Real Life Heroes

I don't usually write blog posts more than a couple of days ahead of time, but because I was going to be in MN for three weeks--and because I don't have any internet access while I'm up there unless I go to the library--I wrote a bunch of posts ahead of time. I also wrote posts while I was in MN as a topic occurred to me. This was written on April 19th, the night the younger of the two Boston Marathon bombers was captured.

As a news junkie, I've been glued to the television set since late last night. I was just about to go to bed on Thursday night when I saw a Breaking News alert come on CNN. I stayed up watching events unfold until 4:30 in the morning. I know that was pretty stupid, but every time I thought about going to bed, something new would happen.

 

I heard about the firefight between the suspects and the officers and special agents working the case. The last estimate I heard said some 200 rounds were fired and explosive devices such as pipe bombs were lobbed at law enforcement. And they were in my thoughts—one officer slain in his police car and another critically wounded and in the hospital fighting to survive and the situation wasn't resolved yet. I couldn't help but wonder how many others would be hurt or killed in the line of duty?

 

Then on Friday evening, more rounds of gunfire were heard. This time things felt different and I had this sense that this was it, that they'd finally get this last guy. They did. Captured!!! the Boston PD's Twitter feed said.

 

Something pretty cool happened that evening. As the police withdrew from the scene, the people of Watertown, MA gathered on the sidewalk and cheered the officers and special agents as they left.

 

They cheered!

 

They cheered and chanted and said thank you to law enforcement for what they'd done, the risks they'd taken to keep them safe. I teared up, I admit it. This was that awesome. Our society calls overpriced professional athletes (some of whom have arrest records) heroes and cheer them on for winning a championship, but you don't see cheers for the men and women who work every day to keep us safe.

 

But Bostonians did. They cheered for their police, for the FBI, and for all the other people who put their lives on the line to arrest a man who'd already killed 4 people and injured hundreds of others. (I'm supposed to put allegedly in there or something, right? Pretend I did.)

 

The people of Boston had already impressed me during the week. The way they rushed to help after the bombings, the way they refused to let the event on Monday cow them, the crowd at the Bruins game singing The Star-Spangled Banner so loud and proud, drowning out the man who was officially singing it, and the way they helped each other in the days afterward. But of all the things I saw, cheering for the people who actually deserve it and are too often taken for granted was the best.

 

Part of being a writer is being able to imagine things really well; it's why I'm a borderline hypochondriac among other things. And I could imagine being a police officer. I could imagine pursuing two men who'd carjacked someone at gunpoint. I could imagine them throwing explosives at me. I could imagine being involved in the gunfight that followed, knowing that the men shooting at me had just savagely killed an officer at MIT a short while earlier. I could imagine thinking of my family—spouse, kids, parents—and being scared that I wouldn't be able to go home to them at the end. That I'd take a bullet, too, despite the tactical gear. I can imagine trying to control the adrenaline, to do my job and keep the people in the houses around me safe.

 

And because I can imagine all of this, it makes me appreciate what these people do all the more.

 

I can't help but wonder if these events will alter the relationship between the citizens of Boston and the surrounding environs and their police officers. I wonder if they'll remember six months from now what these men and women did for them and still be grateful. Time has a way of dulling memories, but I hope this does change things and that maybe people will remember who the real heroes are and say thank you whenever they see one.

Anything You Say, Officer

This video is short, but pretty entertaining. The lesson? Don't mess around with the South Korean police.

Adventures In Commuting

Wednesday morning about 4:30, I'm making coffee when I hear a car race up the street. Even though the speed limit is 25 mph, most people speed through the area, uncaring of small children, pets, elderly people, but because of the construction on the street and the bright orange cones, most people were going a little slower. Not this guy. A few minutes later as I'm stirring my coffee, another car comes up the street more slowly. I remember thinking, man, this is a lot of traffic for 4:30 in the morning. I didn't think any more about it until....

I left for the Evil Day Job around 5:30 and I didn't go much more than a block before I saw the police car stopped on the wrong side of the street with his search light on. There was enough room to get by him, so I slowed down and did that. I thought it was strange, but no more than that until I came to the 4 way stop.

There was another squad there with his spotlight on and when I stopped, he shone that light in my face! Ugh! When he moved it away, I went through the intersection and around the curve there's a road to the left. Another squad car is down there with his search light on, then I look ahead and there's yet another squad near the T intersection with his light on. I might not be a ball of fire at this time of the morning, but I was able to figure out that something was going on.

I got to the T and directly in front of me was a flatbed tow truck and to the left were another 3 or 4 squad cars with their search lights on. I reached the street that takes me to the highway, and when I near the frontage road that runs alongside it, I see another squad car. This one had his red and blue lights going and he's parked across the opening of the frontage road, blocking it. I merge onto the highway and as I near the freeway exit, I saw yet another squad car parked on the bridge over the freeway with his red and blue lights on.

By this point, I'm dying to know what's happened. My little neighborhood area is usually pretty quiet and to see 8 or 9 squad cars there at 5:30 in the morning is a shock. I've checked the police department website--no luck. I've checked the local paper--today's edition is reporting police reports through Sept 6. Argh! I've searched Google News--nothing. How can something involving 3/4 of my city's police force happen without my being able to find out what was going on?

My guess about what had occurred (and remember, I have a writer's imagination) is that the first car speeding through my neighborhood was the suspect and that the second was a police car. At the T intersection, going to the right takes you to a main road and that leads to the highway, but if you turn left, it dead ends. I'm surmising that the suspect didn't know the area and turned to the left, realized he'd hit a dead end with a squad car coming up behind him, and decided to abandon the car and flee on foot. I happened to hit the area as they continued their search for their bad guy.

But I don't know for sure this is what happened. Seriously, am I going to have to drive to the police department and comb through the public records? Obviously the weekly newspaper is not right on top of breaking crime news, so it might be up to me.