, cities, and states. The tales they tell are funny, tragic, ironic, and heroic. They are all told by real cops, in their own words."

I went to the site, and I must admit that after reading that mission statement I thought the stories would be ... well, bad. Starting out with such a clear agenda like that, I was afraid the stories wouldn't be anymore real, but instead, a white-wash. I read the first five or so and they were great!

I have to ask though, there's one story, dated 8/29, where the writer/cop talks about the fact that no one in the crowd that was watching helped him catch the guy he was chasing. I'd be pissed at the people treating the situation like live TV too, but I always thought cops wouldn't be happy if the public got involved. I assumed they would see it as interference instead of help. I'd like to think I'd help depending on the circumstances, (some cop is alone in a life threatening situation) but I don't think I would have done anything in the situation he described. I also wouldn't have laughed and cheered like the crowd did either.

This website is well worth visiting. I'd love to see him occasionally ask people to submit stories based on a specific theme or question.

Update on Bronx Cold Case

A charge has been made in a case of Detective James Osorio's that I posted about earlier in the year. Authorities in Montenegro are charging Smail Tulja for the murder of "Mary Beal, a 61-year-old Yugoslav immigrant who was reported missing in New York on Sept. 15, 1990. Three weeks later, her decapitated, dismembered body was found in two bags near the Brooklyn Navy Yard." According the the article, "the country's laws do not permit extradition of its citizens," so they are going to try him there. Article here.

I was looking around for homicide statistics and was once again amazed at what you can find on the internet (thank you, Department of Defense).

Here are murder rates by country. We're somewhere in the middle, and I was surprised to see Saudi Arabia at the bottom (but that, of course, is more about my ignorance about homicide outside the United States).

Here are murder rates by country going back to 1900!

And here are the preliminary 2006 crime reports from the FBI. Murder is up 0.3 percent.