Group home’s head! He, he, he - I hope you’re still with me. I guess what they are trying to say is by all
means try not to get into a physical altercation with an inmate if you can
avoid it. My thoughts were, ‘In jail? Yeah right!’
In the following weeks we were given lessons in hand to hand
combat. The movements were called
“kodagash” and “com-a-long,” bullshit training that I know half these little
petite females and men, for that matter, will never be able to use if the shit
really hit the fan. Motherfucka’s were
fat and out of shape and using muscles that laid dormant for years. It was kind of comical seeing them try though,
because you knew that three months of training was not going to help none. Then there were the practices using fighting
movements with riot gear on. This shit was bulky and awkward and it really took
some getting used to before a person could maneuver in it effectively. A lot of us know-it–alls felt that the gear
would more likely hinder us then help us. Chicks were upset because no matter what, they had to put that helmet
on. One chick had her hair up in a
bouffant like Marge Simpson and when she had to put the helmet on another
female recruit yelled out, “Ooooh, that looks expensive!” adding insult to
injury. Yeah they did not want to sweat
out their hair dos and perms. But hey,
would you rather get bus’ upside yo’ head with no protection?
We were also trained with police or security guard night
stick look-a-likes. Again, a lot of us
knowledgeable recruits who didn’t know dick thought that they would be best if
used like the baseball ferries in warriors, but know there were rules to this
shit and again if you don’t follow them you’re going to have problems. The instructors shout, “Move!” with every
movement; the rear strike, the front strike, the come along, the what-the-fuck
and the nigga-you-must-be-crazy strike - most effective when Corrections Officers
outnumber the inmate or the inmate is shackled. On a more serious tip, there are a lot of dos
and don’ts with this “Use of Force” shit and if you use it you better be able
to write about it in your report the right way
We took a break from class to go to lunch. This is when we all filled our bellies and
then fell asleep on the instructor for the second half of the day. Some recruits where talking trash to one
another about the class when one recruit took it to the extreme. He jokingly blurted out, “Shut the fuck up
before I shove a plunger up your ass.”
All of a sudden, dead silence. I mean
crickets were squeaking. Even the
instructor stood there in disbelief. My
thoughts, ‘No this motherfucka didn’t! Oh hell no!’ It
didn’t help the situation that he was White and the one he shot the comment to
was Black. It didn’t help that it was in
the wake of the Abner Louima incident. And
it didn’t help that he was in arms reach of me either! No, no, no, no, no! None of these circumstances helped his ass at
all. The instructor moved quickly after
assessing the now hostile situation and quickly escorted the inmat- I mean
recruit out of there! The next day BAM! It was all in the papers! We never saw that recruit again and we
received all sorts of training on what to say and how to act in the work place. To sum it up, some of the Academy was
informative and some was pure bullshit. You really can’t fail in the Academy unless you really do something
drastic to get kicked out. Even if you
fail a written test they will take you in another room and miraculously you
come out with a passing grade.
At the end of the Academy, right before we graduated, the
instructor gave us a speech stating that basically the stuff that we were being
taught was to cover their ass’s when we get inside the jails.
“The real breakdown is…” he said, “…that we are telling you
how to do this