Alexandra Bogdanovic's Blog: That's life... - Posts Tagged "cops"

Depending on the online dictionary you use, an amuse-bouche is defined as "a single bite-size hors d'oeuvre" (Wikipedia), "a small complimentary appetizer offered at some restaurants"(merriam-webster.com), or "a small, savory portion of food served before a meal, typically without charge at restaurants" (yourdictionary.com).
Because it has been so hot that my poor little brain feels like it has been fried -- and because I can't think of a bloody thing to write this week -- I am hereby serving up a literary amuse-bouche in the form of an excerpt from Truth Be Told: Adam Becomes Audrey.
Bon appetit!
------------
I didn’t want to tell anyone about my past, much less anything about Adam. After all, I had come to Virginia to put it behind me and start a new life.
Nevertheless, curiosity abounded. People wondered what brought a single young woman from the New York City suburbs to Warrenton, of all places. I told them -- a bit gruffly -- that I needed a change of scenery and that I had left everything I’d ever known to join the staff of what had once been one of the best suburban newspapers in the country.
I never imagined the first person I’d confide in would be a high-ranking cop. Yet somehow, even though we’d only known each other for a few months, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I could trust Major Paul F. Mercer Jr.
“I got married at a horse show -- at the Hampton Classic Horse Show, one of the most prestigious shows on the east coast,” I told him on what promised to be a typically hot and humid June day. “It was a fairy-tale wedding. We got married on the grand prix field. We had a horse-drawn carriage, seventy-five invited guests and three thousand spectators. Oh, and it was on TV,” I added, almost as an afterthought.
Traffic on Route 50 crawled past the Upperville Horse Show grounds, and then came to an abrupt halt behind a motorist who wanted to turn into the wrong gate. Major Mercer stepped off the grassy shoulder to talk to her and quickly pointed the wayward driver in the right direction.
“So what happened?” he asked when he returned to his cruiser.
“What?” I said.
“You were saying you had this fairy-tale wedding. Apparently, things didn’t work out. What happened?”
I wanted to tell him. I just didn’t know how.
Sitting on the ground behind his black Ford Crown Victoria, I began pulling up blades of grass. One by one, I let them slip through my fingers.
“I’ll tell you,” I replied, eying the trim, uniformed man with short, prematurely gray hair who, as third in command, was also the public information officer at the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office. “But only if you promise not to tell anyone else.”
“I promise,” he replied, becoming uncharacteristically grave.
“Okay.” I took a deep breath, dropped my gaze and resumed uprooting the grass. “So, you know what a transsexual is?” I asked.
Rip, up came another fistful of grass. Rip, rip, rip. Tattered blades fell softly back onto the earth.
“Yes.”
“Well, Adam -- a couple of years after we got married I found out Adam is really a woman -- or wanted to be a woman. We got divorced. He went and had the surgery and everything, so he’s ... she’s Audrey now.”
I bit my lower lip and dropped another handful of shredded grass before I finally looked up, dreading a look of dismay, disbelief or disgust and half-expecting to see his trademark grin.
He remained serious. “Alex,” he paused. “I’m a country boy but I’ve also been a cop for a long time and I’ve seen a lot of strange things in my career. I can’t understand why anyone would do that, or begin to understand what you’ve been through. I will never tell anyone and I will never tease you about it -- unless you open the door. Okay?”
He extended his hand and I reached up to take it. The lithe major’s strength surprised me as he pulled me to my feet.
“Okay,” I said, meeting his gaze and returning the handshake. “Thanks.”
It turned out to be the first of many conversations we had about my ex. The subject became a matter of dispute, debate and more “counseling sessions” than I cared to admit. Paul was never shy about doling out personal and professional advice, and teased me relentlessly about billing me for it. He also kept his word and never joked about Adam unless I fired the first salvo.
As much as I loathed talking about my ex, time made it easier to share my story with friends, sources and coworkers. More often than not, I broached the subject when female acquaintances bemoaned the rough times in their own relationships.
“That really sucks,” I would inevitably say after listening to their tale of woe. “But I bet I’ve got a story that tops it.”
In time, it became an inside joke among my closest friends.
“Trust me,” one of my best pals, Christiana, said when the dinner party conversation at her house once turned to crappy relationships, “Alex has a story that can top that.”
-------
Until next time, "That's life..."

