DNR- the crime lab days

Post by **DNR** » 12 Jun 2009, 11:44

kirk came up with a pretty good idea, maybe I should share some knowledge that I picked up from my late crime lab professor. The insights are useful for what ever you want to do in life, not just work in a crime lab.

In 1993 or 94, I found myself back in college. The last time I tried college - right after high school - it failed because I had no interest then.

Besides getting stuck with all the general course you have to take, english composition, math, stupid business shit, even requiring microsoft Office class - so people could know how to type a fuckin memo on a PC rather than a typewriter. I got to take a crime lab class, I wasn't interested in law enforcement, but science.

I was antisocial in the class as usual, but since I would be the only one to raise my hand to answer a question posed by the teacher - everyone knew I was the smartguy to go to. We were taugh the basic stuff, broken headlight reconstruction, and bulb filiment inspection (if the lights were off during a collision - the filiment would be unburnt). We did fingerprints, recovering them with chemicals, powders, and lasers. Now that year, they had just gotten a used AFIS fingerprint system - just like the police dept use - you roll their fingers on a platen, and the computer captures it, stores it on a printable card, a 3.5" floppy, and even transmits over a modem. Now, they had a few problems and guess who could help? Me, because the AFIS was simply a PC platform - running ms-dos. So simple shit like copy, delete, and installing patches sent by the company - was so blind easy for me - but not for the old cops.

I think it was also that when I turned in my research projects, the homework on the broken headlights, the bulb filiments, the fingerprints, and other stuff like tool marks - they all had my trademark overkill of detail. They liked that shit, when no one else cared.

Jon, the professor, he hired me right at the end of the semester. I know he did a background check on me, all cops do, and despite my shady past - he still trusted me. I was given the keys to the building, the high security laser lab, and the crime lab itself. I was given a door plaque - Crime Lab Assistant. This was like the first time in my life that someone I could consider a intellectual took note of me. I was honored to be chosen.

Besides working on cold cases and evidence that local police depts needed to process NOW, there was the college students. I was suprised at all the problems students came to him for, personal stuff - even revealing a molestation for the first time. He taught me not to judge people - good people can make mistakes. He also said this was just life playing out - the same problems will always be there - generation after generation - they will make the same mistakes in crime and life.

When we had to talk about death, rape, and such - Jon also talked about maintaining a logical view of what is going on around you. People tend to fuck things up by bringing emotion or personal feelings into any subject.
But, given a responsiblity, like a crime lab assistant, or even just a parent - you are expected to function on logic, not emotion.
I think besides seeing some bad crimes scenes, going over many pictures of violent crimes, I became emotionally detached - because I accepted responsiblity for other people.

Many cops become cops, because they share one trait with the bad guys - it is a adrenalin rush. Just like any other addicts, you have to regulate your addiction or you fuck up like any other gutter bum.
Cops drink, do drugs, fuck bitches, and commit suicide because of this cycle, because they had to try to deal with the inhumanity of humans.
Jon, says thats a part of the life you chose.

I got so many neat cases that we worked on, but I guess lets try Cedric the pervert.

