Me and Jack's Riot

Jack spurred this story up in me and I wrote it a week ago but have been revisiting it trying to capture the emotion and the energy in this experience... I think it has taken me so long because it was like nothing else and I dont know I can grasp in words the intensity of this incident. If you read it, let me know.... If I am leaving anything out Jack, post to this... I am getting old!

When I was teamed up with Jack Allen on patrol, I knew the fun was about to begin. We both had the “go getter” mentality and I was tired of working with lazy partners. Well, it didn’t take long until Jack and I were a force to be reckoned with. We played the game and loved it! There wasn’t a case we wouldn’t give it our all to solve and get the person in custody! It was really nice to have a "like minded" partner who wasnt scared of the extra work to make a solid case and get the conviction.

Jack was assigned to the Bayshore and I was assigned to Dickinson. We were never very far from each other and if it was at all possible, we were both on a call together if we weren’t tied up. I never had any fears when Jack was with me. Get me Jack and Kenneth together, and you better watch out.

Jack was the “new guy” on the streets, Kenneth was the “old guy” and we all had our talents in Law Enforcement. I could write a book (and just might) on just our experiences together… We knew how to work the streets and we loved WINNING! Jack and I were the “dope dogs” and Kenneth; well Kenneth knew how to solve crimes man. He was amazing at how he could get information! Matter of fact, it even made me jealous from time to time!

I had a guy in the “Avenues” which is a small section or Dickinson Texas that is unincorporated that was the “Hood.” There was only one white family that lived in this area and only a few scattered other white people that lived here. Outside of that family, if you were white and in the avenues, you were either a dope-fiend or a prostitute…usually both!

There was a guy who regulated the avenues names Charles Hines. He was a street level dope dealer, and I have to admit, a pretty good one. He knew the game and played it well, but no matter how good you were, we would get-cha sooner or later…It was our mission man, and the best part, we LOVED it!

In the avenues was a low income housing apartment complex called Church Village (I know, ironic huh). This place was a “haven” for drug activity. There were many times, working night shift, where one deputy would set up somewhere with binoculars, watch the cars come in and buy, give the description of the car to other deputies waiting on side streets and as they pulled out, we would “snatch em up” and make case on them. I know that I made 5 felonies in one night on this place.

There was even a week or so where the dealers actually had people parking the buyers in the parking lot and making deals that way…It was like a Crack Sonic! It was always very difficult to catch the dealers because they had people watching for us. As soon as we were spotted, someone would yell “5-O” and they would scatter like roaches into apartments before we could even get in the lot. It was a dope-fiend deer feeder!!

Charles regulated these apartments and we were constantly trying to bust him. But like I said, he was smart. He rarely held the dope on him and was usually clean when we stopped and checked him… I had about enough of that and I directed my focus on catching Charles. We all had our “pet turds” that we would hunt for, and Charles was mine!

One day, working day shift (6am-2pm) I spotted ole Charles standing at the dealers spot in Church Village (one of them anyway). I drove by and he was eyeballing me the entire time I drove passed the complex…He would even turn and watch me as I passed and actually walk backwards until he felt I was a safe distance. I knew he was holding, just because of his behavior.

Silly how people act…Pull up to a bonfire at night and ya know how you spot the underage ones??? They are the ones that drop their beers or throw them when you hit them with a light.

I actually had a guy that would walk down the street and almost wave to you as he passed….You know how I knew when he had a warrant??? He would actual turn his head, and put his hand up to block the view of his face…. Like “If I can’t see you, you cant see me”…Silly man….Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction!

I called Jack on the back channel and told him to roll over to the avenues; this was about 10:00am. Jack met me at the “Shaw Mart” a local “stop and rob” store in the avenues. I told him what was going on and had a plan.

I was going to take the long way around the back of Church Village, have Jack make some passes by the complex to keep Charles attention on him, and then as I got close, to where Charles was, have jack drive by the complex and all his attention would be on Jack. Jack thought it was a great plan, and we went into motion.