Since crafting last week's blog reduced me to tears I've decided to turn to a safer topic. So this week's post is devoted to what I know best -- writing.
Specifically, I've been thinking about how much cops and writers have in common. Basically we are all students of human behavior. The only difference is that while the police use their powers of observation to fight crime, authors use ours to craft the plot, characters and all of the other elements that make for good stories.
At the risk of sounding immodest, I've always been pretty observant and a fairly good judge of character (at least until I met my ex-husband.) But truth be told, I learned more about human nature than I ever dreamed possible while working as a journalist covering law enforcement.
I learned how to read people. I learned what drives the good guys and what makes bad guys tick. I learned that good people sometimes do bad things, that the strongest people sometimes have the greatest weaknesses, and that predators don't thrive without prey.
Covering my share of murder and mayhem also provided me with plenty of fodder for true crime stories and enough inspiration for at least a dozen novels. In fact, I've probably documented more courtroom drama than most people will see in 10,000 episodes of Law and Order.
But yesterday, I found another source of inspiration as I watched a seemingly far less sinister scene unfold right outside my door.
A hooded man was extricating his van from a snow and ice-packed parking space on a snow emergency route. As he did, heaping shovelfuls of debris landed in the road, creating hazardous conditions and causing traffic to veer into the wrong lane.
There's never a cop around when you need one, I thought as I considered dialing my local police department's non-emergency number to report the activity. Oh, screw it. They've got better things to do. I'll just put this guy in a book some day... or at least I'll put him in my blog.
Until next time, "That's life..."

Blogger's Note: As an award-winning journalist who spent 17 of my 21-plus years on the job covering law enforcement in three states, I feel compelled to share my feelings in light of recent events that have transpired across America and the mainstream media coverage thereof.
By writing this, I in no way deny or refute that there are some really bad cops out there. Frankly, I am fully aware that there are racists, bullies and thugs in uniform who have no business wearing a badge. In many cases, their conduct is reprehensible; and in a perfect world, those who in any way violated the laws they swore to uphold would be held fully accountable.
But as we all know the world is far from perfect and the system is hardly infallible. Moral outrage is perfectly understandable when it fails. In the United States, where we have a right to engage in peaceful protest, civil disobedience provides a powerful outlet for our fear, frustration and anger.
However, we simply cannot give in to those emotions. We cannot let them consume us. We cannot let them tear us apart. We must not lose sight of the big picture. Courage, common sense and common decency must prevail.
With that being stated, I respectfully ask you to consider the following:

