Police officer of the occult

Put the chicken head down and come out with your hands up! From The Record of West Paterson, N.J.:

Police Officer Paul Long parked his car next to the old cemetery behind the Dutch Reformed Church in Belleville, took a look around and knew instinctively that a spell had been cast. Where one might see nothing but scattered litter on a city sidewalk, he saw the sacrificial remnants of a pagan "ritual cleansing," carefully concealed in a ShopRite grocery bag. At the foot of the stone wall that surrounds the 1697 burial ground, Long cut open the bag to find a dead chicken and turtle. Heads chopped off. Polaroids, candles and a T-shirt were scattered nearby. All signs of a Santeria or Palo Mayumbe ritual. Whatever it was, Officer Voodoo was on the case.

Long is a 21-year Belleville police veteran who has cultivated a longtime interest in the occult into an expertise. He is one of the foremost experts on the occult, and is often invited to conduct seminars at police academies around the state. He recently educated police officials at the Bergen County Police Academy about grave robbings, Santeria, Palo Mayumbe, black magic and white magic.

"The class gives everyone an understanding of these religions and takes the edge off the unknown," Long explains.

Long says that people are often scared of pagan religions, which are not widely accepted in Judeo-Christian society and usually involve rituals and other untraditional forms of worship. "Anytime you see anything ritualistic, you think it's satanic," he says. "What I'm trying to do is open their minds."

This sounds like New Jersey's version of the X-Files.