 I pulled into the back parking lot of the complex and due to the time of day, no one was really out to sound the alarm. I parked, called jack and told him to make a pass, and made my way to the front where Charles was standing.

As I got close, I told jack to make another pass on the complex and to drive west on Deats Rd. so that Charles would be watching him drive by as I came around the corner behind him. Jack made the pass, I walked around the corner of the building and sure enough, Charles had all his attention on Jack. It was always great when a plan worked because many times, it didnt. 

 

I eased up behind Charles, was about 10 feet from him, he was watching Jack drive by and then he turned around and spotted me. As soon as Charles spotted me, he turned from me, reached down into his crotch area of his pants, pulled something out of his pants and grabbed a girl close to him and shoved whatever it was down the back of her pants. This took maybe three seconds….FAST! But I clearly saw it since I was only ten feet or less from him.

I snatched Charles and about that time, Jack pulled into the front parking lot to assist me. Charles started screaming when I grabbed him…

“HEEELLLPPP, THEY IS BEATING ME!”

I slammed him up against Jacks Unit and went to put cuffs on him and the fight was on! Charles spun on me, caught me right in the face with his elbow, and Jack came to help. I yelled at Jack to get the girl that was walking off and he got confused as to what to do. The fight with me and Charles was on and while I am trying to get Charles contained, I keep telling Jack to...

 “GET THAT GIRL!! SHE HAS THE DOPE!”

Charles starting fighting harder and screaming even louder, he was creating a scene and was doing a good job….

“HELP ME, THE POLICE ARE BEATING ME!!”

I  struggled with Charles, both of us swinging, fighting, and although he was able to weasel out of my grip, he was obviously trying to make a scene to get the attention off the girl. Poor Jack, he wanted to help but didn’t know which way to go. Yelling, screaming, pointing, people walking away… He had walked into a scattered and confucins scenerio...It was starting to go bad quick... 

About a minute has gone by maybe two. Jack was able to get the girl secured but because of all the yelling and screaming from Charles, it was hard to yell, fight and explain to Jack what was going on….. It was chaotic!! I was fighting with Charles, Jack had the girl and now people were starting to come out of the apartments… Again, like cockroaches after a house had been sprayed! A crowd was starting to grow and surround us.

Charles, even with handcuffs on, was kicking, screaming, and fighting the best he could…HE was trying to get the attention off the girl, make us focus on him and get the girl an opportunity to get away. Jack now understood what was going on and started to pay attention to the crowd, securing the girl, while I was managing Charles. He was hard to hold on to, hard to dodge his blows, he wasnt making this arrest easy, thats for sure…

Jack got thw woman cuffed, started to come and help me and she tried to get into her pants and get the dope out of the back of her pants that Charles had put there… I am watching this, yelling at jack to keep close to her, trying while fighting with Charles to explain to Jack where the dope was. Charles is screaming and fighting and I am trying to get him in the back of Jacks untit…

More people are coming out of the apartments….The crowd is GROWING quickly….4-5 minutes in now…

When I initially walked up to Charles, 4 minutes ago, there were maybe 10 people standing outside, as he screamed, the crowd grew. In a matter of seconds, there were 20 people, 10 seconds more there were 30, 1 minute, 50, 3 minutes, 60 people!! And they were all starting to surround me and Jack and on top of that , yelling at us, getting aggressive and angry..

I yelled for Jack to call for help because I could see this getting really bad, really fast! Jack got on the radio and said “We need assistance” and now the crowd was yelling at us. Charles was screaming, fighting…

“They is beating me…HEEEELLLLPPPP…THEY IS BEATING ME!”

And in a matter of a 3 -5 minutes , Jack and I were surrounded by close to 100 people… Yelling people, kids, little children…moving towards us…This is NOT a good situation….IF we had to act to survive, children are now in the crossfire.

I was trying to get Charles in the car and somewhere during the scuffle, I was able to pepper spray him. Now he was REALLY screaming.