More than 20,260 American law enforcement officers (20,267, to be precise) died as a direct result of job-related incidents, illnesses or other causes in the past 222 years (1791-2013).
Between 2004 and 2013, 1,501 American law enforcement officers lost their lives due to job-related incidents, illnesses or other causes. Of those, 548 died as the result of gunshot wounds. Four-hundred-and-thirty-four died as the result of motor vehicle crashes.
In a July press release detailing the number of American law enforcement officer fatalities for the first six months of 2014, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund noted that 67 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty, reflecting a 31 percent increase over the same six-month period in 2013. Alarmingly, there were 25 firearms-related deaths, reflecting a 56 percent increase over the first six months of 2013. From January through June 2014, six law enforcement officers were fatally shot while investigating suspicious persons or situations; and five were shot and killed in ambushes.
Through the first 11 months (January through December) of this year, there have been 111 American law enforcement fatalities due to job-related incidents, illnesses or other causes. That reflects a 26 percent increase from the same time period last year, when the total stood at 88.
Of the total number of U.S. law enforcement officer deaths from Jan. 1 2014 to December 1, 2014, 45 were firearms-related. That represents a 67 percent increase from the same time period last year, when the number of firearms-related deaths was just 27.
Of the total number of U.S. law enforcement officer deaths from Jan. 1, 2014 to December 1, 2014, 42 were traffic-related. That represents a 14 percent increase from the same time period last year, when the number of traffic-related deaths was 37.
Of the total number of U.S. law enforcement officer fatalities from Jan. 1, 2014 to December 1, 2014, 24 were attributed to “other causes” including job-related illnesses. That represents a 0 percent increase from the same time period last year, when “other causes” resulted in the same number of fatalities.
As of December 1, 2014, California led the country with 14 law enforcement officer fatalities. There were 11 in Texas, six in New York and five in Florida. Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Virginia each had four law enforcement officer fatalities. Arizona, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Tennessee each had three law enforcement officer deaths. Alaska, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio each had two law enforcement officer deaths. Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin each suffered one law enforcement officer fatality.
Five of the law enforcement officers who died worked for federal agencies, one served in the military and four worked in U.S. territories.
Alone, these statistics are staggering. But there is a much bigger picture. For each one of these facts and figures, there is a mother without a child; a brother or sister without a sibling; or, perhaps, a child without a parent. For each life cut short, there is grief. There is sadness. There is anger. There is an empty seat at the dinner table. There is a dream that will never be realized. There is untold, incalculable loss. And then there is the haunting question: Why?
Maybe with time, those who knew these men and women best will find comfort by remembering how they lived. The rest of us cannot and must not, ignore or forget the way they died.
Here are just a few of their stories:
➢ On November 22, 2014, Deputy Sheriff Christopher Smith of the Leon County Sheriff’s Office was shot and killed in an ambush while responding to a house fire. He was the fifth law enforcement fatality in the State of Florida this year.
➢ On November 16, 2014, Police Officer Justin Winebrenner of the Akron Police Department was shot and killed while confronting an armed suspect at an establishment. He was the second law enforcement fatality in the State of Ohio this year.
➢ On November 2, 2014, Deputy Sheriff Matthew Chism of the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office was shot and killed following a vehicle chase and foot pursuit. He was the second law enforcement fatality in the State of Missouri this year.
➢ On November 1, 2014, Constable Robert White of the El Paso County Constable’s Office, Precinct 1, was injured struggling with a suspect while working a security detail. He was pronounced dead a short time later at the hospital. He was the 10th law enforcement fatality from the State of Texas this year.
➢ On October 29, 2014, SWAT Officer Shaun Diamond of the Pomona Police Department was shot and killed while attempting to serve a warrant. He succumbed to his injuries the following morning. He was the 14th law enforcement fatality in the State of California this year.
Now ask yourself this: Where were the national headlines about their deaths? Where was the moral outrage about the senseless loss of their lives? Where were the protestors? Where were the activists and professional agitators then?
Were these men's lives worth less than anybody else’s simply because of their chosen profession?
Why is it acceptable to stereotype, judge and vilify a whole group of people in a given profession based on the actions of a few, when it is unacceptable to stereotype, judge and vilify whole group of people in a given race or religion based on the actions of a few?
Why is a mob mentality promoting divisiveness being fomented at a time when we should be focused on finding ways to come together?
Our society is not perfect. Injustices – both real and perceived -- can and should be addressed. But rule of law must also be upheld, and that cannot happen without the dedication and courage of those who enforce it. To continue to undermine them would be a grave injustice, indeed.
Until next time, "That's life..."
(Preliminary data for 2014 courtesy of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.)

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
I took this one at Ground Zero a couple of years ago. Because I photographed a reflection, the image of the police officers on duty there that day is a little distorted. Needless to say, the irony didn't escape me.
But a distorted reflection in a photograph is one thing. The recent vilification and distorted portrayal of law enforcement -- specifically the NYPD -- by politicians, activists and the mainstream media is another thing altogether.
While one cannot be certain that their hateful rhetoric directly resulted in the brutal slaying of two New York police officers December 20, one can certainly argue it was a contributing factor.
Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and PBA President Pat Lynch have no doubt about it. In published reports, both have said the politicians and others who have engaged in anti-police rhetoric now "have blood on their hands."
Lynch vowed that they will be held fully accountable. Personally I hope they are -- in a court of law as well as the court of public opinion.
At the very least this tragedy should serve as a powerful reminder that another old saying -- the old saying about sticks and stones -- is an absolute fallacy. Words can hurt us.
Until next time, "That's life..."