🔒 Share once to unlock this and all stories for 7 days.
A Hawaiian Cop's Journey of Self-Discovery and Love I was now covered in tattoos. Despite the fact that I hated my dad, the Hawaiian culture still intrigued me. His mom, my grandma, was the Hawaiian so he had his dad's last name. Once I did the research I found whats called a halau. (Ha-l-ow) Basically what that is, is it's a school that teaches all of the ancient customs and ways of the Hawaiian people, everything from the language, way of life, chants, and hula and more. I already knew the history of Hawaii and how it became a state, but I didn't know anything about the customs. I learned all of that and the language as well. I learned that our amaukua, (ah-mow-koo-ah) was the shark. An amaukua is similar to the code of arms for those with European ancestry. So as I attended the academy and worked, I found time, and a real Hawaiian tattoo artist. My grandma was a direct descendant of Hawaiian royalty, out of respect to the Kapuna, (kah-poo-nah, elders) I will not use their names here. I had one full sleeve on one arm, and a half sleeve and a band on the other. My sleeves flowed right into my chest, back and shoulder tattoos. My back tattoo went from my shoulder blades and flowed into a v all the way down to my ass crack where the point of the v was. My entire upper body looked like I just had one gigantic tattoo, with two small ones on one arm, and one on my stomach area. I had one tattoo that completely covered my leg from just above my knee to my ankle on one side and the other had triangles and a band. The triangles went from my armpit all the way down to my ankle on my left side. I also had a lot of shark teeth in my tattoos to honor the families amaukua. It told the story of my grandmas entire family from many generations before her time, to the time I lost Janine. Yes, she was included in it. …and then things took a turn
👆 Tap to continue…
A Hawaiian Cop's Journey of Self-Discovery and Love
I was now covered in tattoos. Despite the fact that I hated my dad, the Hawaiian culture still intrigued me. His mom, my grandma, was the Hawaiian so he had his dad's last name. Once I did the research I found whats called a halau. (Ha-l-ow) Basically what that is, is it's a school that teaches all of the ancient customs and ways of the Hawaiian people, everything from the language, way of life, chants, and hula and more. I already knew the history of Hawaii and how it became a state, but I didn't know anything about the customs. I learned all of that and the language as well. I learned that our amaukua, (ah-mow-koo-ah) was the shark. An amaukua is similar to the code of arms for those with European ancestry.
So as I attended the academy and worked, I found time, and a real Hawaiian tattoo artist. My grandma was a direct descendant of Hawaiian royalty, out of respect to the Kapuna, (kah-poo-nah, elders) I will not use their names here. I had one full sleeve on one arm, and a half sleeve and a band on the other. My sleeves flowed right into my chest, back and shoulder tattoos. My back tattoo went from my shoulder blades and flowed into a v all the way down to my ass crack where the point of the v was. My entire upper body looked like I just had one gigantic tattoo, with two small ones on one arm, and one on my stomach area. I had one tattoo that completely covered my leg from just above my knee to my ankle on one side and the other had triangles and a band. The triangles went from my armpit all the way down to my ankle on my left side. I also had a lot of shark teeth in my tattoos to honor the families amaukua. It told the story of my grandmas entire family from many generations before her time, to the time I lost Janine. Yes, she was included in it. The large band on my left arm was all about her, her heritage, her life, and the love we shared for each other. I had all of the tattoos done the old traditional way.
I graduated the academy at the top of my class and I had departments everywhere that wanted me to work of them. As a result, I had a long list of places to choose from. My buddy that worked for a department in the city I grew up in, was now engaged and had started his new job for a sheriffs department a little over 100 miles away, I didn't know where. As I looked through the list of choices I had a very difficult time deciding where I was going to go. There was this one sheriffs office that seemed to beckon me. Like I was being told that, that was where I needed to be. As several days passed, that feeling grew stronger and stronger. I started smelling Janines perfume every time I thought about that particular agency. So I finally applied.
I was absolutely amazed at how fast things moved after that. Mom and her partner moved down with me and purchased a house in the pretty decent sized city. I went through the testing and passed with flying colors. I was called in and hired. Here is the best part. My buddy worked for them! He was amazed to see me walk in for my first night of training.
