Sunday, August 5, 2007

Good Cop Died Young

Note: The following blog was written on May 12, 2005


A local popular cop Sgt. Gerald Vick was shot and
killed while on duty in May 6. 2005. I've enclosed a
newspaper report of his life history at the end of
this msg.

He had saved at least 3 lives plus numerous good deeds
beyond his call of duty to help young delinquents and
prostitutes return to normal life.

My question is, why a good fellow with so many good
karma credits died at the young age of 41? Here is
his 4P:

year: gui-mao (water-wood)
month: geng-shen (metal-metal)
day: ding-you (fire- metal)
hour: xin-hai (metal-water)

current year luck: yi-you (wood-metal)
current 10 year luck: bing-chen (fire-earth)

10 Year lucks:
1968 ji-wei
1978 wu-wu
1988 ding-si
1998 bing-chen
2008 yi-mao
2018 jia-yin

This is a weak ding-fire DM with too much wealth
(metal) and being attacked by guan-sha (water).
Fortunately, pian-yin mao wood converts water into
energy source for ding fire (water produce wood, wood
produce fire) instead of extinguishing ding fire. So
wood is the favorable element or useful god for this
chart.

However, this is a weak favorable element. It has no
back up when being clashed.

Currently DM is in bing-shen 10 year luck. Bing-fire
was tied up with xin metal in hour pillar (can't
transform to water). Chen earth combines with you
metal at day branch to form metal.

Annual luck is yi-you. Yi wood combines with month
stem geng metal to form metal (so more wealth to drain
ding fire). Annual you metal clashes away mao wood,
the only favorable element of the whole chart. Then
suddenly, all the water rushes to attack DM instead of
producing wood. THIS IS THE KEY TO HIS DEATH.

Let's see the 4P of the day when he died:

year: yi-you (wood-metal)
month: xin-si (metal-fire)
day: geng-yin (metal-wood)
hour: ding-chou (fire-earth)

This is a very strong metal day. Metal is the
unfavorable element of the DM. If you look at the
branches of DM's 4P chart, this chart and 10 year
luck, you will see all the 4 branches are either
clashed or combined away. When all 4 branches of a
chart are shaken, death is normally the case.

If Sgt. Vick had made it through this 10 year luck,
the next 20 years are all wood lucks-- his favorable
element. Life is not fair.

There are also Feng Shui aspects in this case, but
this msg will get too long. I save it for my classes.

The following report is from www.startribune.com,
about the heroic life of Sgt. Vick.

==================================================

A life cut short was rich in humor, heroics and quiet
service to others
Curt Brown, Star Tribune
May 12, 2005 VICK0512.PROFILE


Lillie Weldon, for one, is glad Sgt. Gerald Vick left
his job as a prison guard 15 years ago to become a St.
Paul police officer. He simply made more of a
difference on the front lines of law enforcement than
at the other end, Weldon said.

Weldon, 73, was among more than a thousand mourners
who turned out for Vick's funeral Wednesday. While
others remembered his sense of humor, childhood antics
and police heroics, she recalled how Vick turned
around her grandson.

Weldon lives behind the now-defunct Badger Lounge, a
notorious joint on University Avenue. While working a
robbery case a few years ago, Vick persuaded Joseph
Weldon to leave the world of juvenile delinquency
behind.

"Sgt. Vick called him up and kept talking to him,
telling him he could do better and didn't have to be
living like this," Weldon said. "My grandson is now at
Fisk University in Tennessee, thanks to Sergeant Vick,
who was such a nice, respectful man."

Gerald Vick a North St. Paul native, never
second-guessed his career change from guard at the
maximum-security Oak Park Heights prison to police
officer.

"I think he was driven to be a cop, like a calling,"
said Sgt. Joe Flaherty, who was Vick's training
officer when he was hired in 1989. "You could tell
right away that Jerry had incredible talent.

He had this sixth sense."

Vick's two years as a prison guard in the 1980s helped
shape the decorated police officer he would become.

