A BACK-UP WEAPON FOR YOUR BACK-UP WEAPON

A BACK-UP WEAPON FOR YOUR BACK-UP WEAPON

 

Over the years, it was inevitable my twin careers—LAPD detective and a professional writer—would sometimes bump into each other. One of the minor collisions occurred simply because of my name.

 

In the original script for 1992 film Delta Heat, the main character—an LAPD detective to be played by actor Anthony Edwards—was named Paul Bishop. When the production company’s legal section realized there actually was a current LAPD detective named Paul Bishop, they reached out and asked me to waive the rights to my own name.

 

This was not a particularly appealing idea, especially since there was no compensation offered. Rather than negotiate, the production company simply changed the main character’s name from Paul Bishop to Mike Bishop. However, prior to the final outcome of the character’s name change, I had a very pleasant lunch with Anthony Edwards at the Britannia pub in Santa Monica, which was one of my local hangouts.

 

Edwards was extremely affable and we talked about a wide range of subjects. He was particularly interested in the back-up weapons I’d carried when working undercover.

 

I explained about usually carrying a five shot Smith & Wesson Chief Special with a two inch barrel on my ankle, but Edwards was aware of this type of back up and was looking for something different.

 

As a result, I told him about carrying an even smaller, non-department approved, back up weapon known as a crotch rocket because it was carried under your scrotum—it’s amazing what discomfort you can get used to when your life may depend on it. If somebody searched you, they would almost always find the ankle gun, but would almost always miss the crotch rocket because of a reluctance to touch that area of somebody’s person.

 

his was a lesson I’d learned in the police academy when we were doing situation simulation searches. One other rookie and I (out of 54 in my academy class) were the only ones who found the crotch rocket when searching the instructor acting as a suspect.

 

When LAPD Detective Mike Bishop hit the big screen in Delta Heat (5 stars out of 10 on IMDB) it sank into the New Orleans swamps—where the movie was filmed—pretty much without a trace. However, I still had the pleasure of seeing my sort-of-namesake rescue himself in the film’s climax by using his hidden crotch rocket back up weapon after having his ankle gun taken away by the villain of the piece.