Tuesday, May 28, 2019

In Memoriam: Lorenzo Miles



Lorenzo Miles was a special man, a dedicated cop, a talented analyst and one generous with both wisdom and knowledge.

Remarkable for his combination of talent and humility, perhaps the latter was the conduit for the former, Lorenzo did not cease learning. 




He generously shared his experiences with me privately, but kept to the work of analysis with the team. 

He posted a photo of his nightsticks; instruments that can inflict harm. 

Why did he do this? 

He spoke for himself: 





 His own words reveal his character: 

Lorenzo Miles "In over 28 years of service I have not use night sticks or batons to effect an arrest, thank God."

Hence, a public servant who did not need to coerce citizens to respect him; he respected others and respected his office.  He carried lethal force in authority, with the posture of a servant; the only appropriate manner for law enforcement. 

 He offered public thanks to his God for having being able to handle difficult and dangerous situations without the powerful force of a baton. 

Law Enforcement deals with elevated hormonal response every day of their lives and it can take a powerful toll on the immune system just as it can on the mind and heart.  It is similar to the impact of found in post trauma, except it is low level and it is incessant.  The trauma's rise in hormonal levels does more damage than we can currently quantify.  When natural strength declines, those subject to 30 years of "high alert" can suddenly encounter depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, self medicating with substances and so on.  

It taxes the immune system. 

Lorenzo told me that he was fighting cancer, but trusting Christ to usher him, sooner or later, into eternity. He was acutely aware of his human frailty and need for complete pardon and he knew the where it was found. 

He never got to the project we spoke of, as I hoped he would write his life story. 

If I could be in control of something, for but a moment, I'd urge everyone to write an autobiography. I love reading them and believe ever life is worth hearing. 

I did get, however, some of Lorenzo's life, particularly his quest for truth. 

On one of the last cases we worked together, Lorenzo text'd me the final update:

A sex abuse victim, who appeared to be lying, was vindicated with justice because Lorenzo, with the help of  analysts, was able to carefully articulate why he knew the victim was telling the truth. 

The suspect was confronted with evidence and pled guilt to both a sexual offense and assault. 

It was the work of a servant who believed he was a craftsman created to 


                               "protect and serve."

        God keep his widow, family, friends and his brothers and sisters in blue.  




21 comments:

Trigger said...

Thank you for this post.

As the mother of two law enforcement officers in los Angeles. I see the stress involved in this profession. You describe it as elevated hormonal response which is accurate.

I am proud of how they respond to the needs of their community in ways that only compassionate people can see and understand.

My heart goes out to the family of Lorenzo Miles. What a great loss. Lorenzo Miles left a great legacy to his family, community, profession, and country.

He ran the good race and won.

Wren said...

May perpetual light shine upon him.

MizzMarple said...

Peter,

My apologies for the off topic below:

Did you do an Analysis of the 9-1-1 call on the Rebecca Zahau case? I searched and could not find an analysis done by you. Your analysis of 9-1-1 calls are on target.

Last night, the ID Channel aired a 2 hour special on the Rebecca Zahau case, a very interesting and complex case, which debate still continues 8 years later as to whether Rebecca committed suicide, or if it was a homicide.

What peaked my interest on the ID Channel show was the 9-1-1 call made by Adam Shacknai, the brother of Rebecca's boyfriend, who found Rebecca hanging from the second floor mansion, over the courtyard, with both her hands and feet tied in knots.

I hope that you (and your posters) can do an analysis of this 9-1-1 call. I found a video link of the 9-1-1 call and Transcript, and will post it in a separate post.

Thank you very much.

MizzMarple

MizzMarple said...

Rebecca Zahau Case:


Adam Shacknai 911 call:

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyGs0d2d-ck

----------------------

911 Operator: 911 Emergency, what are you reporting?

Adam: Yeah, I got a girl, hung herself in the guest house, of uh, it's on Ocean Boulevard across from the hotel. Same place that you came and got the kid yesterday.

