Week 4 was incredibly busy!
We had the FBINAA (FBI National Academy Associates) Dinner on Monday night. The steak was great. 5.11 Tactical sponsored this event.
We had our first of two International Student Panels with the whole session. My roommate Pedro will go in the next panels in Week 7.
We had our third Fit Challenge — “The Cyclone” on Wednesday. I would compare it too the “Fight Gone Bad,” WOD for CrossFit folks. It pretty much smoked us for the rest of the day. That afternoon Sheriff Tim Whitcomb from Cattaraugus County, New York gave a talk on PTSD. He was fantastic.
Thursday we split our session in half. Half of us went to the US Holocaust Memorial, the other half went to FBI HQ in Washington.
Pre-Pluge at Virginia Beach
I was in the group that went to FBI HQ first. This building is big with a large courtyard inside of it. It frankly looks Google-like in the courtyard. There is a full-size Starbucks and a FBI store there. I wasn’t able to take photos but it wasn’t what one would expect for sure. But it was really cool. We walked up to the second level of the building and noticed a single lane running track that was painted in all-weather coating that snaked around second level and included a full outdoor weight lifting area sort of like “muscle beach” style in California. It was very cold, so I didn’t see a bunch of random dudes drinking protein powder shakes, wearing ratty spandex and doing clean & jerks . . . but I did look.
We got a brief tour and then went into the “FBI Experience.” This is a public tour at FBI HQ and I thought it was really good. It would be specifically good for elementary/high school students.
We then ate a box lunch and loaded up and went to the United States Holocaust Memorial.
If you have never been, please put this on your bucket list of places to visit in the DC area. Its hard to describe the feelings you feel as you walk through this living narrative of a horrific time in our planets history. For a police officer that works in a Republic like the US, it was jarring to see photos of German police officers and military turn from defending and protecting to an instrument of hate and evil. Seeing the mock ups of the gas chambers and the empty cans of the mixture they used for the gas chambers was pretty intense. Then we came to the room of shoes. The shoes were left from the people they marched into the gas chambers. It was incredibly sad to see the different sizes. Adult shoes, fancy female shoes and children’s shoes.
Friday my last class was “online.” The topic of the class was “The Apology” (Click here: The Apology for reference).
It was a lively discussion, facilitated by a few instructor questions we had to answer. I noticed that it was really a question on where you were from in the world, as to the content of your answers and how you felt about the Chief’s statement. As for myself, I was actually in the audience for this speech. I drew a lot of correlation to our own State of California, immigration, migrant farm workers and our struggles. I didn’t have any issue at all with the Chief’s speech. You may or may not agree. I feel we need to acknowledge that there were big problems in the way law enforcement was utilized in the past in relation to how minorities were treated. Further we need to acknowledge that racism, sexism and a bunch of other ism’s still exist in the hearts of some folks in this country. Our mission should be what are we going to do about it today? How are we going to help the next generation in this arena? For me I think it should be one of our top priorities in this country. Remember what Klingon Chancellor Gorkon said in the cinematic classic “Star Trek The Undiscovered Country.” He said, “If we are to have a Brave New World, our generation will have the hardest time living in it.”
Saturday, a group of us drove down to Virginia Beach (about 2.5 hours away) and did the Special Olympics Polar Plunge for the State of Virginia. It was absolutely the coldest I have ever been in my entire life. Wow! It was super fun and glad I could help raise funds for Special Olympics while I am here at the FBI Academy.
Well I have some reading to do and a group project to finish off. I’ll blog again next week at the end of Week 5.
Have a great week and be nice to each other.
Chief
This post was originally published on February 4, 2018 on Chief Westrick’s blog.
