Feature Piece
"Medicine For The Spirit" California Law Enforcement's Wish Upon A Star	The California Law Enforcement’s Wish Upon A Star Organization commissioned Rudy to create an original piece of work reflective of the organization’s mission and that is to grant wishes of children afflicted with high-risk and terminal illnesses. Rudy created the piece titled, “Medicine For The Spirit” Twenty-five Limited Edition Prints were created from the original painting. Each print comes framed, matted and ready to hang. Each print is also signed and numbered by Rudy and comes with a certificate of authenticity. The prints are utilized to raise funds for the Wish Organization. The purchase of this artwork work is completely tax deductible and makes for a great collectable and investment, but most of all, the funds go to granting wishes for kids. If you are interested in purchasing one of these prints, contact the California Law Enforcement’s Wish Upon A Star organization at 559 733-7753 and for more info on the organization go to wishuponastar .org
	Ryan at Motor School.
The Big Picture In the early 90’s, while working as a Field Training Officer for the Visalia Police Department, I was assigned a newbie by the name of Ryan Bernasconi. The young man came with a reputation of cockiness and I was assigned to train him and put a leash on the cocky attitude. I remember his first night of training with me. Much of the early evening was spent orientating Ryan on endless amounts of policy and procedure. Various calls for service were handled but nothing to brag about. As we approached the late evening, we were called to a fight outside an apartment complex just off of Demaree and 198. We landed and found a group of men trying to control an obvious drunk who was creating the majority of the problem. Ryan obtained the necessary info and determined that the group of men were from out of town and had crashed a party in our fine city. I asked Ryan what he thought his course of action should be. He told me we should arrest the drunk and break up the party. I told Ryan not to lose sight of "The Big Picture" and that we were approaching prime mayhem time and we didn’t want to be stuck in booking with a drunk when the blood started to flow. I suggested we have the group from out of town load their drunken friend in their car and leave our fine city for the night. All parties agreed this would be carried out and we cleared the call. We got to the corner of 198 and Demaree and while stopped to turn right, the car load of out-of-towners stopped to our left. The drunk we had just given a break was in the front passenger side of the car. The drunk pulled his upper body out of the passenger window area and leaned towards our patrol car, flipping us the biggest bird possible and yelled words that just darn-right hurt my feelings. I jumped out of my passenger side door and was on this guy in half a second. I pulled the drunk through the window and gently placed him on the hood of our patrol car. In a split second, he was handcuffed and placed in the rear of our patrol car. The others in the car decided it was time to leave our fine city. Once I was in the patrol car I told Ryan to head to the jail. Ryan, somewhat in shock, said he felt like we just pulled off a kidnapping and then with a smirk, he uttered the words “so much for The Big Picture”. We laughed all the way to jail and thus the beginning of a lengthy and meaningful friendship. On May 9, 2006, we lost Ryan from complications of cancer. Ryan Bernasconi, Rest In Peace I will always miss you my Brother. Rudy	Ryan doing what he loved. VPD SWAT Rudy Vargas Illustration Copyright 1999-2010