911 Operator: Ok sir, what is the address?

Adam: I’m not sure. Uh, 19, I mean the back house is 1928 something. Uh, I’m not sure. Let me call you back.

911 Operator: Ok. Sir? Is she still alive?

Adam: I don’t know.

911 Operator: Ok.

[Background sounds.]

Adam: Inaudible.

[Background sounds.]

911 Operator: Sir, you there?

Adam: Inaudible. [Sounds like: Are you alive?] Inaudible.

911 Operator: Yes sir?

Adam: Did you get the address?

911 Operator: No sir. I need the address.

Adam: Doing CPR right now. You came here yesterday to pick up a little boy.

911 Operator: Okay sir, I wasn't working yesterday. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Adam: Check your records.

911 Operator: Sir, I checked all of the records yesterday. I can't find anything on Ocean Boulevard. Can you tell me what the address is?

Adam: I'm looking. Just start sending them towards us, towards the hotel.

911 Operator: Ok. I understand that. I just need the exact address. I can’t help you until I have the address.

Adam: Inaudible.

Adam: 1043 Ocean Boulevard.

911 Operator: 1043 Ocean. Ok. Is she still alive?

Adam: I don’t think so.

911 Operator: Ok. Let me get some Fire Department -

Adam: Inaudible.

911 Operator: Sir. Hang on. Let me get the Fire Department on the phone to help you. Ok. Hang on just a minute.

Connects to Fire Department:

Adam: Aw, F--k. Come on.

911 Operator: Fire and Medical Emergency.

911 Operator: Coronado with a Transfer. Go ahead sir.

Adam: A lady just hung herself.

911 Operator: What’s the address?

Adam: 1043 Ocean Boulevard.

911 Operator: 1043 Ocean Boulevard.

Adam: Yeah.

911 Operator: Ok. What’s wrong?

Adam: She hung herself – I just woke up.

911 Operator: Is it a house?

Adam: It’s a house, yeah.

911 Operator: How old is she?

Adam: She's about 30

911 Operator: 30? Okay. When's the last time you saw her?

Adam: Last night.

911 Operator: Ok. Is she beyond help?

Adam: Inaudible … I’m doing - I’m compressing her chest right now.

911 Operator: Ok. Hold on.

Adam: Inaudible.

911 Operator: So - what’s - what’s your name?

Adam: Adam Shacknai.

911 Operator: Ok. I have help on the way. What’s your cell phone number? Is it (901) 485-____

Adam: (901) 485-____

911 Operator: Ok. Listen to me. Help is coming right now, ok. And PD, you’re on the way?

911 Operator: Yes we are.

911 Operator: Ok. And you’re right there with her. Did you cut her down?

Adam: Yes I did.

911 Operator: Ok. Just stay with me.


----------------------


JMO ... but his 9-1-1 indicates deception - and guilt.

Alicia said...

Off Topic: Can someone please analyze this msg? I am getting a bad vibe & can’t put my finger on it. He is referring to a girl that he dated for years a long time ago (who we both knew) back in college.

“I loved Danielle, but it wasn’t meant to be. She was a very reserved girl. We all have our issues. I, fortunately, live in the present, and would like to take you out.”

I am getting a gut feeling there is something sinister about him. Please help me analyze the msg. There was other stuff that was weird that he wrote, too.

Anonymous said...

I am very interested in your analysis of the ongoing interview with Amanda Eller, the hiker lost in Maui. Something feels very off to me about her press conference

"spiritual bootcamp is what I call it"

Hey Jude said...

That’s a lovely tribute.

Anonymous said...

