Dima North

"GANG ENFORCEMENT" My first dip into real gang enforcement came when a vacancy opened to become a member of the Gang Enforcement Team (GET) based out of Davis Sheriff's Station. GET formed the uniform component of the LSSD's answer to gangs - it was GET's job to gather intelligence, register gang members, provide gang suppression, and assist other patrol deputies with gang-related questions. I was a successful applicant. I worked hard to try and learn the ins-and-outs of street gangs in Los Santos County, Luckily, I had an amazing team with me - Senior GET deputy II Dinarra Horowitz and fellow GET recruit Royce Barett. We made a great team. -ARUIZ

"BLOOD" It didn't feel like it was long before I finished the trainee phase. I was no longer a Deputy (T) (a trainee), now cleared to perform the duties expected of me without supervision. It's a daunting task considering patrol school can only teach you so much before the learning falls to you. I was in a car, on my own, patrolling the streets, learning the way I wanted to enforce the law. Now that I didn't have a training officer who tried to protect me from the violence, I came to really discover what things the people of Los Santos did to each other. Violence was all consuming. I spent the majority of my time going from body, to body, to body, clearing the scene and handing another murder case that will likely never be solved to the extremely overworked detectives with an ever mounting case load. The more gang violence I encountered, the more and more I started to gravitate to gang enforcement. The blood has a root, and to me, the blood came from the gangs. -ARUIZ

"PUSH THE NEEDLE" Driving fast is an amazing feeling. Ask any car owner. It's why racing exists, it's what people use highways for. So imagine the adrenaline of a vehicle pursuit - you fly through the streets, red and blues imprinting on the walls and signs as you drive past. Siren blaring. You can hear the helicopter above you, shining it's bright-ass spotlight down on the suspect. The feeling is unreal, it's one of the few things in policing that's even remotely close to the movies. You get to push that needle to the fuckin' limit (safely) to serve that fast, fast justice. -ARUIZ

"THE 14" The most common question. "What's the worst thing you've seen?" Anyone who works in the public service field HATES this question, because if you've been doing the job for any amount if time, you're guaranteed to have seen some of the most unspeakable atrocities capable on this earth. I remember what I thought was my worst thing, when I was a trainee. It dwarfs in comparison to instances later in my career, but this one really fucked me up. My first, real look at what organised crime and gang violence can do to a community. Pulling fourteen bodies out of a building, fourteen death notifications. Fourteen grieving families. A carpark coated in more blood than asphalt. Welcome to Los Santos. -ARUIZ

"FIRE STARTER" Do I remember my first call as a trainee? Of course I do. You never forget it. Even if it's just taking some petty theft report. My first though? A fire. A big-ass fire. Someone threw a fuckin' molotov cocktail into a building in Little Seoul. Real mafioso type shit. The heat was intense. I felt myself sweating through my long-sleeve shirt, but my MFTO (master field training officer, the guy that ticks you off to say you're doin' shit right) was a stickler for things like that uniform, so I wouldn't be caught dead rolling my sleeves up. Hah. Abe Clark. He was old as fuck when he was training me. He'd for sure be dead by now, god bless his soul. Dude taught me much throughout his time. Not many cops like him left. -ARUIZ

"FRESH" When you start your patrol orientation? You better get your ass to a barber. You rock up to your first shift with pubes on your face? You're mince meat. Get your shit together and you'll get along with your training officer. -ARUIZ

You want to hear about my time with the LSSD from the beginning? The very beginning? If that's the case, let me get one thing straight. No one really knows what to expect when you hit the streets for the first time. Polished boots, duty belt on. Pin attached. Your hoop is your vessel for exploring the world, and all it's sights, smells, sounds. You'll learn that your enemy surrounds you. They're everywhere. Every street sits a fuckin' banger. Every corner a hooker, every alley a junkie. Filth drenches every surface, and it's a cop's job to pressure wash it off. You've got one objective, and one objective only. But when you're enemy surrounds you, you keep your motherfuckin' front towards the enemy. No one ever sees your back. You'll push it to the absolute limit to administer your justice on the criminals plaguing the county. Because you're a deputy. A Los Santo's County mother-fuckin' Sheriff's Deputy. It's what you've been trained to do, it's what you're expected to do, and it's what you fucking do. But what happens when you push it too far? Only one way to find out. -ARUIZ "Our ends know our beginnings, but the reverse isn't true." - Don Winslow

gang shit