Safe words from Dallas and Baton Rouge to get us through these tough times
No liturgy, no story about heroes, not even a John Lennon song can convey emphatically enough the thoughts rushing through my mind.
So here is my message simple and straight forward: Be safe. Remember, we’ re the good guys. Don’ t hesitate to do your job and keep doing the right thing. God bless you. The message is simple, straight forward and more important than ever because it’ s pretty scary out there right now. We have a big target on our backs, and I’ ll be honest with you: Every morning, I get up and look online right away to make sure that there was no attack or ambush last night, and that another law enforcement officer wasn’ t killed.
But don’ t let that make you forget that we’ re the good guys. Just when I was about to lose sight of that, I arrived in Dallas to attend the funerals of the four Dallas Police Department Officers and the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Officer murdered in the July 7 attacks, the single biggest tragedy for law enforcement since 9-11. When we were on the way there, I was thinking they were going to hate us, that there was no way they would give peace a chance.
When we arrived, I didn’ t want to tell people who we are and what we did. But they were so appreciative that we came all that way. We literally had people hugging us, saying,“ Please don’ t think we’ re like this.”
Never was that more apparent than one morning we are having breakfast and some local residents found out we were cops. They bought our breakfast. We asked the server who it was, and she said the people just did it and walked out; they didn’ t want us to thank them, they just wanted to thank us.
And that was only part of what we experienced in Dallas that reminded me why we’ re the good guys. I’ m sure most of the officers who came to honor our brothers lost in the line of duty saw what happened and just said,“ I’ m going.” Personally, I felt I had to be there as a law enforcement officer and as a leader of one of the largest police unions in the U. S.
I’ m sure John Hulse and Andy Haase from the NJ State PBA felt the same way, and that is why they drove 25 hours straight with our new trailer to get down there to support the Dallas Police Department and the officers who came from around the world. Nobody does that better than John Hulse, who has been doing it since 9-11. Probably long before that.
By our second and third day in Dallas, hundreds of officers from all different states and all different agencies were coming up to our trailer, and the one the Port Authority PBA brought, wanting to donate money, wanting to pitch in any way they could. On our last night there, you might have heard that we threw a barbecue for more than 800 Dallas officers and their families. We wanted to let them forget about their pain and sorrow for a few hours.
Executive Vice-President Marc Kovar with the NJ State PBA delegation in front of the Dallas Police Department from left: Meg Hammond, Hank Werner, Marc Kovar, Gene Dello and Pete Andreyev.
When getting everything together for this party, another unexpected gesture again reminded us we are the good guys. When we went to Costco to shop for the barbecue, some of the managers heard about who we are and came out to give us a bunch of gift certificates. So it was a night of eating hamburgers and hot dogs and exchanging police department patches and hugs. It was a lot of emotion, but it made you feel so good about yourself.
Then came Sunday morning and changed the emotion in a way I could have never imagined. We were in the airport, getting ready to board the plan to come home when we heard about the tragedy in Baton Rouge.
I was ready to go to Louisiana, but the funerals there were scheduled for the same time as the National Association of Police Organizations( NAPO) National Conference in Florida. As an elected official and leader of that organization, I through it was my responsibility to represent you there. I am grateful to John and Andy for turning right around and driving to Baton Rouge, and for Berkeley Heights Local 144 State Delegate Pat Moran and Vernon Township Local 285 State Delegate Keith Curry for being in Louisiana.
When we were at the NAPO Conference, we spent most of the time talking about Dallas and Baton Rouge. And Milwaukee. And San Diego. And Kansas City. And it just keeps happening. I’ m sure you know by now that we’ ve had more officers killed by gunfire this year than in any time in recent memory.
The scary part, though, is that nobody has a real answer to stop it. I wish I knew who these people are who are out there protesting law enforcement. Why aren’ t they working? Who are these people who get the idea in their heads that all law enforcement is bad and want to kill a bunch of cops? Who are these home-grown terrorists?
So with these people roaming the streets, I know I don’ t have to tell you to be safe. But I will tell you this again: Remember, you are the good guys. d www. njcopsmagazine. com ■ AUGUST 2016 7