"His unassuming personality served us well, and he
would often give our inmates the benefit of the
doubt," Deputy State Corrections Commissioner Dennis
Benson said. "There's no question that a little time
at the other end of the system really gives you
insights into becoming a better and more effective
police officer."

His early years Vick grew up as the youngest of four
kids, making him a bit spoiled, family members say.
They recalled this week how he would often urge his
mother, Margaret, to give him some change to buy
treats at a local store.

When she resisted, he would lift her up until her head
hit the ceiling and spin her around until she coughed
up a buck.

"He was exuberant about life and all it had to offer,"
said the Rev. Mona Anderson, who eulogized Vick after
five days of listening to family stories.

Among the tales swapped this week were how Vick earned
his dimple wrestling with the family's wiener dog and
how he once built a parachute out of garbage bags to
fly out off a barn loft. The Halloween he raided his
mother's closet and took a tight-fitting dress, as
well as a couple of apples, has become family lore.

Vick's babysitting career coincided with an
all-conference football career at North St. Paul High
School. He would stroll through the Maplewood Mall
carrying his baby niece, Crystal, hoping his tender
side would attract girls.

Vick married his wife, Connie, during his stint as a
prison guard.

When friends later teased her about her husband's
undercover work arresting prostitutes, she would often
quip: "I didn't marry a cop. I married a prison
guard."

Despite his long hours, Vick was a regular at his
14-year-old son Clayton's hockey games and 11-year-old
Amanda's soccer and softball games in Afton.

Police heroics It didn't take long for Vick to start
drawing praise after joining the St. Paul police
force. In 1990, he crawled through thick smoke and
found a 15-month-old girl unconscious, handing her out
of a window and going on to search for more victims.
He won a Medal of Valor for that.

In 1995, he and his partner, Matthew Toupal, beat the
paramedics to a call from a non-English-speaking woman
giving birth on the East Side. The baby's umbilical
cord was wrapped its neck. Vick's calm demeanor was
credited for saving a new life.

Vick confronted an armed robber in 1997 in a
stairwell. When the suspect raised a silver handgun
from his waistband, Vick shot and killed him. When he
was given another Medal of Valor for his actions, he
politely requested no ceremony or publicity about the
honor.

Three months later, Vick and Toupal persuaded a
delusional man to go to the hospital rather than jump
off the Kellogg Boulevard bridge.

Last year, Vick was credited with foiling a series of
more than 50 bar robberies. When the Frontier Bar was
hit on Front Street, he guessed the bandit would head
north. He was right, and the suspect -- who was
carrying a .357 Magnum revolver -- was apprehended
after a foot chase.

Fighting prostitution
For the past few years, Vick had led an uncover team
that tried to reduce prostitution on city streets as
well as consensual gay sex going in Crosby Park along
the Mississippi River.

Many of the women he had arrested were at the funeral,
recounting through tears how he had treated them with
respect, and how much he'll be missed.

Not all the women were grateful, though, according to
Therese Skarda, deputy of the city attorney's criminal
division. When one prostitute vowed that Vick would
never arrest her again, he returned to headquarters,
borrowed a bicycle, donned a wig and made the arrest.
Another time, Vick arrested a john who rode his bike
from Minneapolis to buy sex from an undercover decoy.
When Vick was placing the suspect in the squad car,
the handcuffed man asked Vick to lock up his bike for
him.

"Sure," Vick said, laughing. "This is a first."

Many times, Vick would convince the women mired in
prostitution that they deserved a better life and give
them some supportive words instead of a trip to jail.

"He called me last week and said: 'You're going to be
mad at me,'" Skarda said. "He decided not to book
someone because she'd be better off out of jail. I
always trusted his discretion. He never stopped
balancing the right and wrong."

Staff writers Her鏮 M嫫quez Estrada and
Paul Gustafson contributed to this report.


Ken Lai
http://www.kenlaifengshui.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10429370@N05/