OT: Rebecca Zahau 911 call:
- the first sentence starts with "I got a girl hung herself". I think the bold words could be a subconscious confession. He doesn't say "I found a girl hung" or "a girl is hanging ..." but "I got a girl hung". "I got" may imply that he was involved in the process of hanging. He "got" it done.
- Why does he say "a girl". Wasn't she the girlfriend of his brother? Why not say that? It's as if he is distancing himself from her.
- He repeatedly says she hung herself. How would he know? The way she was hung was incredibly strange. Not at all an obvious suicide i.m.o.(on the contrary). He clearly feels a need to convince the listener that she hung herself. Why would that be important to him?
- He says "She hung herself - I just woke up". It's as if he is defending himself against the accusation of hanging her (as in: "I couldn't have done it, I just woke up, she did it herself.") However, nobody accused him of hanging her at that point. So why the need to defend himself? Does he feel guilty? The "I just woke up"-line is a variant of the "I was asleep" / "I was taking a nap"-phrase that popped up in various cases on this blog lately. Apparently that's his priority: to make the listener believe that he couldn't have done it, that she did it herself.
- He doesn't ask for help. Clearly that's not a priority to him.
- He is reluctant to give the address.
- Why does he refer to his nephew as "the kid", "a little boy"?
- "Doing CPR right now" -> he leaves out "I am". He doesn't commit to it. I don't believe he was doing CPR.

Autumn

Anonymous said...

My heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Lorenzo Miles.

Autumn

Alicia said...

Can someone please analyze @4:53?

I want to know if the guy is just interested in sex. Is that why he said the other girl was “reserved”? I would like a full analysis. I also noticed he seems to be self-oriented in his msgs. He also would not give me a direct answer to “do you get your son on weekends?” His response was “I see him a lot—it’s too complicated to get into. We’ll get into it when we get together.”

I am not interested if he is a narc.
Could someone please analyze.

Anonymous said...

OT: Amanda Eller

Anonymous, there's something intriguing about that case. Many people on social media think it was a hoax for money/book deal, etc. I'm not sure. There's probably nothing to it and people are just put on the wrong track by her and her boyfriend's "New Age"/spiritual-lingo. She says things like "This is just, like, a tiny little blip of my story and of my life and it serves a much, much bigger purpose". I did find her boyfriend's demeanor a bit strange when she was still lost. He didn't seem too worried and at one point started talking about his career plans. They also seem to really like to be in the spotlight of the media. Anyway, it's a good thing she survived and has such a positive attitude towards her ordeal. I'm now going to listen to the long press conference.

Autumn

LuciaD said...

I got choked up reading your lovely tribute to your friend and fellow Analyst. I remember Lorenzo from team analysis. I did not know his background , but I am glad to now. Thank you Peter, for sharing with us here. Godspeed, Lorenzo ❤️

Tania Cadogan said...

My condolences to his family and friends on the passing of a wonderful man.
I would have loved to read his autobiography as he had a wonderful life story to tell.
He will be greatly missed by all who knew him, he will though have left a legacy, 28 years of service which will have touched everyone he met, the good, the bad and the indifferent.
He will have changed the lives and the paths many may have chosen.

Thank you for your service Lorenzo Miles. xx

Olivia said...

What a beautiful testimony for your dear friend. May Lorenzo find rest in the arms of Our Savior and reward for upholding the principles of fair restraint and humble service to justice as he walked among us here on this fragile and flawed planet. Amen.

Imagrandma said...

May we all find solace in Lorenzo’s humble surface. How he never failed to hold himself upright through years of high intensity stress that would have bowed a lesser man, may have led him to drink or corruption in thought, deed, or principle.

Anonymous said...

God, why can't he just forgive me and break free from his evil father? I have just tried to get over him FOR GOOD and now am trying online dating and had 10 guys eating out of the palm of my hand in 10 minutes. I'm bored already with it.

I don't want any of them. Is he seriously happy without me? Why come and go into my life? He's getting divorced and didn't tell me. I suppose he's already found a new wife who is "acceptable" in his religion. Sorry I don't wear a friggin' burkha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why must I go through this insipid process called "dating"? I'm too old for it although my looks draw so many in. I'm too old for it. Damnit. I want to say to him "Remember how much we laughed? The way you always looked at me first when I walked into a room? Everytime. For so many years. The kiss. The first kiss. How is being away from each other better than that?" But I know for him, it is. It must be. And so all I can do is accept it...and wade through these redundant waves of grief, of numbness, of going through the motions, a puppet of life. We all become one. Don't we.

anon said...

