PAX Centurion - May / June 2015

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • June/July 2015 • Page 7 Secretary’s Thoughts: Christopher J. Broderick, BPPA Secretary The state of policing in 2015 BPPA to celebrate 50 th anniversary on September 11 th at Venezia’s, Dorchester T he Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association will celebrate our 50 th anniversary on September 11 th , 2015, at Venezia’s in Port Norfolk, Dorchester. Numerous former and current BPPA Presidents and officers, along with our friends and allies in the labor movement, are expected to attend. In 1965, after years of cruel and abusive treatment by the BPD administration, many officers decided that “enough was enough”. Organizing politically against an administra- tion determined to see them fail, they fought against all odds to mobilize the rank-and-file members to stand up for themselves. It certainly wasn’t easy then, and it’s not easy now. (As a point of By James W. Carnell, Pax Editor reference, during theAmerican revolution in 1776, only one-third was in favor of the revolution, one third backed the King of Britain, and one-third, quite frankly, didn’t care and wanted to stay on the sidelines. The same “one-third” rule holds true today.) Many members do not know (and sadly, some simply do not care) about our BPD history. Read the book “City in Terror”, by Francis D. Russell, for the definitive explana- tion of the Boston Police Strike of 1919 and its impact on the BPD to this very day. (“If we do not learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.”: quote attributed to the poet G. Santayana). See 50 th Anniversary on page 15 L ieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, the author of and contrib- utor to a great many books that discuss society, particularly the military and law enforcements roles within society, writes in his book “On Combat” about sheep, wolves and sheepdogs. Lieuten- ant Colonel Grossman relays the story he heard from another retired Colonel from the Vietnam Era. It is an analogy to where people fit in our society. The sheep are our everyday people; good, hardwork- ing citizens who provide the backbone of what is truly still a great society. To call them sheep is not an insult. They are our husbands, wives, neighbors and children. They make up the bulk of the world we live in and are important. They are not vio- lent and don’t want to hurt anyone. They simply want to play their roles in life and be safe. Then there are the wolves. Though they seem to us to be everywhere the sheep are. They are outnumbered by the sheep 300 to 1. Wolves are not wired right. They are malicious and violent, they have no regard for sheep and no regard for each other. They want to prey on the sheep. That is where we come in, the sheep dogs. We too are violent, or at least have a capacity for violence when neces- sary. The greatest difference between us and the wolf is our ability to empathize and sympathize. We have a deep love for society. We care. We want to protect. We want a peaceful society. We have taken a great responsibility upon ourselves, both individually and collectively, to serve, to protect, and to keep peace. Nationally it is popular to criticize police. Every single interaction police have with citizens regardless of the role they fit into society can be scrutinized and dissected. The ability to second guess and Monday morning quarterback police actions seems to be the new national pass time. Technology has given everyone a front seat to weigh in on how we do our job. Only we understand the pressure this puts on us. Our intent is not to hide anything. Our plan is not to run rampant. Those stories make good fiction novels and television but that is not who we are. We simply want to do the job we devoted ourselves to do and not feel like lepers or outcasts for doing it. Those that take joy in condemning us and those that may take a tragedy somewhere in the nation involving a police officer and choose to say we are all the same (regardless of the facts) are out there, they are making our jobs harder and they will still demand our service when they are afraid or need assistance. Let’s not forget about an addition- al threat that we all face every day. There are those in society that may not “hunt” us but have no regard for us. Life means very little to them, and ours in particular means nothing to them. Sadly, incidents like Humboldt Ave., and recently Geneva Ave. in 2013 and Radcliffe St. in 2003. These are just three examples that directly affected members of the BPPA. Attacks on police officers are becoming more and more frequent across the country. It all seems simple. We all know that there are people who hate cops. Those that think we are servants who will enforce laws and interact with people as they see fit at that time and believe we should alter our responses to their mood, in accordance with their objective and goals. We knew they were going to be there when we took this job. We all understood that there is an inherent risk to this job. We knew on day one of our academy that we would expose ourselves to very bad people who would stop at nothing to get away, make good See Secretary on page 38 “We sleep safe in our beds, because rough men stand ready to visit violence upon those who do us harm.” – George Orwell