sacramento sheriff – Deputy Matt & Others Who Serve

Yet Another Murdered Coworker – I Think I’m Done

The following was written by the same Sacramento Sheriff’s Deputy who wrote the post about Bob French’s murder.

Why in the hell is my cell phone blowing up with text messages?

Shit, this many texts in this short a time, this can’t be good…

FUCK!!!! Gawd dammit, not again!!!! How in the hell is this possible?

Another coworker murdered while doing his job!

Just 18 days ago was the one year anniversary of Bob’s murder, and now, again, here I sit listening to the radio traffic from the scene of the murder of yet another coworker, while wearing a memorial T-shirt commemorating the loss of two other coworkers.

I sit here feeling helpless, useless, hopeless, occupied by my own depressing thoughts and memories, of the losses of so many other coworkers. Some I knew well, others I knew not at all.

Oh, how I long to be at the scene, to be involved in making this thing right in some small way. Because if I was there, busy, doing something, anything, I would not be sitting here, thinking about, remembering all the other times I have felt this indescribable, inexplicable feeling of loss.

This time, I did not even know the man. Despite that, despite not knowing him, he was my brother. He wore the same uniform as me, the same badge, swore the same oath to protect the same city as me.

I have since learned from coworkers who knew Mark Stasyuk that he was well liked, a hard worker, young, early in his career, new to patrol, and very sadly, just recently married. This is ripping my freaking heart out!

Most people who are not in this line of work would assume that not knowing the man would make this easier. They would be wrong. Honestly, it makes very little difference.

Knowing the officer killed is only a small part of the loss we feel. I cannot help but think about his partner and what she is going through right now. Even though they were both shot, she performed CPR on her mortally wounded partner. His poor family, who still does not even know, will soon receive the most devastating news a young wife could ever imagine receiving.

So here I sit, at home, listening to the radio, with a big drink, unsuccessfully trying to take the edge off, thinking about all of the other coworkers I have buried during my career. Cops I know from other agencies, some from other states even, doing what we all do when something like this happens, offering sincere condolences and offers to help in whatever manner they can. But in reality, there is nothing they can do. They can’t turn back time, they can’t bring the officer back, and as the days pass, most of us will process this loss in our own ways and we will be okay.

My biggest worry is his partner. I know her only slightly. She struck me as a very squared away young cop, the type who is going to second guess the holy hell out of herself. Nothing we can say will stop her from doing that, and none of the hypothetical scenarios she will run through in her head will change what happened.

I read the call they responded to. It is a call our agency goes to a dozen times a day. It was a call I have handled by myself, solo, more than once.

But it wasn’t. Because even though all the calls are similar, they are never exactly the same. In this case, the bad guy had a gun and he chose to do bad guy shit, and he shot both of the cops who were sent to deal with his dumb ass.

Even though I read the call, I did not look at any of the suspect information. I only know that the suspect was male, and that he is in custody.

I will however take a wild ass guess about some things we are likely to learn about the suspect. He will have prior arrests, probably lots of them. Many will be for less serious crimes, like trespassing or public intoxication, but then there will be others, crimes that used to be considered serious crimes, crimes that used to be felonies. I suspect we will find weapons charges, possibly even gun charges, and likely there will be assault charges. Probably even some convictions, even recent convictions.

His laundry list of charges (or those I suspect we will learn about), in any other SANE state would have had him currently residing in a government run, full service board and care home (prison). But here in California, where our insane liberal lawmakers and most of the Democrat party say it is mean to punish convicts for their crimes, so we just release them, because that is the “humanitarian” thing to do…

So, you ask, why do I guess we might hear all that about the suspect? Because that is what we always find out. History tells me those things. Hell, out of the last 15 cops shot and killed in California, that is the background of at least half of their murderers.

Add to that, current legislation that is being pushed by liberal politicians (Kevin McCarty and Shirley Weber) who want to make it even more difficult for cops to protect themselves in deadly force situations, because to them, cops are the bad guys.

The same liberal politicians who are responsible for the legislation that lead to Bob’s murder.

So here I sit, seriously considering walking in tomorrow and pulling the plug.

I’ve had it.

Fuck this state!

The people running this state value their elected positions, and the votes that keep them there, more than they do the citizens they represent or the cops who keep them all safe.

I’ve given this state enough of me. I’ve given it my best, for a long time, and I nearly have given it my life, on more than one occasion.

During my career, ten of my coworkers have given their lives for this county.

Of those ten, six were murdered.

And that is JUST my agency, during my career.

Yes, I realize there are many, many folks out there who support us. We see them after every single incident like this. We see their thin blue line flags and stickers. We know we have a lot of support.

But sadly, those who support us are outnumbered by those who vote for the politicians responsible for the legislation that is killing us.

I don’t know if I can continue doing this.

I’m sure I am not alone.

Rest in peace, Mark.

Thank you for your service.

Hopefully, for society’s sake, someone will have the watch from here.

Bret Daniels: Hypocrite for Sheriff

The current sheriff of Sacramento County, Scott Jones, a man who has been in national news more than once for calling attention to problems with illegal immigration, concealed carry licenses and gun laws that infringe on the Second Amendment, has announced he will not be running for reelection when his current term as Sheriff runs out. As the names for potential candidates get thrown in the ring, one of them seems quite familiar.

Bret Daniels has run for that office a number of times in the past. In fact, he has run against the last 3 sheriffs. He ran against Lou Blanas in 1998 and 2002. In 2006 he ran against John McGinness and in 2010 he ran against Scott Jones. In fact, he has run for the office with such regularity that the Sacramento News & Review wrote an article the last time he ran titled “Sheriff hopeful Bret Daniels figures fourth time’s a charm.”

So, with the upcoming election drawing closer, an election that will mark the 5^th time Daniels has run for Sheriff, the campaigning seems to have begun.

I am friends with quite a few people who work for the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department, and as such, I get fed lots of the scuttlebutt, including a number of tidbits about Mr. Daniels.

The screen grab above is from a Facebook post made by Daniels on 10-21-17. I find it just a bit sad that this 5 time candidate for Sheriff is grabbing onto a hashtag that was created in the Harvey Weinstein fallout, pointing to an article in the Sacramento Bee that is more than a year old, about an even older lawsuit that was dredged up by a democrat politician who Sheriff Jones was running against for a seat in the US Congress. In pointing to that article, about the outgoing Sheriff who is not even running for the office again, Daniels makes all sorts of allegations while proclaiming to be the solution to the problem. People I know who are familiar with Daniels find all of this particularly ironic.

While the screen grab was sent to me by one friend, a Sacramento deputy, the following is a comment made by another Sacramento deputy:

“I cannot believe he’s trying to run, yet again. He’s a f@*%ing joke.

Funny when a guy who is notoriously lazy and dishonest runs a campaign claiming to be the candidate of integrity.”

So, why would someone say that? What dishonesty? Well, a lot of that stems back to 2000 when Bret got fired by the very department that he wants so desperately to lead.

While Bret does publicly admit to being fired (scroll to the bottom of the first post) , he is less forthcoming about the circumstances, usually saying Lou Blanas fired him “because he ran against him.” Since very little ever gets released publicly by most departments when they fire someone, people only know what rumors make their way around. In this instance, I have been told by a number of people the rumor is that Bret, while out of state, convinced a cop where he was visiting to run one of Bret’s ex-girlfriends through the records system so Bret could go visit her. The cop who did that for him thought something felt hinky about it and contacted the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department to report the contact. When the department questioned Bret about it, he lied. And since “he ran against me” would not remotely hold up as a justifiable firing in a civil service hearing, something that a cop in California who is being fired will get, the rumor is a much more believable reason to get fired. That said, as I previously stated, this is just a rumor, and one that would lead to the reputation for dishonesty.

