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.
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