Rant #2,874: Simply the Best

So the police got their man!
 
The subway shooter, who a day before unloaded smoke canisters and a barrage of gunfire in a crowded subway car and then somehow vanished off the face of the earth, was apprehended yesterday due to quick work of both the New York Police Department and the FBI, as well as other agencies and the public itself.
 
It just goes to show once again that when allowed to do their job, the NYPD is the best police force in the world, bar none.
 
And where are the usual anti-police culprits—I don’t have to name them here, you know who they are--and their nonsensical rhetoric?
 
No cries of “defund the police” now …
 
I was watching the local news shows, and one interviewed a middle-aged woman who was using the same subway station where the prior day’s incident happened.
 
The reporter asked her about whether she felt safe on the train, in particular a day after such a heinous incident occurred, and the woman said this (paraphrase):
 
“I lived in Chicago, but I left there and moved here because when terrible crimes happen in Chicago, the police do nothing. When they happen over here, the NYPD does something, and they always get the culprit.”
 
There is a lot of truth to that, and that is why the expertise of the NYPD is used the world over, so that other police departments worldwide can learn from the best.
 
And no matter how much some decry their actions, the NYPD is the standard, the best police force the world has to offer.
 
Those who want to straitjacket what they do—and how they do it—really are barking up the wrong tree, but like anyone else, if you do not let them do their job, their work is going to suffer.
 
And sure, there are bad apples in every bunch, but generally, the men and women who make up the NYPD are good eggs, people who take their jobs seriously.

 
In recent months, they have not been portrayed kindly by certain people, and this negative feeling has certainly been spread by the media, which just loves a good story, even if it is overblown and not at all true.
 
These men and women put their lives on the line each and every day, and they are somewhat easy targets for those who claim that they are what is wrong with out society today, making the few bad eggs in the department somehow stand for the majority of these officers.
 
It is just so wrong, but at the same time, so easy to blame the cops for our society’s ills.
 
And then you have a situation like what happened on Tuesday, and the quick work by the NYPD that led to an arrest the very next day, and you know that all of this anti-police talk falls under the “talk is cheap” banner.
 
Those that pounce on the police are often the first ones to yell for their help when they get involved inn some negative action, so the cheapness of their words has absolutely no value at all.
 
Let’s applaud the police rather than snipe at them, and I do believe that if we do so, we will have a better civilization and a better world.
 
And while not every police department is as skilled as the NYPD, what I said goes for all police departments, who have the same goal: to protect the citizens of their respective cities and towns and villages as best as they can.
 
I know all of this may sound Pollyannaish in scope, but just look at what has been thrown at police departments from coast to coast during the past two or three years.
 
It really is incredible what these men and women have had to endure during the pandemic period, and it has been so unfair and so misguided.

And before you think that all that I have said--and will say as you read the entirety of this Rant--is nothing but a "love letter" to the police, think again,

I am no different than anyone else. When a police car pulls up behind me when I am driving, I shiver and shake just like we all do.

My late father, during his more than 50 years of driving a cab in New York City, shuddered and shook the same way I did while driving his cab on the streets of New York City, fearing the wrath of the police even more than most citizens because there was a period where cab drivers were being targeted and cited for even the most minor of offenses.

He had one altercation with a then-recent graduate of the police academy which was a particular sore spot for him, and my family actually went to court to fight what this overzealous cop did to my father.

But generally, my father when he was aiive, and I, continue to have the highest regard for the police and what they do, and for me, it began at a very early age.
 
I remember as a little kid, when I was in kindergarten and first grade, we were given a coloring book and crayons with the intention of teaching us that the police were our friends.
 
We were told, as we colored in the police officers uniform and badge on those pages, that the police could help us with just about any problem, and if we saw something that bothered us, all we had to do was to tell the policeman on the beat, and he would help us as best he could.
 
Sure, that was simplistic, geared to our little selves, kids who were just discovering the world that they were born into.
 
But it still rings true today.
 
The police are NOT the bad guys, crooks are NOT the good guys, and once we understand that, we can move forward as a people and as a civilization.
 
The actions of the NYPD and other agencies yesterday, and everyday, affirm the fact that they have a tough job to do—maybe tougher today than any time in our country’s history—but they do it with aplomb, no matter what the rhetoric that is out there that they have to face.
 
Even at nearly age 65, those lessons learned when I was a kid still hold true, even though my now weathered, adult eyes.