Another thing that Bret is fond of telling the public when he is running for office is that he worked for Homeland Security for a number of years. I guess technically that is true, since TSA falls under Homeland Security. I know a couple of people who saw Bret on a near daily basis, wearing his blue TSA uniform as he checked bags and ran the metal detectors at the Sacramento International Airport. So, while technically he was employed by Homeland Security, it was just not in the manner that most people envision when they hear “homeland security.”

As far as the “lazy” comments go, one person I know quite well had the opportunity, or bad luck depending on your point of view, to work with Bret for two days back in 1997. He had this to say:

“Back when I was in field training, my assigned FTO (field training officer) was off on vacation for a couple days and while he was gone, I got assigned to Bret. We spent nearly two entire days hanging out inside Family Donuts drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. The only time we left was when we got dispatched to a call, and even then, we waited for what seemed like 10 minutes in hopes that the call would get cancelled before we would get in the car and leave. Not exactly what you want to learn as a new guy to patrol who is eager to get out there and do cop work.”

Now, I do not live in Sacramento County and as such, I have no say in who gets elected as the sheriff there, nor do I even have any idea who the list of candidates includes. With that said, I can tell you without a doubt who would NOT be getting my vote if I could vote in that election, and that is the guy throwing stones from inside his glass house.

F–king Tired Of Burying Coworkers

Today, a man I have known for 22 years, a man with whom I attended the academy, a man who was a father, a grandfather, a slightly goofy, cowboy boot wearing, chew spitting, lifted truck driving, well intentioned country bumpkin was murdered while doing his job, because he was doing his job. He was shot in the back by a worthless piece of shit who had just shot two other cops, because they too were doing their jobs.

Bob and I were not close. He and I had different interests, worked different shifts, and had a different way of doing things. We did not always see eye to eye, but we always got along at work. Even if we did not agree on something, we were always polite to one another. I’m going to miss him, more than I ever thought I would.

This is the eighth (8^th) coworker from my department I have had to bury during my career. I’ve come very close to burying several others, but by the grace of God, they are still with us, although some of them were forced to leave the job due to the extent of their injuries. Countless others have left the job due to debilitating injuries, both physical and emotional.

This job is a destroyer. It directly takes the lives of an average of 150 people every year, and those are just the people who die on the job. That does not account for those who leave the job because they are broken, either physically or mentally. That also does not include the 300 cops who take their own lives every single year. A very close friend of mine was almost part of that last statistic, but thankfully he is not only still here with us, but he sought help and even though he has left the job, he does what he can to teach others about what can happen to us that leads us down that path.

Beyond the deaths and physical injuries, this job destroys marriages, family lives and social lives. If you let it, it will take everything from you.

What thanks do we get for following this noble calling? There are organizations dedicated specifically to hating us. There are lawyers whose careers are spent suing us. We are called racists, no matter what race we are. We are called pigs, because we dare enforce laws enacted by the very people elected by those calling us pigs. We are called murderers by the families of felons, who given the chance, would have killed us instead. We are portrayed as evil humans by the media and politicians. Every single split-second action of ours is second guessed, under a microscope, for months and years.

We endure this all for a salary that, even in the best of situations, puts one in the middle class, but in most places, leaves one looking for a second job just to make ends meet.

Today, I find myself really pondering why I am still doing this. I know I am not alone.

In a few days, I will put on my dress uniform, join thousands of other officers at a church, and bury yet another coworker.

This society as a whole takes us cops for granted. While a news story about a murdered cop gets headlines, to most who see that headline, the thought of the cop’s loss vaporizes as they turn the page or click the next link. While my coworkers and I will never forget his name, most of the society he protected daily has already forgotten it.

This shit is beyond old.

I’m sick and fucking tired of burying coworkers.

We have the watch from here, bro. Thank you for your service. May you rest in peace.

This was originally posted as a submission by an anonymous source, but I actually wrote this. I had to attribute it to someone else at the time because as an actively employed deputy, I was prohibited from identifying my department due to policy. Now that I am retired I no longer need to hide my identity.
-Matt