Yet the cops carry on

Friday afternoon a New Albany man ran a test on his home alarm system. He called the security company that monitors his system. Somebody at the company got confused, jumped the gun and notified the New Albany Police Department (NAPD) that there was a problem.

There were three NAPD vehicles at the man’s house within a couple of minutes. There was not a problem, except the mishandled communication.

However, when they raced to the scene of the alarm, the NAPD cops had no way of knowing what they’d encounter on arrival. It might be a house breaker, a wild eyed hop-head who might or might not have a cheap, but deadly, firearm. Friday afternoon it was just a mistake by somebody at a security company.

They really don’t know until it’s over. But they go anyway.

Many times every day, in the dozens of small cities and sparsely populated rural areas that make up northeast Mississippi, they go.

Cops. During a lifetime as a news reporter I have probably known a thousand of them, many of them pretty well. A few I’ve known have been corrupt. A couple have been bullies. [The few really rotten ones I have known have been in big cities.]  Some, especially some of the better ones, drank more than was good for them. Some drove their high-powered police cruisers too fast and too carelessly when there was no reason for it, except that they found it exhilarating.

But with few exceptions, the cops I know and have known have been amazing human beings. That’s not to say any of them are perfect. In fact, some of the good ones have a fair amount of “bad boy” in them. But, for that matter, who would want a wimpy altar boy showing up if you have a real problem?

Nearly all I have known have been far more good than bad, a simple fact that I find remarkable.  Remarkable because the nature of their work puts cops in daily contact with thugs, thieves, druggies, wife-beaters, daughter-rapists, sadists  – the scum of the earth.

How it is that 98 percent of cops remain balanced, likeable, and fundamentally kind-hearted has always been beyond my understanding.

They don’t make enough money. They are abused by imbeciles who want to “defund the police.” Their lives are filled with long hours of boredom interrupted by unpredictable moments of terror.

Then there are the too numerous occasions of unbelievable human depravity, the kind the Lee County deputies encountered a few weeks ago in that horrid situation from which they rescued a tiny baby in Guntown; soul-destroying encounters with human depravity. Yet they carry on.

Next time you see a municipal cop or a deputy sheriff, buy him a donut.

Donut hell! Buy the man a Mercedes-Benz if you can!

–J. W. Shiverdecker

Here’s a good example of what cops routinely deal with: Guntown couple charged with felony child abuse: http://newalbanyunionco.com/felony-child-abuse-charged/