April 2011 Dallas Police Shield magazine

April 2011 Dallas Police Shield

Last month we discussed the different characters that make police work so interesting. Yes, it’s all the color and drama and the little slices of life that keep police officers laughing in their sorrow. They have to keep to their sanity. Who in their right mind would do such a job? We did!

Charlie Tull recently sent an e-mail and reminded me of a guy that lived in or near “Little Mexico” in the 60’s and 70’s. His name was Herby Navarro. He was in 40’s and apparently loved the police. He loved the DPD so much that he had a crude tattoo on his shoulder where our patch was located. The tattoo of course was “Dallas Police Department.”

I’ve read over the years that different generations of Dallas officers would describe a somewhat strange occurrence where some civic minded folk would get drunk and head to a busy intersection and start directing traffic. I recently found a piece from the early 1940’s where a known “exceptional person” as the DPD computers would now describe them, would go downtown and after a few too many, would take over an unmanned intersection and go to work. According to some officers at the time, it was thought that this particular do-gooder in the article might have been a former officer since he did such a great job untangling traffic!

Herby would get drunk, then get out of jail and head to Cedar Springs and Maple and work traffic. The dispatcher, who was probably tired of the Herby calls, would tell the nearby officers that “Herby is working traffic again.” All the officers knew who it was and where he was.

Yeah, I could just see traffic all running smoothly, then the officers would pick up Herby and take him away, then the traffic would get screwed up again. Then the police would get complained on by the local citizens for taking him away. Right??

But, I guess he wasn’t drunk since he just got out of jail. Was he just a good director of traffic? Or did he stop off and grab some MD 20 20 or Thunderbird before he went to work? 

Tull said everyone actually liked Herby because he liked the DPD. Last time he saw Herby was about 1981 at the Fair with a group from Terrell State Hospital. You know, I’ll bet if Herby ever saw an officer getting the crap beat out of him, he would have jumped in to whack the bad guy.

Retired officer Gayle Tippit always sends some good stuff.  He writes that in the early 50’s Tip answered a call in Oak Cliff where the apartment was way torn up. Obviously a violent fight had happened. Female clothing all over the floor, and in the bathroom, a naked body of a woman in the bathtub, blood all over, and signs of several fresh injuries on the body.

Homicide Captain Fritz and Beck (?) show up. Fritz says; “She fell into the bathtub, injured her head and died.” Tip says; “Captain”-and Beck cuts him off with “The Captain says she fell in the tub!!” Tip said he just shut up.  He was outranked, and in THOSE DAYS, especially since Will Fritz had a somewhat legendary status even then, an officer just shut the hell up. That’s the reason Tip stayed another 20-30 years.

Funny, I read a story recently in the DMN where an officer was bragging on a social networking device that they had chewed out a supervisor. When did this become okay? Is there not a special order or something about announcing to “everyone” instead of only “friends” (Ha) what a stupid thing that you’ve done and bragging about it? Wow I got cranked up.

Tip wrote that Fritz’s assistant in the above scenario, the mysterious “Beck,” had a son that happened to live across the street from Tip. Sheriff Bill Decker hired him as a Dallas County deputy. Tip relates that the son was so ate up with it, that he would mow his lawn, in his shorts, with his Sam Browne on, plus pistol! He cooked on a grill in his front yard dressed the same way! One day two deputies drove up while the short wearing deputy was cooking, and drew down on him!  They ended up pointing guns at each other yelling “Put the f*&^%$# gun down!” After that episode, he never put on a Sam Browne except with a uniform.

I remember we had guys like that. There was one officer called “Machine Gun ……..” I won’t use his last name, but it was kind of the same thing. Some guys just were ate up with it. Actually, I hope that there are guys and gals serving now that have that “thing.” It’s better than the social networking device “thing” listed above.  I would rather answer a call in east Dallas with “Machine Gun” any day.

One last Tip story and I have to be careful. In the early 50’s, prostitutes ran rampant in Dallas. There was ole “Dirty Dorothy” trying to make a living on Jackson Street downtown. Tip had another early 1950’s rookie in the car so he decides to mess with the rookie and Dorothy. No A/C, windows down, Tip pulls up next to Dorothy. She leans in and takes advantage of the shocked rookie. The rookie screams so she runs to the other side where Tip is driving. Tip knows the deal so he attempts to roll up the window with the young rookie still screaming like a little girl, and Dorothy laughing her head off. Tip tells Dorothy to back off as he turns right and sees a well dressed couple trying to calm down the rookie so they could ask directions to the Baker Hotel!

Tip said he just climbed under the driver’s seat and hid!

Questions?  Complaints? Write me!

W.H.Croom, II #3973 retired

Dmntia1995@aol.com