THE NEWHALL INCIDENT, UNDERCOVER REASONING, AND 3RD PARTY JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE - 086

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transcript:

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​This week on the Writer's Detective Bureau, the Newhall Incident, undercover reasoning and third party justifiable homicide. I'm Adam Richardson and this is the Writer's Detective Bureau.

Welcome to episode number 86 of the Writer's Detective Bureau, the podcast dedicated to helping authors and screenwriters write professional quality crime related fiction. This week I'm talking about how the Writer's Detective Bureau is raising money for those that need help the most during our current COVID-19 pandemic, as well as marking the 50th anniversary of the Newhall Incident and answering your questions about the reasons for a detective to go undercover, as well as whether a homicide can be ruled justifiable if it's committed by a third party.

But first, I need to thank Gold Shield patrons, Debra Dunbar from Debradunbar.com, C.C. Jameson from ccjameson.com, Larry Keeton, Vicky Tharp of vickitharp.com, Chrysann, Larry Darter, Natalie Barelli of Nataliebarelli.com, Craig Kingsman of craigkingsman.com, Lynn Vitale, Marco Carocari of marcocarocari.com and Robert Mendenhall for their support along with my Silver Cufflink and Coffee Club patrons. You can find links to all of the bureau's patrons in the show notes at writersdetective.com/86.

This month's Patreon deposit just hit my account and 100% of that money was donated to Masks for Docs to provide PPE to those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have funds or N95 masks you'd like to donate or you're a first responder or medical professional that is in immediate need of PPE, go to masksfordocs.com to get connected right now. And to learn more about Patronage through Patreon, go to writersdetective.com/Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N.

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​Speaking of worthy causes, reviewing this podcast on podchaser.com will raise money for the Meals on Wheels COVID-19 response fund. Podchaser has pledged to donate 25 cents for every podcast review left at podchaser.com and they will double that pledge if the podcast owner replies to the review. So let's do this. I created a quick link to make this super easy. Go to writersdetectivebureau.com/review to get to my podcast page on Podchaser and then click on the review tab. And once you've left a review, I will reply. And each time we do this, that's a half dollar towards getting food delivered to homebound seniors that are most at risk for COVID-19. Podchaser is running this pledge campaign through April 15th of 2020 so let's get after it right now, writersdetectivebureau.com/review and then click on the review tab.

As I record this, it is the evening of the 6th of April, 2020 which happens to be the 50th anniversary of a watershed moment in policing. Just after midnight on April 6th, 1970, four California highway patrol officers were murdered by two gunmen in Newhall, California, which is not far from where Magic Mountain amusement park is currently located. All four of those officers were killed in less than five minutes and the two gunmen escaped that night. They were subsequently identified with one killing himself in a hostage standoff with the LA Sheriff's department and then the other spent the rest of his life in a California prison.

But every cop in California has learned about the Newhall Incident because it reframed how we think about tactics and training. You may have heard the saying as you train, so shall you fight. It was through studying the Newhall Incident that law enforcement, especially in California, learned this the hard way. These brave young officers in this moment of crisis relied on their training as we do in these kinds of crisis situations and their training failed them, but their deaths were not in vain as this incident sparked dramatic changes in how law enforcement trains their officers, especially when it comes to the officer safety tactics.

And those changes still remain to this day and they have without a doubt saved the lives of thousands of cops in hundreds of thousands of instances where this post Newhall incident modern understanding of how training translates to real world situations has prevented more cops from being murdered. On this 50th anniversary of the horrific Newhall Incident, we are still honoring the legacy of CHP officers: Frago, Gore, Alleyn and Pence. You have taught us all that as you train, so shall you fight.

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​This week's first question comes from Rhys Lawrence who asked, do detectives often go undercover and if so, what are usually the reasons? Undercover work is certainly a specialized type of policing, Rhys, but it's usually done as a last resort. The benefits of having a police detective go undercover are that when it's used in court, it's firsthand knowledge and firsthand testimony. And also detectives are trained in understanding the laws about entrapment and coercion so they know how to avoid saying or doing anything that could lead to any crimes they witnessed from being thrown out in court...                                                                                                                                Continue reading...