It was 1030pm on a Tuesday school night. I had already been at the college since 10am, going to classes, and working in the crime lab. I would assist Jon with all of his classes, setting up for the project the class was working on. At 1030pm, this was a class I was taking with Jon, but I knew because I got a standing ovation on my interview/interogation presentation - and cuz I was his lab rat - that I could skip out of class early.
As soon as I stepped out the hallway, I ran into this guy, he is a bit taller than me, wearing a hoodie, blue jeans and sneakers - the very strange thing was - he did not look at me like most people would after bumping into someone. He also did not have any textbooks, and did not look like a janitor.
Fuck it, it was late - so I continued to close down the crime lab and lock the professor's office. Before I headed to the stairs, I realized that there was only one class in session at that time, the one I just left.. So who was this guy.
So I walked around the second floor of the square building. I come to our favorite Law Professor's office, and he has left his very nice leather jacket draped over his chair. The bathrooms were right next door, so I figured the guy is in the bathroom - the only one on this floor. Thinking like a bad guy, I figure the guy is hiding in the bathroom until the coast is clear, then he is going to hit that nice leather jacket..
So I step across the hallway in a darkened classroom and wait.
Five minutes, no guy. I start to think he must have hit the stairs quickly after he rounded the corner. So I go in to the men's bathroom - nobody.
I decided to go into the women's bathroom cuz I knew all the girls were in the classroom I just left.
There he is, he is in a bathroom stall with his back towards me. I step out, and go to the Law professor's office and call campus police "You have a male in the women's bathrooom in building A" They are half asleep, and say "WHAT?!" Just then, the guy comes walking out of the women's bathroom - so I then say "Excuse me sir.."
The guy does his best impression of Jesse Owens (the olympic runner) and BOOKS. I drop the phone and take chase - "Police STOP!" we run back around to where the classroom is and I know my only chance for help is to be loud so I am yelling "Police STOP HALT!" We run down the stairs, out the door, and from one end of campus to another (trust me its big) I am starting to get winded, and thinking "what do I got, a misdemeanor?WTF?!"
I turn around, and the classroom is pouring out the building - I point at the guy in black in the dark (try that!) and said "Get Him!" I just remembered, in that class I was in, was two local cops! Shit, people did a flanking maneuver, some when to cut him off from the left, and I kept running right up the middle. The guy tries to hide behind a car, but its late at night, he is exposed. He runs across a busy street to a Big Boys resturatnt and tries to hide in the bathroom. I flanked to the backdoor and met everyone inside.
The guy holds us back by pretending he had a gun. So we barricade him into the bathroom!
Funny thing, another local cop is driving by - and sees all these people running around, and stops - thats how he knows whats up and helps coller him from the bathroom (no gun). Since I work for the campus police - it was my bust! So the local cop transports him back to the campus and we process him.
His name was Cedric Simpson, he is a repeat sex offender that keeps slipping through the system. He had recently escaped the other college campus by punching that campus police officer. He had also recent got out of prison for holding a women at knife point in a bank's bathroom. They had to call out hostage negotiations to get him out after four hours.
He spent the max on his charge 32 months (meaning he did not have good behavior in jail).
Jon was so happy I caught this guy, he would always tell this story. He liked to say that he beat me to the Big Boys, and I would always chime in defence that I was coming through the backdoor.

He was like a grandfather, he had that wisdom that could only be obtained by being there, by being a part of things. He was responsible for setting up the first Detroit Crime Lab. At the time of his death, he was very disappointed to see the Detroit Crime Lab recently disgraced by shitty lab techs and bosses.

Lastly - Jon was a hacker too - if the system kept us from doing the right thing - he would tell us to Find Another Way. He was also a very messy person, it disorganized in the lab. The problem was we were collecting information at a pace faster than we knew what to do with it sometimes. Shit would need to be archived for the legal record. He showed it was important to chose people based on their ability, not their rank.

DNR

Kirk · Post by **Kirk** » 12 Jun 2009, 18:02

That was a good story DNR. I hope you guys bounced Cedrics head off the ground a few times when you arrested him.

...and despite my shady past - he still trusted me.

I understand how important this is. To be brought into the fold of someones inner sanctum is really comforting and encouraging, especially when they know about your past.

People deserve second chances in life. People can change.

This is very true. I am a good example, as well as some others on this site.
However Cedric hadn't changed; I don't believe sex offenders can change. I think the first offense for a sex crime should be death.

Post by **computathug** » 12 Jun 2009, 20:36

Its often someone special that finds the good in us. Usually places you wouldn't expect to find them. Trust and belief off someone is something that's not easy gained or easy forgotten.

To have such high regard and respect for such a person shows just how much of an impact the gentleman had on your life. See this man who took you and helped you generate your energy into something else, he was your guardian angel trying to lead you along the right path. I believe we all have one, someone who tries to show us the way, someone who takes us for who we are and can see we only need guidance.

For 36 years of my life it has been like a roller coaster. The highs and the lows, each one has played a major part in the way my mind thinks today. I can also say with pleasure that the guy who has taught me how to survive, about respect, about manners, is the person i call my father even though he is not. He is basically the only good influence that i have had in my life. He made me think about the life i wanted to live, he had faith when others didn't, even though it has only been lately i have realized i have to change my lifestyle not only for myself but also others around me.

Its only now i want to be free again, lead a normal life, be in the system. Years of fighting it because i dont want to live how they tell me too, because i liked to be different. I liked to play it like it was a game to me but really i am playing with other people's emotions too.

