The Chase, and the Mindset Thereof

The police radio frequency came alive, quickly filled with excited and angry voices, that Summer night in 1968. A chase was in progress, and the reason soon became apparent. One of our North Austin patrolmen had stopped a ’56 Chevy, and the five occupants had spilled out, with one of them pulling a .45 caliber …

The Death of Officer Guadalupe Martinez, SAPD

I was twenty five years old, and in my fourth year with the Austin Police Department that morning in 1971. I was working the day shift, and had stopped my unit on Waller Street just north of E.1st Street, when a truck pulled up behind my unit. I watched in my rear view mirror as …

I was young then

I was young then, just out of the United States Army, my discharge coming on 17 October 1966. By the next month I was preparing to enter the Police Academy in Austin, Texas. I was very sure of myself. None of that minority hiring quota stuff for me. It wasn’t around then, and I didn’t …