"What the fuck!! Holy shit you did it!!" He said as he walked up to me and gave me a manly hug.
"What did you not think I would?" I asked.
"I hate to say it, but after Janine died I really didn't think you would." He said.
"Surprise asshole." I said as we both laughed.
"You look awesome! It's nice to actually see you in a uniform." He said as everyone watched us and listened.
"Yeah I know. I'm one of you now." I said.
"You have always been one of us." He said.
He then told them the story of what happened. How a kid had the best of him and all he remembered was seeing the suspect flying away from him and heard a loud thud. He then showed them the video from his body cam and it showed everything. He also told him how we had been friends ever since. Before my training began, they had to special order my uniforms, my vest and my duty belt. The uniforms were cool as hell! They were all black and just looked sweet. Luckily I only had four percent body fat so it wasn't to hard, sort of.
As I stood in the briefing room I watched the captain walk in with a few deputies. The first thing they did was start pairing us with our field training officers. I was the third one to be paired. My FTO was this tiny female.
"Deputy Jensen, you're with deputy Burbank." The captain said.
"Yyyyyyyyyyyes!!" Deputy Burbank said as turned to the other deputies and lunged at them. "What now? What are you going to do, huh?"
"As tiny as you are, you need to be with him." Another said.
"Whatever." She said as she walked up to me and shook my hand.
"Just so you know, we've all been arguing over who got to train you." She said as we all laughed.
"Well, it looks like she won." I said as I pointed at her."
"Shut up rookie." One said with a sarcastic look in his face.
"Don't be mad, it's going to be ok." She said.
"I already like the guy." Another said.
She and I hit it off from the very second we were introduced. The other rookies were timid and nervous and it showed. I was nervous as hell until all of that happened. All of the candidates and deputies were amazed at how big I was. My FTO, and I immediately started joking around about my size. After our briefing we walked out to the crown Vic and I just stood there looking at it.
"You uuhhhh, you know you're going to have to cut a whole in that roof right?" I asked.
"Oh shit. I'm not sure you're going to fit in the damn thing." She said as we both laughed our asses off.
She was right. It was a very uncomfortable, painful first shift ever, especially since the car had a damn transport cage in it! My knees and back hurt after that. My FTO and I laughed about it the entire shift. She loved the looks on the faces of some of the assholes we arrested that night after they got a good look at me. They got really cooperative, really quick. During our patrol we entered the city that I knew. I didn't know it as in all the streets and stuff, but I knew where I was. I didn't realize that it was the same town that Janine and her family lived, until I saw the sign that welcomed us to the city. My FTO saw the look on my face and knew that I had something on my mind.
"So what's with you? All of a sudden you got quiet." She asked.
"My girlfriend lived here." I said.
"What's her name?" She asked.
"Janine." I replied.
"Where is she now?" She asked.
"She is buried in that cemetery right there." I said as we drove by the cemetery.
"Oh god. I'm so sorry." She said.
"It's ok. She is in a better place." I said.
"What happened, if you don't mind my asking." She asked.
"She had very aggressive brain cancer." I said.
"I am so sorry. How long were you two together?" She asked.
"Almost two years." I replied.
"How long has she been gone." She asked.
"It will be three years in March." I said.
"You still miss her don't you?" She asked.
"Well, it's not as bad as it use to be, but yeah, I still have my moments, you know, kinda like now." I said.
"You loved her didn't you?" She asked.
"Yes I did. I wanted to marry her." I said.
"You still love her don't you?" She asked.
"I probably always will. She was my first." I said.
"First love?" She asked.
"Yep, my first love." I said.
"Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for your loss." She said.
"Thank you." I said.
"So is that why you decided to be a cop?" She asked.
"She and my mom were the reasons I wanted to do this. Janine was the one who really made my mind up actually." I said.
"That's really cool. So what happened that made you want to do this?" She asked.
"Do you remember, or even hear about the guy that almost killed his wife and then shot two cops." I asked.
