PAX Centurion - Winter 2016 - 2017

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • Winter 2016-2017 • Page 43 Legal Thoughts: Kenneth H. Anderson, Esq. Byrne & Anderson, L.L.P., Counsel to Members of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association Looking back and trying to look forward N ormally the Christmas Pax article is one of the easiest ones to write. You note a few of the newsworthy occurrences that happened in the prior year, you make some predictions for what could happen in the coming year, you try to sprinkle in some humor and some positivity, and then you close the article by telling people to “keep safe” and to “have a great holiday.” The article almost writes itself. This year it does not seem so easy. Looking back at the last year is one thing, but processing what happened is a whole different story. As we know from the presidential election, none of the predictive models work anymore. We may be able to look back and see where we came from, but where we are going is entirely unclear. It seems like our neighborhoods, our city, our state, our country, and our world is all at a giant crossroad, with strong and opinionated factions pulling us in every direction imaginable. This was a year where friendships were strained, some to the breaking point, as the result of a deep divide in our country that was played out through the election. Do we see signs of optimism? Or are there huge warning signs on the horizon? What does 2017 hold for us? As a youngAssistant District Attorney in the mid-1990s, I was delighted to find a (then) patrolman named Jimmy Coyne who carried a Polaroid camera in his cruiser. By taking a picture of a bullet hole in a pick-up truck on one call he went to, Jimmy helped me convict someone in an entirely different shooting. I also remember a case where I had a very grainy photograph of a suspect from anATM security camera at Roxbury Crossing that Detective Paul Martin used to solve a carjacking with the help of Crime Stoppers. I took that grainy picture to Polaroid to see if it could be enhanced for the trial of that case. (It couldn’t.) Who knew back then that Polaroid would go bankrupt in 2001, or that in 2016 Boston police officers would be wearing body cameras with much clearer pictures than we ever envisioned twenty years ago? Although I just dated myself with the Polaroid references, I am too young to remember a Vietnam-era protests of the 1960s, although many of today’s protests share similarities to those protests (that I learned about in school). Burning flags and disrespect for law enforcement are common to both eras. As I am writing this article (at the very end of November), sixty-one law enforcement officers have been shot and killed in the United States this year, twenty of whom were killed in ambushes. The officers killed range from a female officer on her first day on the job to a sixty-five year old veteran about to retire. If not for some heroics actions performed by officers from MOP and District A-7, and if not for having the world’s best medical care in Boston, the number of officers killed would be two officers higher. This is all unprecedented. As seen in the riots in Charlotte, Baltimore, and Ferguson, the anger can be palpable. I hope and believe that there will be more respect for law enforcement officers in 2017. Whether you voted for the president-elect or not, I think he will support the police. Regardless of who our president is, our society must begin to show more respect for you. As we all know, life happens on its own terms. We face things that are entirely unanticipated. On a small scale, we lived through this unpredictability several years ago with the Boston Marathon bombings. What would happen in Boston if we had terrorist attacks on the scale of those seen in Paris and Brussels? How will we react? What if Boston experiences a riot like Charlotte or Baltimore?As Robin Williams said while playing Teddy Roosevelt in the movie Night at the Museum: “Some men are born great; others have it thrust upon them.” Will 2017 be the year where something unanticipated is thrust upon us? If so, will you respond greatly? Look around the guard room at your next roll call. Ask yourself if the shift you are about to start will be a typical shift. Could something unforeseen happen? Will there be a major catastrophe on this shift? What will be thrust upon us? In the profession you all chose, no one knows those answers. But you all know that it could happen. As we enter the year 2017, we all need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Use your best judgment and use the greatest amount of restraint you can humanly muster. Watch out for your co-workers. Be honest. Be kind. Take pride in your work and your reputation. And don’t cut corners. The world we live in is changing rapidly. No one is taking Polaroid pictures anymore. The world changed and we all need to adapt. Be mindful of what surrounds you, and keep doing the awesome job you all do. And, oh, I was supposed to sprinkle some humor and positivity into the annual holiday Pax article. The humor will return in 2017, because without our senses of humor we’d all go insane. For you all though: keep smiling. And stay positive From all of here at Byrne &Anderson, we wish you a great holiday season with your families, and are keeping our fingers crossed for a safe and prosperous 2017. And now that we don’t have to be so politically correct anymore, Merry Christmas to you all.