Lately I have battled with my own conscience and took all my will power from going crazy. Its took 6 weeks of plans running through my brain on getting revenge. Even prison has been feeling the safest place for me to be to preventing me for harming someone...or even for harming someone.

Yesterday i was rock bottom. Today i am on the first run. This is good. Get to high to fast i will come crumbling down like a ton of bricks once again.

I am seeing straighter than i have done for a long time and today i nearly returned to my old ways but luck took its toll or something from a higher place has given me a small get out card. Its up to me now how i play it. Time to knuckle down and get the best out of myself.

I have only the person i have up most respect for to thank for maybe giving me some direction in life which other wise wouldn't be there. I too will remember this man in the same type of manor as yourself. Respect goes a long way!

@the ones who know who you are....
Keep your identities, its hard once you have lost it!!

Thanks to suck-o, i still have something to focus and get back to work on.
Cheers guys!!
DNR...cheers!!
Mabs lets kick some ass!!

I will be moving about a lot over the next month or so. Might not be online much but i will be sorting things out

moudy · Post by **moudy** » 13 Jun 2009, 06:32

CommonStray wrote:People deserve second chances in life. People can change. A lot of people do not believe this.

I call these, words of wisdom
I just wish the girl I'm in love with reads these words

*sigh*

Post by **DNR** » 13 Jun 2009, 10:18

sorry - no hard feelings - I moved the off topic of sex offenders to another thread Just didn't feel right having a thread to honor my professor to be on about some loser cedric

DrVirus · Post by **DrVirus** » 14 Jun 2009, 01:55

U know what DNR, it's nice to know the some person some where can understand what I'm trying to do or say. I mean in my world so far, I have seen tons of people who comes along and pretends they understand. They say "Yeah man, I get what your saying and u are right." And after a sec,"But u know since the rest wont understand maybe u should listen to them. Why go this way since it's the road no one else takes ??"

U were a very lucky person to have known this person. To have spent time with him. Maybe one day I will meet someone like that as well. Who wont think that I'm cool because I'm a misfit or everything I do, I do so that I can be labeled offbit or my lack of social abilities are some hineous crime. Someone who wont try to change me. But simply accept me.

Maybe I will.

Post by **DNR** » 14 Jun 2009, 07:56

Maybe one day I will meet someone like that as well. Who wont think that I'm cool because I'm a misfit or everything I do, I do so that I can be labeled offbit or my lack of social abilities are some hineous crime. Someone who wont try to change me. But simply accept me.

DrV,
You nailed it perfectly.

You are right, that was the short period of time that I actually felt safe to be myself. In the crime lab we were encouraged to think outside the box, and then given approval to test it out. We shot up old bullet-resistant vests (he would be mad if I said bullet-proof - as they ain't), we shot into car windshields in the woods behind the campus, we played with hidden cameras on the students, and staged the most difficult mock crime scenes as we could.

That was the best. I didn't have to explain myself, all I had to do was say "I am Jon's crime lab assistant". I built other relationships there, even the Dean of Public Safety came to my wedding. I used to take the Dean's car to the BMW dealership for an oil change. It was a place, the one place for me. I had access to libraries that were secured with a retina scanner. I built the computer crime lab there - networking PCs, a modem, and a printer with the clunky switch knob. Before digital cameras came out, I showed them how to use a full-sized video camera to capture fingerprints and transfer them to a PC.

He taught me you can do no wrong as long as it was for education.

The real sad story (I plan to revist the crime lab next week - I think they still have a wall display I made) is the crime lab is also dead - they can't replace a teacher like Jon. It will never be the place where you could push the boundries, and test anything your mind could think of - without being judged wrongly.

DNR

DrVirus · Post by **DrVirus** » 15 Jun 2009, 02:09

DNR wrote: He taught me you can do no wrong as long as it was for education.

The real sad story (I plan to revist the crime lab next week - I think they still have a wall display I made) is the crime lab is also dead - they can't replace a teacher like Jon. It will never be the place where you could push the boundries, and test anything your mind could think of - without being judged wrongly.

DNR

Maybe u should help them out. I mean not everyone can see the way u see DNR. Trust me hardly anyone does. One needs to know what it means to push boundries. People are afraid of change cause they do not know what they will change into. Not many has the heart to take that chance.