Tag: law enforcement

U. S. Police & Fire Championships in San Diego!

The 2025 United States Police & Fire Championships are now underway in and around San Diego!

As their website explains: The USPFC is an Olympic-style competition for athletes representing Law Enforcement, Firefighters, and officers from Corrections, Probation, U.S. Customs and Border Protection from across the country.

There are 38 different sports in which participants can compete. There’s everything from tennis to soccer to bowling to cornhole, and, as I discovered this afternoon, basketball!

Walking through Balboa Park, I noticed spirited basketball play inside the Municipal Gymnasium. The athletes I observed are skilled and very serious about winning!

To learn more about the United States Police & Fire Championships and the various sports being played in venues around San Diego, check out this webpage.

…

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Remnants of the old San Diego Sheriff’s Museum.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Museum once made its home in Old Town. Sadly, COVID-19 adversely affected its operation, and the museum closed its doors in 2020. Several times I had walked past the museum when it was still open, intending to pay a visit one day. I missed my opportunity.

Should you walk past the old location today (just south of the El Campo Santo cemetery on San Diego Avenue) you’ll find a few remnants of the San Diego Sheriff’s Museum still visible. I took these photographs from the sidewalk a couple weekends ago.

Fortunately, the San Diego Sheriff’s Museum maintains on online presence! Check out a virtual exhibit and more information on their website by clicking here.

The museum is working to find a new physical location. Their search for a new home is described here. If you’d like to help them out, you can provide a donation.

By the way, did you know there’s a San Diego Police Museum full of amazing exhibits? I visited it a couple years ago and posted photographs and descriptions here!

…

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!

A patriotic Massing of the Colors in San Diego.

The 68th Annual Massing of the Colors and Service of Remembrance was held today in San Diego’s Balboa Park. About 40 color guards from around San Diego converged on the Spreckels Organ Pavilion for the patriotic spectacle.

The Massing of the Colors is presented each year by the San Diego Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars, a patriotic organization that was founded in 1926. Their motto is: It Is Nobler To Serve Than To Be Served.

MOWW promotes Youth Leadership, recognizes Law Enforcement and Fire & Rescue, and promotes love of Country and Flag.

As speaker Lt. Col. David J. Worley explained, at bottom it’s all about upholding the United States Constitution, which was designed to provide Liberty for all Americans. (Of course, this includes Freedom of Speech. As a writer, that’s very important to me.)

The Parade of Colors was followed by an Invocation by Kathleen Winchester, honoring those who’ve sacrificed for our country. Next came the Pledge of Allegiance, and the singing of the National Anthem and God Bless America, led by opera singer Laura Bueno.

Laksita Nandakumar in the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Mira Mesa High School then read My Name is Old Glory. You can read it, too, here.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Santa Claus, CHiPs and toys for kids!

What was Santa Claus doing in San Diego this morning? Good question!

As I waited at the Fashion Valley Transit Center for a bus, I spied Santa on the side of a box truck in the mall parking lot. So of course I had to walk over and investigate!

Turns out I had discovered a wonderful charity.

CHiPs for Kids sponsors an annual holiday season toy drive by the California Highway Patrol. The toy drive typically begins in mid-November and runs through mid-December, just in time for Christmas.

CHP area offices around California are where the unwrapped and unused toys are collected. The donated toys are distributed to families who are in need.

Santa on the side of a truck and the promised delivery of holiday cheer!

In late April!

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Real superheroes fight human trafficking!

Wearing a superhero costume is fun. But would you like to become a genuine superhero?

Help spread the word about human trafficking and join the effort to end it!

I met several superheroes today at Comic-Con who are doing just that. They are informing people that human trafficking is a serious problem in San Diego.

What is human trafficking? The SAFE San Diego website explains: Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery where perpetrators profit from the sexual exploitation and/or forced labor of men, women and children. It is a violation of basic human rights, and it is also a crime as defined by U.S. federal law and California state law. Furthermore, San Diego was identified by the FBI as of the top 13 high intensity child prostitution areas.

This same website explains how to identify possible human trafficking and what you should do if you spot it. It’s good to be informed, because you never know.

Please visit the SAFE San Diego website and spend a minute or two learning what you can. And spread the word! You’ll become a real superhero!

