I was trying to get a job without success repeatedly in my field which is first-responder related. Everyplace I applied for work in Austin, Texas, I was rejected. It wasn't just "No!" but "Hell, no!"
I talked to quite a few other folks about my age and they told me the same thing and then. I found out WHY!
One of my roommates and I had a rather loud confrontation resulting in a physical assault and I called the Austin Police Department to file charges.
A female Hispanic rookie officer showed up followed by a Hispanic male rookie officer and I was getting ready to explain the bruises on my arm where I had broken away in the fracas when the female officer came close and asked my name and my date of birth which is pretty much standard police procedure. After I gave it to her, she stepped slightly offside to me to get the report from the dispatcher in the communications center and then she jumped back from me like I was a poisonous snake.
What's up with this? I wondered but I didn't have to wonder long. I was soon looking at the muzzle of her drawn pistol from the side of her patrol unit and she was screaming " You are a violent, dangerous 96! You are a psychotic 96!" and she was screaming for dear life like she was being murdered into the microphone of her radio DEMANDING back-up.
(A 10-96 in police radio communications shorthand is a mentally disturbed subject.)
I looked behind me but nobody was there whom she could have possible been referring. After all, this was at about 7 A.M. On a Saturday or Sunday morning in 2004 and I was calling from a payphone and everything was closed. Nobody else was around and the way that pistol was bobbing up and down with sheer terror and adrenlin rush on her part, I was afraid I wouldn't be around either.
Well, two more Hispanic male officers showed up, including one who appeared to be a supervisor and a victim services person showed up, supposedly to talk to me about the assault by contact that I had sustained. The presumed supervisor yelled in my face questions in English and Spanish (both of which I understand, even though I am not Hispanic) that you would ask a mentally disoriented person.
(Standard police routine but he seemed to ask more aggressively than usual like he really wanted to provoke a conftontation so he could arrest me. Again, I wish I knew what the hell else had been in that entry about me!)
He asked me loud in a threatening manner who the President of the United States was, what the date was, where was I, what was my name and what was the day of the week and what was the name of my psychiatrist? By now, I am wondering what the hell is this all about! Is this some kind of joke or trick that some police officer friends are playing on me or what?
But nobody is smiling! One big Hispanic guy was standing next to me ready to break my head or arms if I had reacted in a typical pychotic manner.
I just basically stared at the guy and when he was unable to provoke me into a physical confrontation, I asked him, " What is this all about?"
He just shook his head in disgust and yelled at the female rookie NOT to EVER tell anybody what was in the damned database and they all left. Unfortunately there were no video recorders in the police vehicles at that time, I imagine it would have been interesting viewing. There were about six cops there and one alleged 96... The supervisor waved the victims services person away and wouldn't let him talk to me.
MY FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT RIGHTS TO EQUAL PROTECTION WERE VIOLATED because not only did the police officers refuse to take the report of the assault but they were apparently accusing me of something or being someone that I never did or was. I think that is the Fifth Amendment which implied that you are INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!
I also noticed that every time I was involved in an incident (at that time, before I was injured on the job and permanently disabled, I was a security officer and sometimes I HAD to call the Austin police to arrest someone or handle something that was out of my jurisdiction), I got the same response regardless of the ethnicity or the race of the officers who arrived on the scene.
I went to our Department of Public Safety and paid for a background check for myself but nothing indicated that I had ever been a psychotic sort of person.
A psychiatric evaluation is a part of the Austin Police pre-employment screening BUT I HAD NEVER APPLIED TO THAT DEPARTMENT!
I had NEVER been forcibly committed to the Austin State Hospital or any other mental institution and what I knew about psychiatrity I had studied at the local junior college! I think I said, " Good night, sir" once to a psychiatrist who had an office in an office building I guarded once but that was years ago.
So how was it that the austin police department had it in their computerized database what i was a "dangerous, violent psychotic?"
I checked with the state security officer licensing agency and found that nothing had been entered there to prohibit me from working and that I was still licensed to carry a firearm on the job. I NEVER had a complaint or even a lawsuit in almost 20 years on the job.
When I applied for a civilian, unarmed job with the county, the answer came back again, not just NO but HELL NO! When I asked to see the reason, they told me only my lawyer could see it. I couldn't afford a lawyer then because I had not job to generate money to pay the retainer. Nobody would have taken it pro bono even though I am sure I would have won.
The mystery deepens.
I went to the main Austin Police HQ in downtown Austin and requested under the Open Records Act to see anything in the computerized database that they had concerning me but I was told that I had a clean criminal history and then I was told that they couldn't show me because there was an "ongoing investigation" so they didn't have to show it to me.
WHAT AM I BEING INVESTIGATED FOR? What did i do? Or is this just refusal to acknowledge a mistake that could and would result in a multi-million dollar lawsuit?! I have to wonder.
I couldn't afford an attorney and still can't —assuming any of them would take the case since it seems that any attorney who takes too many cases against the local law enforcement agencies ends up out of business or getting abruptly into a another line of work...
Nearly three and one-half years later, I am still at a loss!
Nobody will tell me anything about it!
So I am warning others who live in Austin and you are having a problem getting a first-responer job that something similiar might have happened to you and something false was given to the police. If it was, even though you inadvertently discovered it like I did, I hope that you will be able to do something about it.
This has all been like a bad dream...
I do not drink alcohol, use illicit drugs, hang out in clubs and enshew the company of known felons.
I still have NO idea how MY name got in the 10-96 classification of Austin Database and how many other agencies have the same false information and how many jobs is it going to cost me until I can get an attorney to figure out what happened—IF I can get an attorney at all.
Anonymous
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
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