September 10, 2004
*The Police
I'm a big fan of the police. I always had a higher-than-average amount of respect and empathy for them...then I became good friends with a few, and I really saw what it's like.
Policemen and women get a bum deal.
Firemen are beloved and revered. They save lives, they risk their own, and everyone loves them.
Policemen save lives and risk their own, and they have to be careful answering their own front door. Their personal vehicles get vandalized. People treat them with contempt.
When they pull someone over for speeding or not wearing a seatbelt, they may be verbally abused for "not having anything better to do"...or they may be killed by a 72-year-old driver.
Of course, when kids are drag-racing and one of them gets killed, people want to know why the police weren't there.
After 9/11, the whole country loved the NYPD. But a friend of mine who is in the NYPD responded to a complaint of kids throwing things off a Bronx building shortly after the WTC attacks. The mother, pissed off, told the officers to leave the kids alone and "go dig the dead cops out of the pile downtown."
Policemen are verbally abused, spat on, and expected to take all of it while maintaining a high degree of professionalism. They see the worst of society every day. They have nightmares about the things they witness. And we demand that they don't let any of it get to them.
So while you remember the victims of 9/11, including the members of the NYPD and Port Authority Police who died that day, please also take a moment to appreciate your local law enforcement.
Posted by Jennifer at September 10, 2004 01:12 PMTweet
Greetings,
As someone who works with Police Officers frequently, I have come to share your viewpoint. I wish everyone could spend one day in a cop's shoes, maybe then the Monday-morning quarterbacking would be a bit more realistic.
Instead shows like "CSI: Des Moines" have folks thinking cops can whip out a techo-gadget thingy and solve the case of a broken window in 5 minutes.
Posted by: Fubar at September 10, 2004 11:54 PMI always feel bad, because deep down I have a visceral terror of cops unless maybe I know them personally. I have no idea where it came from, since I never had a "run in" or took abuse from any, and this goes back as long as I can remember, to when I was a kid.
On a purely rational, intellectual level, I respect cops, and appreciate the crap they have to deal with. I just tense up almost any time I see Joe Random Cop.
It seems to go with an inate fear I have of authority figures in general, yet again, I don't see a reason to have such a fear. Very strange.
I can't stand the Police. Everytime I hear that song "Roxanne" I want to throw up!
Posted by: Haber at September 11, 2004 05:12 PMBlame John Kerry and the 60s mentality. To them the police were the Man. The phrase pigs came out of that era. Like Jack Nicholson said in A Few Good Men:
Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because, deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand at post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.
Jew