You may end up saving someone’s life.

If you expand the following image, you should be able to read it…

…

I’m covering Comic-Con again this year. To see all my current and past blog posts concerning Comic-Con, click here and scroll down!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

A visit to the San Diego Police Museum.

There’s a fascinating museum in San Diego that seemingly few know about. Occupying a modest, easily missed building near the intersection of El Cajon Boulevard and College Avenue, the San Diego Police Museum is packed wall-to-wall with displays that lovers of history shouldn’t miss!

I visited the museum for my very first time a while ago and was amazed at the quality and variety of exhibits.

Photographs, documents, equipment and artifacts trace the earliest days of the San Diego Police Department right up to the present.

There’s a mid-20th century police Communication Center. There’s a simulated jail cell, and a real police motorcycle. There are different uniforms from the past.

There are old newspapers with headlines about crime in San Diego. There are memories of past police chiefs. There is standard law enforcement gear dating back to the 1800s, and even a Tommy Gun, like those that were once used by gangsters.

There are displays concerning horse mounted officers, bike teams that were established in the early 1920s, and four-legged K-9 officers. There’s recognition of how diversity has played a more and more important role in the San Diego Police Department through the years.

There are old police badges and hundreds of patches. There are even artifacts from charity football COP’er Bowls and sports trophies won by officer athletes and bodybuilders.

And there are medals won by police heroes. They ran toward danger in the service of others.

And covering one wall: a memorial to fallen officers.

For more details about the museum, including its hours of operation, check out the SDPD Museum website.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Balboa Park markers for police who died in combat.

Two markers in Balboa Park, not far from the entrance to the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center, remember and honor members of the San Diego Police Department who died in combat.

I knew nothing about these markers until I visited the San Diego Police Museum recently. A display on one wall included an old photograph and an explanation of the older marker and its plaque’s history.

Veterans War Museum Balboa Park

In 1953, a stone marker was dedicated to members of the San Diego Police Department who died in combat. Located at the base of a flag pole at the entrance to the San Diego Zoo, the marker eventually became overgrown and forgotten. The monument was relocated to the Balboa Park Veterans Museum. On May 14, 2014, it was rededicated. The master of ceremonies was former SDPD officer, now Brigadier General Paul K. Lebidine, USMC.

Other monuments in and around San Diego memorialize fallen law enforcement officers.

Those monuments that I’ve observed and photographed can be found here and here and here.

…

Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Chula Vista remembers When Heroes Fall.

A memorial to fallen San Diego County law enforcement officers stands across an outdoor plaza at the City of Chula Vista Police Department.

When Heroes Fall…We Remember was created by Chula Vista artist Mark Martensen in 2004. A central bronze sculpture depicts two bowed officers facing a curved wall.

Beneath fluttering flags, the black marble wall is engraved with the names of heroes from different law enforcement agencies throughout the San Diego region who’ve given their lives in the line of duty.

The moving memorial is the work of the San Diego County Law Enforcement Memorial Foundation.

If you know more about the creation and history of this particular memorial, please leave a comment.

…

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

Flowers and gratitude for two fallen officers.

Flowers and messages of condolence and gratitude now surround the memorial for fallen officers by the downtown headquarters of the San Diego Police Department.

These heartfelt expressions were placed at the memorial by residents of San Diego after the tragic deaths of two married detectives in a wrong way car collision last Friday. Detectives Ryan Park and Jamie Huntley-Park attended the police academy together, and both were promoted to detective at the same time. A fund for their families has been set up here.

I was walking down Broadway early this morning to check out a mural in East Village when I saw the flowers. I had to stop and read one large message which you can see in my final photograph.

I’m certain many in San Diego share the same feelings.

…

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!

A video about Old Town’s Favorite Horse.

Painting of Dick Miller riding Codi in front of the Casa de Estudillo in Old Town San Diego, by artist Miguel Chavez. Photo courtesy Richard Miller.

I’ve been informed there’s a Ken Kramer “About San Diego” video on YouTube that concerns Codi, Old Town’s Favorite Horse!

You can watch the short video here.

To see several old photographs of Codi, and learn more about a horse that many in San Diego loved, click here!

…

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!