"Yeah and he was shot and killed in the process. One of the cops that were killed was my cousin." She said.
"Oh my god. I am so sorry. That guy was my dad. I was the one who found my mom." I said.
"No shit?!" She asked.
"Nope. I'm really sorry about that." I said.
"Don't be, it wasn't your fault. I just think that it's incredibly cool that his son didn't turn out like him. More so since he is a cop now! That's fucking awesome!" She said as she punched me in my arm.
"Yep. Dad was a piece of shit, and I know I shouldn't say this, but I'm glad he got killed, at least I knew that my mom was safe." I said.
"So when did you realize that you wanted to be a cop, was it after your mom almost got killed, or was it after your girlfriend got sick?"'She asked.
"It was after my girlfriend was beaten so bad that she ended up in the hospital. She and I were good friends then and it didn't work out well for him. He was arrested and released on bail. Then he went to the school with a gun and planned on killing her in front of everyone. He wasn't expecting me to be there. Let's just say that he was in the hospital for quite a while. I have zero patients or tolerance for men that beat women." I replied.
"Well, I've only been with you for a day and everything, but I'm going to tell you straight out. You are going to be a really good cop. I have never said that about anyone before. You have this thing about you that I can't figure out. All I know is that I am going to do everything I can to get you off of probation and on your own. You're going to do really great." She said.
"Well, thank you." I said.
That night I handled my very first domestic disturbance and many other calls after. She just sat back and observed. I got a lot of constructive criticism, and used them as learning tools. The part I hated was the damn paper work involved. My second night there, they put my trainee and I in a different patrol unit hoping that I could fit in it better. It wasn't bad. A few weeks later, I was doing all of the driving and most of the work. During my training I studied the policies and everything else I needed to be able to be out on my own. I went from FTO to FTO to learn all of the zones. After a long than usual training period, they finally told me that I had passed my training period. Apparently I did far better than any other rookie they have had there in years. That made me feel really good.
I was issued my other stuff and a patrol unit. What I didn't know, was that our patrol units were take home vehicles. I was lucky because I got a brand new GMC Sierra with a crew cab. They put a shell on it, it had a custom made diamond plate heavy duty bumper on the front. It looked really bad ass! I would have gotten one of the old crown vics, but I didn't fit in those. They had to do it basically. They had to have the seats modified for me and everything. Basically, my FTO wouldn't be able to drive it without some books to sit on. It was the first and only 4 by 4 that was pursuit rated the the department had. It was pretty bad ass actually. Now my only issue was getting my personal truck home. It worked out because mom helped me get it home. She got to ride in my patrol unit and everything.
Time went on and I was finally off probation. I was a full fledged deputy and Janines town that I held her in as she died, was in my zone. I decided to surprise her mom one night, but I wanted to go visit Janines grave first, it just so happened that I was on duty. I went and got a bunch of her favorite flowers and went to the cemetery. It would have been her 30th birthday. As I kneeled at her grave and placed her flowers there, I heard a car pull up. I didn't look up, I was too busy looking like a crazy man as I talked to Janine. I stood up and promised that I would be careful and turned around. There was her mom. She froze and pointed at me.
"Adam?!" She asked as I smiled at her.
"Hi mom, surprise." I said as she looked at me.
"Holy ssshhhhit! When did you start doing this?" She asked as she walked up to me.
"Oh about six months now." I said.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me you brat!" She said as we hugged.
"I've been busy trying to get off of probation." I said.
"Why were you on probation?" She asked.
"Because I'm a rookie. I just started a little over six months now." I said.
"Wow, you look really good! You know she would have loved to see you in that uniform." She said.
"I know." I said.
"So are you here for good?" She asked.
"Yeah for a while anyway." I said.
"Good, now we can see you more." She said.
"Yep! How are you all doing?" I asked.
"Oh as good as we can be I guess." She said.
We stood there and talked for several minutes before I caught a call. I had to take off in a hurry to a robbery in progress.
