The Novel.............The Firestone Syndrome

By Stephen P, Beeler

Book Review By: Claude J. Anderson FPK '58-70

I had heard [prior to reading the book] that it was written by a dissatisfied Ex Deputy who did a hatched job on Firestone Station and those who had worked the station. Apparently the entire staff at Firestone was recruited from al Qaida.

I sent for the book and it's really no such thing! It's a novel set around the Firestone Park area and the author did an excellent job in bringing back old memories of my time at Firestone. I found the book easy reading with great suspense. I enjoyed the way Steve writes and if he produces another book...count me in!

I had just finished the first two chapters when my wife asked how the book was coming. I told her I had the entire story fingered out.... The "Elitists" were nothing but Training Officers who shot their Trainees and dumped them in the field. The story is about someone sent to the station to check it out! "Impossible", she said! Well, I'll read on.

I was at the station about six years before the authors time line. He spoke of coming after the Watts Riots (65) and I think Steve was working PM shift and I was Utility Deputy when I transferred to the DA's Office in (70). Our Captain at the time was Dean Wert.

His tale of being a trainee sure had not changed, however he had only Sgt's yell at him and after my first five minutes as a newly assigned deputy I had a Lt. call me a liar and began trash talking me. (Read: ”Welcome to Firestone” located on FPK Web site, click on FPK TRAINING.)

Now the author hurts my feelings.... He tells of a young deputy from the academy for his ride assignment walking through our parking lot for looking at our black & white patrol cars. The Cadet say's “each radio car was more dented and dirtier than the one before!” We had a standing order that if the trusties could not pound out a dent or use the black or white spray paint, that vehicle went to the downtown body shop. Firestone deputies with the greatest Sheriff Department in the World "do not drive dented cars! Scratches and teeth mark are OK!. The engines might run like "ca ca".... but no dents!

Although the names in the book were changed, I had little trouble identifying the actual persons in the story, thanks to a great job of descriptions by Steve. Sure, we had a few deputies that were "Heavy Handed" and they thought that 10-15 & 902H [prisoner in custody/ in route to hospital] were all one code. The brass knew who they were and they either changed their attitude or were gone.

I was working South Gate Court when the infamous Deputy Schaffer (spelling?) incident went down. He came into my office a day after and I had several officers from FPK & South Gate PD waiting for their cases to be called that day who wanted to know the details of his shooting. Deputy Shaffer went into great detail as how he was silently walking through this burglarized building, when he heard the suspect "cock" his weapon, as he lay in wait to ambush Schaffer. The description seems just a little too dramatic for me. When Schaffer went into the courtroom a few moments later, comments were made that "that guy is weird”. I know if it was me... I would have thanked the "big man" upstairs who let me hear the "click", but Schaffer was in another mode almost still on a euphoric high. A day later he was arrested as the detectives found his fingerprints on the shells in the "suspects gun"! Really Brilliant! The jerk! His partner later suffered a nervous breakdown and had to leave the department.

As far as the “Elites” shooting people; Firestone had very few deputies shooting people, before 1970. Look over the tremendous amount of calls handled and compare it with shootings. Except for Schaffer, the only one I remember is Deputy Pfau trying to shoot a rabid monkey under a house! The closest I ever came to shooting someone was a 918V woman who had one of the largest Butcher Knives I've ever seen. (Crocodile Dundee would say, "Now that's a knife!). She had just carved the "outline" of the Hawaiian Island Chain on her husband’s chest. He didn't die, but he didn't appreciate the geography lesson. Anyway, she's calling our beloved department filthy names and telling me to perform an impossible function upon myself. But when she "demanded" I "shoot her", that was the last straw! (Only my mother has that ultimate power!)

We were in her kitchen and I knew she was getting ready to charge. When she did, running at me with a Bonsai scream, I grabbed her kitchen broom and ran it into her stomach. She spent the next ten minutes on the floor bulge eyes wide open, mouth open and trying to breath like Flounder out of water. I knew I wasn't going to waste a bullet, for if I did, I would have to clean my gun and I would have to submit a memo.

Steve touches on the Sgt's Civil Service Exam, which was always a "tainted" event. Certain deputies getting the questions beforehand by high-level brass and political manipulations with the so-called "passed list". I understand it's been cleaned up to a certain extent, but there are still those chosen ones who still get the questions. The hard working deputies in the field never have a chance against the elite assignments downtown. Steve is right...this is how the system works, accept it or get out!

I can't comment on many of the upper brass he talks about because I was never in contact with anyone over the rank of SGT. After I transferred to the DA office in 1970, Inspector Wert and I became great friends and lunched once a week and he and his wife would visit us in Arizona)

So, read Steve’s book and remember it's only a story set in a location we all are familiar with. Enjoy and get yourself one of those little Devil tattoos with the FPK letters over his trident! (Left leg between ankle & knee) Can all this stuff really happen you might ask after reading the book? Sure, it's possible. When we worked patrol our actions were always in a fish bowl, today it's even worse. With the Camcorders, Cell Phones and the Telephoto Lens the helicopters have now with the ability to read the serial numbers on your handcuffs from two miles away. A police officer has to think twice before letting his personal emotions get the best of him. My hats off to all of you that performed your duties with honor & dignity. Your satisfaction and mine came in doing a good job to the best of our ability. Hopefully we made the world a little safer.

Firestone always number 1