Sammy and Me

It has been a tough month for the police.  Apparently protecting the public from criminals is only appropriate when the criminals are of the proper race these days, and I don't think the training includes "Do this if this perp is white, this if Asian, this if black ...", although maybe it should.

All of the drama has made me think of the one police officer that I did know well.  Sam was a couple years older than I, but was a good friend of mine in high school, played football, dreamed his dreams, all that.  By the time he became family (I married his sister), he was already a sergeant on the force with which he would spend his whole career.

I know you're always worried when there's a cop in the family, but somehow we didn't all have the same kind of fears that others do.  I mean, I'm sure that his wife was as fearful and worried as most officers' wives are, but I think part of our relative peace with his job was the way it was for him.  Sam took police work as his life's profession; committed to being good at it and to rising within the force, sure, but he was at peace outside the force.

The inner strength he showed, I believe, served to let his family know that he had command of the professional risks of his chosen life.  If it only calmed his family a little, I certainly knew that my friend and brother-in-law had things in order and would have a long career.

And he did.  He spent some forty years on the job, eventually rising to run the force as the town's Director of Public Safety (they didn't have a "chief", per se, but he was it) for many years, a jurisdiction of over 100 square miles.  What never changed from patrolman to top cop was the immense seriousness with which he took his job, and the ability to set it aside when outside of it.

Sam was, let's say, not a fan of criminals and amoral behavior.  As time went on, and he came to know the "type" really well, his determination to protect the law-abiding public from the contemptible criminal element -- the Michael Browns and other thieves and assailants -- hardened.  This only made him a better cop, committed to protection and service.

So over the last month, I have thought a lot about Sam, and how he would say that there is no moral equivalence at all between the criminal and the police, and he would be right -- in the Ferguson case and beyond.  He would say it himself, except that only a few years after hanging up his badge, after a long and distinguished career, cancer robbed him of the well-deserved retirement he deserved to spend with his wife and the rest of our family.

When I think about the cops, I think about professionalism, self-sacrifice and commitment to the public.  I think those things because of the example shown in my family and a friend I miss today.

I will not take the trashing of our nation's police lightly.  Thanks for your service, Sam.  In coelo quies est.

Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton