Coffee with a Cop Day
There is no getting around it, the police in a number of communities across the US have been very controversial over the years. There have been some very high-profile cases of brutality, leading even to the deaths of citizens who were either completely innocent of crimes or who were suspected but not convicted of relatively trivial offenses. These incidents are real and outrageous.
But they do not tell the whole story of who the police are in this country.
I personally got to know many of the police officers in the medium sized city where I got my first job as a newspaper reporter in 2006. Cops and courts were my beat. There were complaints from time to time about the police. But there was nothing like the brutality other cities were experiencing. There were some scandals: one detective failed to solve a homicide he was assigned to investigate, probably because he was having an affair with the woman who turned out to be the murderer. Oops, to put it mildly. The case was solved twenty years later by a new set of detectives.
So, they weren’t perfect. They made mistakes.
But there were also many, a majority I’d say, who were exactly the kind of cops you would want on the police force in your town. They did their jobs, they were kind and concerned about the people they dealt with, even when it was not appreciated, and they occasionally were honest-to-god heroic.
One patrolman was known for providing assistance to needy folks when he came across them, digging in his own pockets for money for new shoes or a warm coat for someone who was shivering and without resources on a cold winter day. He also pulled a man from a burning car, saving his life. He was a strong swimmer and one day when out with his wife and kids he jumped into a fast-moving river, fully clothed, to rescue a man who was drowning. Having pulled the man to safety, he made sure the guy was OK, then he rejoined his family and went on home. And said nothing to anyone about it. But his wife was proud of him, and she whispered the details of the incident to his commanding officer, and he was publicly recognized.
So, we’d suggest having a cup of coffee with all of the officers who do a very tough job well and with compassion and courage might be a small thing, but a good thing to do nevertheless.