I lived with my mom for a while and figured that since I was 21 and had a good job and everything, it was time to get my own place. I found a really nice town house in a very nice Appartment complex. I purchased the place and moved in. It was a three bedroom, two of which had their own really nice bathrooms, so it had three full baths, and one "powder room." The basement even had a full bath in it too. My favorite part of it was that it had two very large wood burning fire places. One in the bacement, and one on the main floor. It had a fully finished basement and it was extremely nice! It was a foreclosure so I got an amazing deal on it! I paid 60,000 for it and it was worth a HELL of a lot more! Let's just say that there would be no way I could have afforded it any other way, unless I was rich. One thing I learned from an early age was that I needed to stay out of debt. The only debt I had now was my town house.
I had saved money from the time I turned 13 and now I was going to use some of it. My mom helped me buy stuff for my house and she and Janines mom helped me decorate it. The way we got it set up, you'd think that I was a millionaire. But everything was purchased at thrift stores and stuff, just not the living room and dining sets. I was excited and felt like I was accomplishing something in my life! I was excited as hell. We had a little party there and everything. A bunch of my fellow deputies came over and joined us, two of which were on duty. My new neighbors were cool as hell, and quite a few of them came over too. They loved seeing my patrol unit sitting in my driveway. As the next few weeks passed I got settled and comfortable.
Then THE END
So as I attended the academy and worked, I found time, and a real Hawaiian tattoo artist. My grandma was a direct descendant of Hawaiian royalty, out of respect to the Kapuna, (kah-poo-nah, elders) I will not use their names here. I had one full sleeve on one arm, and a half sleeve and a band on the other. My sleeves flowed right into my chest, back and shoulder tattoos. My back tattoo went from my shoulder blades and flowed into a v all the way down to my ass crack where the point of the v was. My entire upper body looked like I just had one gigantic tattoo, with two small ones on one arm, and one on my stomach area. I had one tattoo that completely covered my leg from just above my knee to my ankle on one side and the other had triangles and a band. The triangles went from my armpit all the way down to my ankle on my left side. I also had a lot of shark teeth in my tattoos to honor the families amaukua. It told the story of my grandmas entire family from many generations before her time, to the time I lost Janine. Yes, she was included in it. The large band on my left arm was all about her, her heritage, her life, and the love we shared for each other. I had all of the tattoos done the old traditional way.
I graduated the academy at the top of my class and I had departments everywhere that wanted me to work of them. As a result, I had a long list of places to choose from. My buddy that worked for a department in the city I grew up in, was now engaged and had started his new job for a sheriffs department a little over 100 miles away, I didn't know where. As I looked through the list of choices I had a very difficult time deciding where I was going to go. There was this one sheriffs office that seemed to beckon me. Like I was being told that, that was where I needed to be. As several days passed, that feeling grew stronger and stronger. I started smelling Janines perfume every time I thought about that particular agency. So I finally applied.
I was absolutely amazed at how fast things moved after that. Mom and her partner moved down with me and purchased a house in the pretty decent sized city. I went through the testing and passed with flying colors. I was called in and hired. Here is the best part. My buddy worked for them! He was amazed to see me walk in for my first night of training.
"What the fuck!! Holy shit you did it!!" He said as he walked up to me and gave me a manly hug.
"What did you not think I would?" I asked.
"I hate to say it, but after Janine died I really didn't think you would." He said.
"Surprise asshole." I said as we both laughed.
"You look awesome! It's nice to actually see you in a uniform." He said as everyone watched us and listened.
"Yeah I know. I'm one of you now." I said.
"You have always been one of us." He said.
He then told them the story of what happened. How a kid had the best of him and all he remembered was seeing the suspect flying away from him and heard a loud thud. He then showed them the video from his body cam and it showed everything. He also told him how we had been friends ever since. Before my training began, they had to special order my uniforms, my vest and my duty belt. The uniforms were cool as hell! They were all black and just looked sweet. Luckily I only had four percent body fat so it wasn't to hard, sort of.
As I stood in the briefing room I watched the captain walk in with a few deputies. The first thing they did was start pairing us with our field training officers. I was the third one to be paired. My FTO was this tiny female.
"Deputy Jensen, you're with deputy Burbank." The captain said.
