Time for some cat fight stories from our Arfcom LEOs.

OK.  You're a cat!  Now, bark like a dog!

No cat fights stories from me. But I have another kind of story.  (FYI I am an old guy.)

Many many years before the term "domestic violence" came into use, we handled such calls by telling the parties involved that somebody had to leave to cool off. On a rare occasion a spouse would want to sign a complaint to have the other arrested.

Most of the time by the time the court case came around the "complainant" asked for the charges to be dropped. On really bad days, after the sergeant had the spouse sign the complaint and the cuffs were being put on, the spouse that just signed the complaint would jump on the arresting officers because the spouse was arrested. You know... the one she just signed a complaint on! Then both went to jail.

In most cases the calls were "HBO" (handled by officer") no arrests, no complaint, no report needed. One of the spouses left for both to cool off.


Except for this one time. The caller, the wife, called because her husband was fighting with her (argument no assault). Me and my partner arrive, we are let in and taken to the kitchen table where the husband sat with his head down. As soon as we entered the room the wife went into a fit of rage and we heard everything the husband had done wrong (in the viewpoint of the wife) since the day they married. She was yelling, up in his face, cussing him, saying the most hurtful things a person can say to a spouse. The guy just sat there silently. We said somebody had to leave to cool off. The husband volunteered. As we walked him out, followed by his wife still going full speed at him with insults and saying hurtful things. We saw the sergeant pull up to see if anyone wanted to sign a complaint. The sergeant asked why we had been on the call so long without checking in or advising if a complaint was being filed. We told the sergeant we did not want to key-up a radio with her mouth going in the background, for fear someone thought that an assist the officer was needed.

We were on the call for about 15 minutes before the husband agreed to leave (we could not get a word in edgewise over the ranting of the wife at the poor guy). I don't remember what he did wrong to get her going, but it was something very petty. The sergeant asked what was the problem and we told him about the wife going "Tasmanian devil" on the poor man. We advised the sergeant that it was good he showed up. He of course asked why if no one was going to sign a complaint. We answered... the husband had more restraint than we did, because in about another 5 minutes of her... that both me and my partner would have been inclined to kick her ass! If the husband had of slapped her we both agreed it would have been justified! The sergeant laughed and drove off!


My have times changed! It was a simpler time. We had much more discretion. No dash cams, no body cams, no "zero tolerance" to avoid making a decision in the field. If some one cursed at us, we also used foul language in turn. If anyone who was arrested resisted, they got an ass kicking. The next day when they were taken before the Municipal Court Judge, more often than not, the guy would apologize to the arresting officer and tell the judge he in fact deserved what he got.

I'd never make it as a cop now-a-days! I could not be retrained to be politically correct!

Before I became a cop, I worked in the jails. I loved working visitation because nothing beats seeing an inmates girlfriend visiting him and having another girlfriend or wife come minutes later. It was funny seeing those cats fight.

Y'know how I can tell I've been in a fair fight?

I won.

If you want a fair fight get in a boxing ring.  If you try to fight me, or anyone with any sense, on the street you'll go down as hard and fast as they can put you.

"Fair fight", what a metric boatload of stupidity.

 

Yelled at a fellow cop because he broke up a fight between two strippers before they started ripping each other's clothes off.