m
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Poetry in motion
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Gary Spath had been cleared to leave the hospital following the
incident that led to the fatal shooting of Phillip Pannell. So fellow Teaneck
police officer and now retired Local 215 member Phil Lavigne had made
sure his best friend, who came to his house for dinner break every night
they were on duty together, was safe at home.
It was after midnight when Lavigne finally came home. His wife and
kids were asleep. His son, Michael, who is about to join the Teaneck PD, was
just 11 days old. Spath and Officer Wayne Blanco, who also responded to
the call, would go on leave as department policy required. Lavigne was
about to join with the rest of the force sleeping in the Teaneck Fire House
so officers could be transported immediately to respond if the anticipated
riots broke out.
“It was very intense,” Lavigne
would
describe of the next few
“I was trying to take in
months in Teaneck. “I went on a
what had just taken call and all the windows of my
car were broken out and
place, how everything police
all my stuff was stolen. We had to
was about to change,” have an additional car go to each
call just to sit outside and watch
Lavigne recalled. “I was the car of the responding officer.”
But that night of April 10, 1990,
thinking it is amazing Lavigne
just wanted to decomhow it happens in the press. So he sat on his front
porch with his dog and a couple
blink of an eye.”
of cold ones.
“I was trying to take in what
Phil Lavigne
had just taken place, how everything was about to change,” Lavigne recalled. “I was thinking it is amazing
how it happens in the blink of an eye.”
By morning, Lavigne had written a poem titled, “The Blink of an Eye.” He
showed it to a friend who wasn’t a police officer. Then he showed it to
Spath.
“The Blink of an Eye” has been circulated to police departments across
the country since 1990. When you read it in here, you will see why. When
Fair Lawn Police Officer Mary Any Collura was killed in the line of duty in
2003, Lavigne sent it to the police department where it now hangs on the
wall. In the fall 2014, he sent it to the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department
in hopes that Officer Darren Wilson might read it and feel the way you are
feeling right now having just read this brilliant prose.
“Sometimes, you get a response; sometimes you don’t” Lavigne noted.
Response is not needed to confirm how much of a difference “The Blink of
an Eye” has made. Spath can attest to that, and thus he requested that it be
displayed in this report.
And more than 25 years later, Spath and Lavigne want all law enforcement officers to feel the power of “The Blink of an Eye.”
“It gives you hope,” Lavigne hopes. “When other cops read it, they can
realize, ‘You made it through; we can make it through, too.’”
The Blink of an Eye
■ BY SERGEANT PHIL LAVIGNE
TEANECK POLICE OFFICER, TEANECK LOCAL 215
The Blink of an eye
Much faster than light
The blink of an eye
The decision of life
How quickly it travels
How fast it must be
To make that decision
Either you or me.
There’s no time for thinking
It’s all in high gear
There’s no time for anger
There’s no time for fear
In the blink of an eye
It happens that quick
You never expect it
It’s over - that’s it.
They train you for combat
And so, so much more
And with shield and gun
You head out to war
You protect and you serve
And you work to your best
And hope you never enter the enemy’s nest.
But should you do so
And the ambush begins
The guns must be drawn
And the blue shirts must win.
In the blink of an eye
The decision is made
To go home at night
Or be placed in the grave.
It will be judged by many
Who have never been there,
For they don’t understand the burden
we bear.
They’ll pick and they’ll question
Just how this was done.
In the blink of an eye
They used their gun.
I’ll tell you my brothers and sisters
Just blink your eyes
It takes just that long
To be dead or alive.
Should you happen to step
In the enemy’s nest
Don’t blink your eyes
Just let God do the rest.
www.njcopsmagazine.com
■
FEBRUARY 2016
31