"Yyyyyyyyyyyes!!" Deputy Burbank said as turned to the other deputies and lunged at them. "What now? What are you going to do, huh?"
"As tiny as you are, you need to be with him." Another said.
"Whatever." She said as she walked up to me and shook my hand.
"Just so you know, we've all been arguing over who got to train you." She said as we all laughed.
"Well, it looks like she won." I said as I pointed at her."
"Shut up rookie." One said with a sarcastic look in his face.
"Don't be mad, it's going to be ok." She said.
"I already like the guy." Another said.
She and I hit it off from the very second we were introduced. The other rookies were timid and nervous and it showed. I was nervous as hell until all of that happened. All of the candidates and deputies were amazed at how big I was. My FTO, and I immediately started joking around about my size. After our briefing we walked out to the crown Vic and I just stood there looking at it.
"You uuhhhh, you know you're going to have to cut a whole in that roof right?" I asked.
"Oh shit. I'm not sure you're going to fit in the damn thing." She said as we both laughed our asses off.
She was right. It was a very uncomfortable, painful first shift ever, especially since the car had a damn transport cage in it! My knees and back hurt after that. My FTO and I laughed about it the entire shift. She loved the looks on the faces of some of the assholes we arrested that night after they got a good look at me. They got really cooperative, really quick. During our patrol we entered the city that I knew. I didn't know it as in all the streets and stuff, but I knew where I was. I didn't realize that it was the same town that Janine and her family lived, until I saw the sign that welcomed us to the city. My FTO saw the look on my face and knew that I had something on my mind.
"So what's with you? All of a sudden you got quiet." She asked.
"My girlfriend lived here." I said.
"What's her name?" She asked.
"Janine." I replied.
"Where is she now?" She asked.
"She is buried in that cemetery right there." I said as we drove by the cemetery.
"Oh god. I'm so sorry." She said.
"It's ok. She is in a better place." I said.
"What happened, if you don't mind my asking." She asked.
"She had very aggressive brain cancer." I said.
"I am so sorry. How long were you two together?" She asked.
"Almost two years." I replied.
"How long has she been gone." She asked.
"It will be three years in March." I said.
"You still miss her don't you?" She asked.
"Well, it's not as bad as it use to be, but yeah, I still have my moments, you know, kinda like now." I said.
"You loved her didn't you?" She asked.
"Yes I did. I wanted to marry her." I said.
"You still love her don't you?" She asked.
"I probably always will. She was my first." I said.
"First love?" She asked.
"Yep, my first love." I said.
"Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry for your loss." She said.
"Thank you." I said.
"So is that why you decided to be a cop?" She asked.
"She and my mom were the reasons I wanted to do this. Janine was the one who really made my mind up actually." I said.
"That's really cool. So what happened that made you want to do this?" She asked.
"Do you remember, or even hear about the guy that almost killed his wife and then shot two cops." I asked.
"Yeah and he was shot and killed in the process. One of the cops that were killed was my cousin." She said.
"Oh my god. I am so sorry. That guy was my dad. I was the one who found my mom." I said.
"No shit?!" She asked.
"Nope. I'm really sorry about that." I said.
"Don't be, it wasn't your fault. I just think that it's incredibly cool that his son didn't turn out like him. More so since he is a cop now! That's fucking awesome!" She said as she punched me in my arm.
"Yep. Dad was a piece of shit, and I know I shouldn't say this, but I'm glad he got killed, at least I knew that my mom was safe." I said.
"So when did you realize that you wanted to be a cop, was it after your mom almost got killed, or was it after your girlfriend got sick?"'She asked.
"It was after my girlfriend was beaten so bad that she ended up in the hospital. She and I were good friends then and it didn't work out well for him. He was arrested and released on bail. Then he went to the school with a gun and planned on killing her in front of everyone. He wasn't expecting me to be there. Let's just say that he was in the hospital for quite a while. I have zero patients or tolerance for men that beat women." I replied.
"Well, I've only been with you for a day and everything, but I'm going to tell you straight out. You are going to be a really good cop. I have never said that about anyone before. You have this thing about you that I can't figure out. All I know is that I am going to do everything I can to get you off of probation and on your own. You're going to do really great." She said.
