During the years that I worked in a large emergency room back in California, I necessarily got to know a lot of cops. I can't remember ever meeting one whom I thought had a cranio-anal insertion problem. I got invited to some of their parties, and some of them dated the nurses I worked with. They seemed like pretty regular joes, but carrying a little more tension between the shoulder blades than the average office drone has to deal with. I regularly saw them use humor to defuse the tense, compassion to ease the grief and pain of survivors, and good common sense to help the lost figure out "the system." I have nothing but admiration for them.
That being said, it is absolutely true that they tended to have a predisposition to an "us versus them" mentality when dealing with the public, even though they kept it in check. I don't know if most of them would have held that same observation if confronted with it, but I could see it. In a way, I can't blame them. They, like a lot of ER personnel, often have to deal with the underbelly of society in a way that most civilians don't have to, and if you see enough of that stuff, it can tend to color your world view a bit.
[STORY]
Back in the early 1970s, my ex and I tried moving to New York City. Being young and naive, we moved to Manhattan. In short order, we were broke. I was looking for a job and we ran out of money before I found one. So, we had someone wire us some money from home, and when we went to the Western Union office to pick it up, they were closed - even though the sign said they were supposed to be open. I bummed a dime from a passerby and phoned Western Union... ...no luck. I got a sympathetic telephone operator, and she stayed with me on the line and we called all over the Western Union system and couldn't get anybody to help.... still no luck.
Finally, we went to the local precinct house and told the desk sergeant our plight. He brought us into another room, where he sat us down and made a phone call to the main Western Union office at Penn Station. He said, "this is sergeant so and so of the NYPD..." and went on to explain the situation. He told the person that they were to find that money chop chop and call him back in 5 minutes or there would be hell to pay. Sure as heck, a few minutes later, they call back. They've located the wired money order and we can come right down and get it.
In the meantime, the cops at the precinct had taken up a collection for us, which we didn't know about at first. Then, the sergeant gives us the money they collected, and gets one of the officers who is there to take us in a squad car down to the local subway station. At the ticket gate, he told the guy in the booth that we had been robbed, and to let us onto the platform. He shook our hands, wished us good luck, and left.
We took the train down to Penn Station and got our money order. That money order, plus the money the cops at the precinct house had collected for us, is what sustained my ex and me until, about a week later, I finally got a job.
[/STORY]
1. That desk sergeant did not HAVE to make that call for us. No laws had been broken.
2. The precinct officers did not HAVE to take up a collection for us. We were not their responsibility.
3. They did not HAVE to give us a ride to the subway station. We could have walked.
4. They did not HAVE to get us on a train for free. We could have used some of the collection money.
They did it because they were a bunch of nice guys who had mercy on a couple of stupid kids who should have known better. I have nothing but respect for LEOs.