I told Jack…

”GET THE DOPE! IT’S IN HER PANTS!”

And he was able to recover a large baggie with a bunch or crack in it. Charles was kicking at the door, I would try to push him in the back seat and he would do some "GUMBY move" and get his leg over his head, or some other distorted way to stop me from getting in the back…He was like rubber man and was NOT going in the back of that unit. The crowd was growing more and more and now I just started to wale on him. I was hitting him, punching him and doing all I could to get him in the car…This was becoming a very volatile situation, and we needed to get these people secured and get out of that area… The crowd is still growing!

I remember in all that chaos thinking...

 “Don’t any of these fucking people have jobs? Its 10:00 in the morning!?”

Jack still was keeping the girl secured, saw that I wasn’t getting him in the car, but we only had one unit there and he couldn’t let her go. He had the dope and although Charles and I were still going at it, I was handling him ok by myself… I just couldn’t get him in the damn car! He was feeling everything I was giving, he just was NOT getting in the back of that unit.

You learn a lot of ways to get people into the back of a unit, and I was trying everything…He just wouldn’t go!

I had the back door open and was still trying to get Charles in the car and he lunged towards the door; this surprised me and I thought for a second he was trying to bolt from me and run...He didnt...

He jumped up on the bottom frame of the back door and wedged himself in the door jam with his legs pressed up against the back of the frame of the car; door open, wedged in the frame of the car and the car door, and he was locked in that spot…SCREAMING….

“THEY IS KILING ME….THEY IS KILLING ME!!!

He was basically “self stuck” in the door and nothing I was doing was getting him in the car....Strikes, pepper spray....Oh, to have had tasers in those days, that would ave been a solution here…Charles, still screaming, crowd growing, and Jack gets on the radio and tells the units coming to...

 “Step it up, this is getting bad!”

Now we had about 150 people surrounding us and they were an angry mob. Yelling at me, and Jack and advancing more towards us….7-8 minutes from the initial stop now… Jack calls again for an “ETA” and to “get them there quick!”

Every strike or manipulation I tried with Charles made him scream more and every time I tried anything, the crown grew angrier.

Cars actually were pulling off the road and people were getting out of the cars to join the mob…This was NOT a good thing. Charles was pepper sprayed, beaten, bloody and was so pumped up, he was not feeling anything and was screaming like we were slowly killing him….the crowd was getting more angry...growing closer around me and Jack. Maybe 10 minutes now from the initial stop…

About that time, off in the distance we hear those church bells again….

SIRENS!!

The Calvary was on its way but man, they better get there fast!

Charles was wedged in the door, my strikes weren’t doing anything to him, so all I could think to do was grab two handfuls of his baggy pants and his nuts. I was pulling on his balls and pants trying to rip em off and he still wasn’t giving in. Three hard jerks with every ounce of strength I had, and he caved… I got him out of the door frame, shoved him in the back seat and he kicked me right in the chest…NOW I was mad!!

I had my flashlight on my “rig” and pulled it out and started to strike him with it, his legs and feet…Trying to kick me in the chest and face, I was going for a homerun!! This infuriated the crowd and now we had probably 200 people surrounding us….

12 Minutes…

The church bells were getting louder and Jack was holding onto the girl and covering my back as I was getting this maniac in the unit. I was finally able to get him in the car, closed the door and turned around to see the mob real close now, Jack right behind me, and the girl in front of jack handcuffed, between us and the crowd. Jack was screaming for the people to

“GET BACK”

And then, the Calvary arrived…Units from Dickinson, League City, unmarked Sheriffs vehicles, DPS and even Webster PD showed up…Webster PD isn’t even in our county!

Jack and I were in the center of the crowd and the other agencies and officers started to get in to where we were to manage the crowd. Screaming, pissed off mob and we were about to have a war…

13 minutes…

This all took place in the timeframe of about 15 minutes (if that) and it got bad QUICK! Once we had Charles secure in the car, me, Jack and the other officers started yelling back to the crowd, guns drawn and hoping no one would be foolish enough to make a move towards us….