"Well, thank you." I said.
That night I handled my very first domestic disturbance and many other calls after. She just sat back and observed. I got a lot of constructive criticism, and used them as learning tools. The part I hated was the damn paper work involved. My second night there, they put my trainee and I in a different patrol unit hoping that I could fit in it better. It wasn't bad. A few weeks later, I was doing all of the driving and most of the work. During my training I studied the policies and everything else I needed to be able to be out on my own. I went from FTO to FTO to learn all of the zones. After a long than usual training period, they finally told me that I had passed my training period. Apparently I did far better than any other rookie they have had there in years. That made me feel really good.
I was issued my other stuff and a patrol unit. What I didn't know, was that our patrol units were take home vehicles. I was lucky because I got a brand new GMC Sierra with a crew cab. They put a shell on it, it had a custom made diamond plate heavy duty bumper on the front. It looked really bad ass! I would have gotten one of the old crown vics, but I didn't fit in those. They had to do it basically. They had to have the seats modified for me and everything. Basically, my FTO wouldn't be able to drive it without some books to sit on. It was the first and only 4 by 4 that was pursuit rated the the department had. It was pretty bad ass actually. Now my only issue was getting my personal truck home. It worked out because mom helped me get it home. She got to ride in my patrol unit and everything.
Time went on and I was finally off probation. I was a full fledged deputy and Janines town that I held her in as she died, was in my zone. I decided to surprise her mom one night, but I wanted to go visit Janines grave first, it just so happened that I was on duty. I went and got a bunch of her favorite flowers and went to the cemetery. It would have been her 30th birthday. As I kneeled at her grave and placed her flowers there, I heard a car pull up. I didn't look up, I was too busy looking like a crazy man as I talked to Janine. I stood up and promised that I would be careful and turned around. There was her mom. She froze and pointed at me.
"Adam?!" She asked as I smiled at her.
"Hi mom, surprise." I said as she looked at me.
"Holy ssshhhhit! When did you start doing this?" She asked as she walked up to me.
"Oh about six months now." I said.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me you brat!" She said as we hugged.
"I've been busy trying to get off of probation." I said.
"Why were you on probation?" She asked.
"Because I'm a rookie. I just started a little over six months now." I said.
"Wow, you look really good! You know she would have loved to see you in that uniform." She said.
"I know." I said.
"So are you here for good?" She asked.
"Yeah for a while anyway." I said.
"Good, now we can see you more." She said.
"Yep! How are you all doing?" I asked.
"Oh as good as we can be I guess." She said.
We stood there and talked for several minutes before I caught a call. I had to take off in a hurry to a robbery in progress.
I lived with my mom for a while and figured that since I was 21 and had a good job and everything, it was time to get my own place. I found a really nice town house in a very nice Appartment complex. I purchased the place and moved in. It was a three bedroom, two of which had their own really nice bathrooms, so it had three full baths, and one "powder room." The basement even had a full bath in it too. My favorite part of it was that it had two very large wood burning fire places. One in the bacement, and one on the main floor. It had a fully finished basement and it was extremely nice! It was a foreclosure so I got an amazing deal on it! I paid 60,000 for it and it was worth a HELL of a lot more! Let's just say that there would be no way I could have afforded it any other way, unless I was rich. One thing I learned from an early age was that I needed to stay out of debt. The only debt I had now was my town house.
I had saved money from the time I turned 13 and now I was going to use some of it. My mom helped me buy stuff for my house and she and Janines mom helped me decorate it. The way we got it set up, you'd think that I was a millionaire. But everything was purchased at thrift stores and stuff, just not the living room and dining sets. I was excited and felt like I was accomplishing something in my life! I was excited as hell. We had a little party there and everything. A bunch of my fellow deputies came over and joined us, two of which were on duty. My new neighbors were cool as hell, and quite a few of them came over too. They loved seeing my patrol unit sitting in my driveway. As the next few weeks passed I got settled and comfortable.
Then THE END
Comments
