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NEW JERSEY COPS
■
JANUARY 2015
The President’s Message
NEW JERSEY STATE
POLICEMEN’S BENEVOLENT
ASSOCIATION
EXECUTIVE BOARD
PATRICK COLLIGAN
State President
MARC KOVAR
Executive Vice-President
Mark Butler 1st Vice-President
Peter Andreyev 2nd Vice-President
Jerry Tolomeo 3rd Vice-President
Andy Haase 4th Vice-President
Henry Werner 5th Vice-President
Kenneth Burkert 6th Vice-President
Michael Pellegrino 7th Vice-President
Domenic Cappella 8th Vice-President
Mark Aurigemma 9th Vice-President
Michael Kaniuk 10th Vice-President
Manuel Corte 11th Vice-President
Mark Messinger 12th Vice-President
Wayne K. Hall Financial Secretary
George Miller Recording Secretary
John Monsees Treasurer
Eugene Dello Trustee
James Crilly Trustee
Keith Bennett Trustee
Richard Kott Trustee
Richard Brown Trustee
Bruce Chester Trustee
Margaret Hammond Trustee
Frederick Ludd Sergeant-at-Arms
Luke Sciallo Sergeant-at-Arms
Frank Cipully Sergeant-at-Arms
John Cernek Sergeant-at-Arms
Kevin Hibbitt Sergeant-at-Arms
Rich Geib Sergeant-at-Arms
Ed Carattini Jr. Sergeant-at-Arms
Michael Freeman Sergeant-at-Arms
Bryan Flannia Sergeant-at-Arms
Robert Ormezzano Sergeant-at-Arms
John Hulse photo
E
very officer’s worst fear: an ambush attack not only when you
would least expect it, but also when you are in the worst position
to return fire. Assassinated only for the uniform we all wear and
what it represents. Anybody sitting in a patrol car that night could have
been his victim. He had ties to Maryland, New Jersey and New York. Two
of New York’s Finest were laid to rest in the most incredible display of solidarity I have ever witnessed. If you went, you left incredibly humbled.
No photograph or video, no poet on earth could possibly even begin to
Patrick
capture the story of those days in New York.
Colligan
Suddenly, we are appreciated again. Why is it only when we die? How
do tremendous feats of bravery go unnoticed almost every day? We fill
busses with school supplies, give turkeys to the needy, bring children Christmas shopping,
coach our kids, donate our time and often give out of our own pocket to the victims we
meet. We truly support our troops; we usually are the troops. We routinely bring people
back from death. Just another day at the office for us. Why do those stories end up on page
4 of section 2?
When we are forced to take a life, what is so relevant about our salaries? Hundreds of
thousands of us go to work every day, we serve honorably and admirably and are rarely
noticed. Two now-famous tragedies out of 12 million arrests last year, and we are all
painted in a broad stroke of anti-police sentiment. Before the soil even settles on Detective
Ramos and Detective Liu’s graves, we will be back in the crosshairs. I guarantee it.
Unfortunately, there are very few “journalists” in the profession anymore. Today’s
reporters are often paid by the “click” and the amount of comments their web pages generate. Why do some stories stay at the top of a page all day? The answer simply lies in the
amount of comments and clicks a story gets. I hope that explains some of the racy
headlines lately. It has led to a disgraceful race to post a story and beat the competition.
If you want to beat the competition you don’t have much time to get the FULL story. No
time to waste on checking simple facts or getting some rebuttal. Add a salacious headline,
post the story and hope that the public clicks away. Somehow, a five-second search on
Data Universe to find our salaries constitutes “research.” What do they do when the action
slows down? Revive the clicking with an absolutely riveting “What We Know, What We
Don’t Know” story three days later. Awesome investigative journalism! Most of the true
professionals are gone from the business. We are left with very underpaid, very
overanxious and inexperienced journalism students with diplomas still wet with the ink
that printed them. I would not expect it to get better anytime soon.
I’ve said it to the press and I’ve said it to hundreds of you. Be proud of what you do every
day. Hold your head high. This too shall pass. Few people have the guts to do our job. It’s
easy to hide behind an anonymous screen name all day and spew bitterness for what we
represent every time there is a story about our co-workers or our profession. It doesn’t take
much skill for a “journalist” to take a non-story and try and spin it for a few extra “clicks”
of someone’s mouse. Know without any question it is not the mainstream feeling of the
citizens we serve.
Please stay safe. d