Amazingly, the women with babies, they were the last ones really to disperse… Man, I would think if I had my kid and saw a gun, no matter how mad I was, I am getting my kid WAY away from that….I say it all the time….

“Either the whole world is crazy, OR I AM!

 We got the woman into another unit and tried to get the crowd dispersed. We had probably 10 officers facing a crowd of 200+ people.

Kids, women, men, women holding babies…it was INSANITY!!

The crowd started to ease up, we started to advance towards the crowd to push them back. I still, to this day, don’t know how we managed to get out of that alive…But for the Grace of God go us!

Once the crowd was broken up, Jack and I took Charles and the girl to the League City Jail to process them. When we got to the jail, the adrenaline wore off of Charles and now he was in a lot of pain. He was a beaten, bloody, pepper sprayed mess! He was holding onto his crotch and moaning

“Oh my balls, oh my balls”

As twisted as it sounds, I took great pleasure in this.

I asked Charles about the dope, and I can’t remember how much it was, but is was a large amount…Close to an ounce if I remember right. Charles, moaning and groaning, said …

“I don’t know what you are talking about, I didn’t have no dope”

I laughed at him and explained to him that was fine, I would just lock the girl up for it. He tried to change the subject and complained about his “ass whoopin’” he took. He started to try the “I need to go to the hospital” story and I told him that I would take him when I was done.

I asked him about the dope again and he said

“Man Golden, you whipped my ass”

This was the straw that broke the camels back! I walked up to him got right in his face and angrily said…

“Mother fucker, you almost got me and my partner killed! You are lucky to be alive right now you piece of shit! Now tell me, what about the dope!

And I was ready to wipe that “smart” right out of his mouth!

“It aint mine”

“OK then I am going to send that girl to prison, take her away from her children…You gunna take care of them you piece of shit!”

He bowed his head and said…

“OK man, its mine, don’t give her a case dog…Its mine”

I asked him if he would give a statement to that and he agreed. He gave a written statement hat it was his and I locked him up for the charges. If I remember right, his bond was 250k.

Once again, here I am with a multiple convicted felon have two solid felonies on him and he gets out the next day!

See, the “system is broken…truly broken… A system created to fail in my opinion!

Jack and I met back at the North County Building and the story was the buzz all over the county and outlying cities. We were getting calls from other officers checking on us and asking what happened and Jack and I just laughed… Another war story to sit and tell on those Crown Royal nights at the poker table!

This isn’t the end of the story though…

About two weeks later, Scott Stegman, a Deputy with our agency was working the night shift. As the story was told to me by Stegman, he went to stop a car on traffic violations and the car took off. He pursued the car for quite a while, through neighborhhods with families and children, high speeds, recless... Apparently there were a couple of other agencies involved and apparently there were 5-6 units giving chase.

The car drove off into a ditch and the driver bailed out and took off running. Stegman chased the guy and he jumped up on a fence, He yelled at him to “Freeze” and the guy jumped over the fence. As Stegman went to go over the fence, the guy jumped back over, right in front of Stegman, laid down on the ground and put his hands behind his back.

Stegman knelt down on his back and cuffed him, the guy rolled over, looked at Stegman and said…

“Awwww man, if I would have known it was you, I would have kept running.”

It was Charles... Here he was, a week or two later, putting peoples lives at risk and was in custody again.

Stegman, not knowing who he was asked the guy...

“What are you talking about”

Charles said...

 “I thought you was Golden and I didn’t want to get my ass whipped again!”

Apparently this was a fence ole Charles didn’t want to climb again!

I don’t know where Charles is anymore and I am sure he is either selling dope, locked up, or dead…Probably selling dope though. It seems the old saying “the good die young” is a truth, and the bad, well those damn roaches, they live forever!

I guess the moral to this story is that even in the darkest of times, knowing someone has your back can truly save your life. Having someone by your side, as committed as you are is a VERY comforting feeling... No matter what that situation is! Thanks Jack!!