I think what it was--he was the only man who ever brought me back down to earth, helped me keep my feet on the ground. I thought I brought him joy, balanced him out, made him feel alive. I guess he just wanted someone who already had their feet on the ground,
Why would he hook me back in, when he was, unbeknownst to me at the time, going through a separation from the woman who was so much better than me, treat me with kindness, he was there for me, and I still loved him, only to turn cold and cruelly discard me? The only explanation is that he was using me just to stroke his bruised ego as he went through his divorce that he kept hidden, deleting his wife when I friended him, speaking to me only through email, responding immediately to my messages. Just to stroke his own bruised ego. How tawdry of him. Middle-aged, and going through a divorce, he felt his pedestal leaning, all he wanted was to reassure himself that he could have me if he wanted. I am forced to realize that the goodness I saw in him was never there. And therefore, I never loved him.

Tania Cadogan said...

off topic

A man whose wife disappeared at sea during the couple's honeymoon was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday — two years after officials found him floating in a well-stocked lifeboat with $100,000 in stolen coins.

Lewis Bennett, 41, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in a Miami federal court and was sentenced to eight years behind bars, the maximum sentence allowed under the terms of his plea deal, WPTV reported.

Bennett's wife, Isabella Hellman, disappeared in the Bahamas in May 2017 during the couple's honeymoon. Her body has never been recovered and earlier this month a judge declared the 41-year-old presumed dead at sea.

Bennett, a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Australia, insisted he left Hellman on deck when he went to the boat's cabin to sleep. He told authorities he woke up when the craft hit something and found he was alone on the catamaran, which was taking on water.

The FBI has said an inspection found holes in the catamaran's hull were inflicted from the inside, and authorities also alleged hatches were opened in a deliberate attempt to sink the boat.

Investigators searched for Hellman's body for four days — but came up empty. Bennett was found alone in a lifeboat that was packed with provisions and $100,000 worth of stolen coins.

Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Scott Suskauer also ordered the FBI to give the keys to Hellman's condominium in Delray Beach to an attorney representing her parents so it can be sold, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The condo is valued at $130,000 and her bank accounts totaled an additional $41,117.

The judge also ordered $18,000 to be placed in a trust fund for the couple's daughter, Emelia. The child, who turns 3 in July, now lives with Bennett's parents in Scotland. The remaining money is slated to go toward paying down debts and defense attorney fees.

In January, Bennett apologized in court to Hellman's family for the "unimaginable pain" they have experienced.

“I have made poor decisions which compounded a tragedy of such magnitude that I pray no one else would ever have to experience it,” Bennett said.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/man-sentenced-wife-disappears-honeymoon-at-sea


It's not long enough

Mizzmarple said...

I agree, and grest points, Autumn.

Martina said...

Alicia,
you are hijacking an obituary threat, twice, because you want analysis on a short message from a potential date.
This is very inappropriate and violates all kinds of social norms and boundaries. It is disrespectful to the officer, it is disrespectful to the other people who left a message of condolence.
You equalize your little dating issue with the passing of an officer. You might have a huge issue with boundaries. You are also desperately misinformed if you think that an analysis can be done on this little text, that explains the person, and therefore helps you make life-changing decisions? On the opionion of strangers on the internet, from one little text?
So where to go from here?
I would be very beneficial to you if you developed more self-reliance and self-love. It does not take a whole lot to guess that your family of origin did not provide a safe haven for you to grow up, healing is possible, but never through validation from outside.
When you are confident in knowing who you are, you will be a better judge of character, you will stay away from unsafe situations, because you value yourself.
I wish you all the best, and remember, boundaries.

Jase said...

I am sorry I am late to respond to this posting. This is a lovely tribute and my thoughts and prayers are with his family.