The crowning achievement of many a young man who wants to be a police officer/sheriff’s deputy is going through the process. We must realize this was the dream of many young boys and young men graduating school to become a Police Officer. The paperwork, the interviews, the medical and of course that damn physical agility test. None of it was easy back then. After all the whole process was to weed out the weak and only allow the strong and select to go on to the ultimate award. Please keep in your thoughts that at one time the idea of being a police officer was one of the most difficult professions to get into, almost impossible in some cities. Los Angeles was the perfect example of that entire process, L.A.P.D. officers were looked upon almost god like. 100,000 applicants would apply and maybe 2500 would be chosen, and sadly those days have changed.
In most jurisdictions today, that process has been watered down in the hopes of just filling the thousands of openings that exists today. Many vacancies exists due to the demands of appeasing certain minorities that occupy our countries larger cities. We can call them very blue in color. I need to stop or I will go deep into my true opinions and I will be called names unjustly. There is an excellent reason why cops are exiting the profession in droves! I never took the job so I could enforce the law and take on criminals and then end up in prison for just doing my job, that is a fact! Remember John knows when to duck!
That crowning achievement that I speak of, is the graduation from the Police Academy. My training took place at the College of the Redwoods located in Eureka, California. This was way the hell up in no man’s land, but it is a beautiful part of Northern California just too bad it is in California. Many departments in the Bay Area sent their police and sheriff recruits here for training. It was great training and it was cost effective to not have to man and operate an academy on their own. The goal of all of this is to acquire a POST certificate which is like a “License” to perform as a Law enforcement officer. For 3 months I lived in a local motel that was infamous for all the police who stayed there for training and the academy itself. (“The Blue” something, the place had a lounge attached and I just cannot recall the whole name). It was fun, the camaraderie was priceless and even in this environment it was not a love fest among several agencies, imagine? It was during that time that the FBI had sent several agents for training and they stayed at the same motel that we all were staying. It was believed that after a night of few drinks they all went to bed and while sleeping, someone had broken and stole their credentials….. it does not get much more serious than that! Just another memory.
Anyways, as we marched into the auditorium the music chosen for the ceremony was the theme song from the very popular TV show “Hill Street Blues”. That show aired on national television from 1981 to 1987 and was a huge success. The show was created by Steven Bochco, and the theme song, “Hill Street Blues” was instrumental created by Mike Post. It was of course, one of the proudest days of my life, what an achievement! If I close my eyes and don’t fall asleep, I can still hear that music and the lights and all of the officials on the stage and everyone applauding. Michael Hennessey, the Sheriff of San Francisco flew up to support his deputies who were graduating. Hennessey was Sheriff from 1980 to 2012 a great man, he did well in his years of service his liberal policies helped many that could never have been cops. He was accompanied by Sgt. Jan Dempsey she was in charge of the training department. Jan would become the undersheriff and of course, there was no surprise there, I actually liked her……
Many many years later “it” would happen again, it was a Nazarian thing I am guessing. I would become a critical go to component for many of the cast of another very popular show called N.Y.P.D. Blue which was produced by Bochco himself.
( Dennis Franz/Andrea Thompson/Kim Delaney all future clients)
My connection to Steven Bochco came to through working with Andrea Thompson, the blond bomb shell who played a detective on the show (Jill Kirkendall) on the series N.Y.P.D. Blue. NYPD Blue was another major hit that was produced by Bochco and David Milch. Can you imagine the connection on how all of this was connected to John J. Nazarian, it is almost unbelievable. David Milch was a very colorful guy and filthy rich with more demons that the devil himself.
My office was contacted by the studios representing Andrea Thompson. The issue was very serious, due to Andrea having a stalking issue, and it was very serious. 1988 -1989 Gianluigi “Danny” Arsenato, in December of 1998 this former dress designer was sent to prison for 2 years and after release deported back to Italy. District Attorney Scott Gordon was the prosecutor and would go on to become a commissioner and then a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles. I was present when Scott was sworn in as JUDGE, a great guy, and to this day I am friends with his wife and son!
“Danny” was the perfect example of a small guy with a very large mouth, thought of himself as quite a womanizer. It was possible he had a 12 inch personality a real charmer if you know what I mean. I and my team set a trap for this jerk from Italy, all for Danny’s expected visit. As usual I am very nicely dressed in my tailored Hicky Freeman suit ($4,000) my shoes are shined too. After all, this guy is supposed to be a tailor. My thought is that he will see a nice suit and we can understand each other, NOT! Thompson’s house is nothing special and is located in a nice Los Angeles neighborhood and very quiet. Sure as all get out, here comes this skinny guy walking confidently up the steps like he owns the place and knocks on the door, I open the door. With a very charming Italian accent he says, “who are you?” Like the waiters at some great Italian restaurant with a few choice words I inform him that he is about to be arrested. Again much more aggressively he asks, “who the fuck are you?” In my very best accent being from Boston, I tell him I am his “F’n mother”. To assure no quick get aways his tires on his vehicle had lost the air that had kept them round and firm prior to his arrival, crazy how this crap happens? He takes his finger and sticks it in my face and tells me, “You know, I am a 4th degree black belt and I could kick your ass right now.” Once again I did my usual oration of absolutely agreeing with his physical abilities, I am standing right in front of this undernourished rat bastard! It is at this point I explain to him the problem with his plans, that if he will look behind him he will see one of my assets holding a 12 Ga. shotgun! I further tell him that if he hits me he will be shot by that shotgun in the event I should miss with my 9 mm that I am holding in my hand concealed by my nicely tailored suit coat. Either way he will be shot and laying here for the cops or the coroner, makes no difference to me.
Well, Danny was perhaps not as stupid as he looked and decided that he would leave and attempted to walk to his car. That is when several members of the Los Angeles Police Department were arriving, Lights and Sirens just like an episode of N.Y.P.D. Blue. Of course, we had the cops on the wire when Danny had arrived they were called. Those amazing boys and girls in blue had Danny on the ground and getting a matching set of bracelets for a nice ride to Parker Center, police headquarters. After that the crew and I went to Peppone for an amazing Italian feast -in honor of the little rat bastard from Italy!