My dad was a career cop with the Birmingham PD. Went through the civil rights upheaval in the 60’s, the “Pig” era in the 70’s…all that, and more. There were 5 kids in our family, and Mom was a stay-at-home mom, so Dad always worked at least one extra job. Some years two or three, just to make ends meet. Of course I, being the eldest sibling, would help him out on one of his extras, as I could after school. ( I remember one was a paper route).
For around 9 or 10 years Dad’s beat was in or near our very neighborhood. There were some pretty rough teenagers who got into trouble with the law quite often over the years and my dad “counseled” a few of the chronic trouble makers. They certainly knew who I was, and could’ve made my life pretty scary (I was at this time in grammar school, and they ranged in ages from 12 to 18 y.o). But because of the way Dad treated them and talked to them (kinda like the father figure most of them lacked in their lives) they left me alone. It wasn’t for fear of my father, but out of respect for him. This I learned years later from a guy who was in my 8th grade class and he was 17 at the time. Once, when I was taking night classes in college some of my classmates were a couple of police officers who worked with my Dad. They didn’t know who I was, and I got them to talking about office “R”. They told me he was one of the few officers in the dept that no one could say anything bad about. This was in the late 70s when “good” cops in Birmingham were hard to find. It’s because of the example that my dad set, that I have the utmost respect for the badge, if not always the person behind it. I’m happy to report that, for all he went through in his 29-and-a-half years on The Force, he was able to retire, and is still healthy and actively enjoying retirement in the Birmingham area.
Heh, I actually go to see him in action, once. Walking home from school one afternoon, I came upon him and his partner as they were manhandling a 300 lb drunk into their squad car. I’d never seen my father like that, and it wasn’t until then that I realized what he had to go through on the job. It really made an impression on my 10 year-old mind. I’ve never been prouder of any man than I am of my dad, and the way he worked hard and sacrificed for his family. For me.
Most cops are like that.
