HEALTH & WELLNESS
‘Succisa Virescit’ and a day of hope
The Latin phrase “Succisa Virescit” that roughly
translates as “Cut down, it grows up strong again”
was chosen to convey the value and importance of
perseverance at Delbarton, the high school my son
currently attends. The phrase is also the ancient
motto to Monte Cassino, a celebrated monastery
about 80 miles southeast of present-day Rome,
CHERIE
where Saint Benedict wrote his Rule. This
CASTELLANO
venerable abbey, destroyed by the Lombards in
Cop2Cop
580, rebuilt by Abbot Petronaux and destroyed
again by the Saracens in 884, has a constant history
of destruction even up to our own time when it was obliterated
by the Allies in World War II.
Pronounced “Sue-CHEE-sa Vir-ESH-it,” I chose this motto as
my lead for this story because it also exemplifies an experience
I recently shared in at the North Bergen Police Department
through Cop 2 Cop. The perfect example of “Cut down, it grows
back strong again” was found in North Bergen Police Department’s Chief Robert Dowd, Lieutenant Arthur Dell and Officer
Alfredo Eschevarria, who invited a representative from Cop 2
Cop to participate in a life-changing event on May 15. In my 18
years of experience at Cop 2 Cop, I have never seen any event
like this done:
The North Bergen Police Department had the brilliant idea of
doing a training room dedication to honor fallen officers and
create training connected to their loss as a way to memorialize
them and emphasize the capacity for change as a result of their
sacrifice on National Police Memorial Day.
Honored in the ceremony were North Bergen Officers Romeo
Caino (EOW 1959, struck by a car during patrol), Joseph Peters
(EOW 1981, died in his patrol car by a malfunction of the vehicle
with carbon monoxide), and for me most remarkably, Albert
Cabrera, who died by suicide in 1991, shortly after being named
Police Officer of the Year. The training room dedication was to
acknowledge the families’ sacrifices and the service of the officers, and then to create a course/training that would
reflect/combat the tragedies that caused their deaths.
Chief Dowd explained to a packed room of more than 100
people that officer safety, equipment maintenance and suicide
prevention would all be taught in the room being dedicated in
honor of the fallen officers we recognized. Plaques with pictures
and prayers were placed on the wall, and families were asked to
receive the honors on behalf of their fallen officers.
The “back story” here is that although I do not want to offend
or disrupt the sanctity of the ultimate sacrifice in a line of duty
death memorial, to include Officer Cabrera in this dedication as
an officer who had done heroic acts of service during his life as
an officer and to recognize him amongst these other heroes was
probably one of the most humbling moments of my years serving officers through Cop 2 Cop. The way he died did not
preclude him from this dedication because the North Bergen
leaders who established this event are visionaries in their recognition. The stigma that still exists for officers who have died by
suicide emphasized the way they died more than the way they
lived and served as police officers.
We all have had to struggle with the awkward challenge of recognizing that mental illness, addictions or both are the reasons
why officers die by suicide, and that as an illness, our anger or
shame as a law enforcement community is unfair to everyone
involved.
My comments at this event not only acknowledged the magnitude of the dedication but also highlighted the need for all of
us to follow in using tragedy as a way to not just survive, but
thrive and learn and expand our skills. Cop 2 Cop will host our
first official QPR class in this newly dedicated training room on
July 21, and I asked if I could personally lead this effort. It’s not
because I am an instructor or Program Director; it is because
after years of very sad moments in the aftermath of more than
100 suicides, July 15 will be a day of moving forward and
learning in the name of Officer Cabrera.
My most profound moments of the day occurred as I stood in
the back of the room as the program unfolded: So many tears
were shed as the families honored were still struggling as though
the losses were yesterday, not 20 or even 50 years ago. Amidst it
all I was flanked by retired cops who wiped away tears with
facial expressions that indicated they too had experienced
tragedy during their careers but were lucky enough to still be
alive. A handsome articulate young man with eyes that looked
exactly like those in Officer Cabrera’s photos I saw ended up
being his nephew and an exact lookalike. Officer Cabrera’s sister
CONTINUED ON PAGE 88
www.njcopsmagazine.com
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JUNE 2015
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