Words of the wives
The wives of North Brunswick Local 160 members created signs of solidarity at the North Brunswick Police Station on Oct. 25. Pictured: Marybeth DeLaCruz,
Jennifer Passafiume, Lindsey Timinaris, Denise Uzunis, JoAnne Powell, Meredith Obando, Jaclyn Vitelli, Rachel Pormilli, Chrissy Vallese, Amanda Hansen, Helena
Gaither, Rebecca Brandt, Emma Vingara, Wendy Hanrahan, Debra Cumiskey, Brenda Carroll, Nicole Hanrahan, Jacqueline Falcone, Bernadette Lovas, Lynn Heuer,
Melinda Zier, Michele Kikelhan, Erika Cox and Bianca Badaway.
North Brunswick Local 160 spouses get the picture in support of their husbands
n BY JENNIFER TRATTLER
n PHOTO BY JASON ZIER
Turn on the television and anti-cop rhetoric booms from the
speakers. Listen to the radio to find out another law enforcement officer was targeted simply for doing his job. Search the
Internet and anti-police rants flood the screen.
It’s not a peaceful time to be an officer and it’s definitely not
an easy time to be an officer’s wife.
When a campaign kicked off on the National Police Wives
Association Facebook page showing the better halves of law
enforcement officers from Texas to Alabama to North Carolina
publicly standing up and standing behind “the thin blue line”
in group photos with messages of support, North Brunswick’s
Wendy Hanrahan was inspired.
Hanrahan, married to North Brunswick Local 160 member
Ernie Hanrahan, reached out to her inner circle of friends who
are also wives of cops to begin an advanced game of telephone.
Hanrahan called Rebecca Brandt (married to Lieutenant
Michael Brandt) who called Debbie Cumiskey (married to Local
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NOVEMBER 2015
160 member Colin Cumiskey) and by the time the ladies were
done, 35 women expressed interest in posing with signs in a
photograph.
“When you wake up in the morning and turn on the news
and see people hating your husband and groups of people that
want to do bodily harm, you lose sleep. It’s an awful thing,”
explained Hanrahan. “We wanted to show solidarity; to show
them even if no one else likes them they mean everything to
us.”
On Oct. 25, the majority of the women showed up at the
North Brunswick Police Station with handmade signs painted
with slogans such as, “I sleep alone so you can sleep safe” or
“Something happens to one of us, it’s felt by all of us” and surprised the officers with their encouraging words.
Bernadette Lovas held her handmade sign, “St. Michael the
Archangel Guide and Protect Him” in support of her husband
North Brunswick Local 160 President William Lovas.
“My wife is traditional Roman Catholic and for her to hold up
the St. Michaels sign, that made perfect sense to me,” admitted
Lovas. “I’m very appreciative and I couldn’t be more proud of