By Lyonel Doherty
Oliver Chronicle
“Am I going to get a spanking?” I nervously asked the cop while I sat bruised and battered in the back seat of his cruiser.
I can’t remember what he said, but it might have been “probably.” In any event, I felt so safe in that cruiser, and didn’t want to leave when it pulled up outside my house on Long Branch Avenue in Toronto.
I was about eight years old and had just been rescued by numerous firefighters and police officers who were called to a train trestle where three kids were trapped after climbing up to see a bird’s nest. Stupid me. I was the only one who jumped down, barely missing a couple of boulders near the river.
Years later a cop taught me right from wrong after he nabbed me for stealing an abandoned bag of candy on Halloween night. The bag was filled with newspaper, courtesy of a homeowner who set me up by leaving the bag on top of his car. Nice neighbours, eh? But I never stole again.
My point is I am who I am today because of those run-ins with police who cared enough to be a parent when I needed one away from home.
What made me think of the past is a recent article on Castanet entitled “A crack in the armour,” in which the writer interviews a police sergeant who was seen crying on TV.
She attended the memorial service for Cst. John Davidson who was killed in the line of duty last November.
Sergeant Judy Bird said it’s not easy for police officers to show vulnerability because everyone expects them to be their “rock” in times of crisis.
You see, police officers have two types of armour – the Kevlar kind and the emotional kind used as their shield so their human side doesn’t show.
Bird said she considered herself weak at the thought of seeing a psychologist after attending a fatal accident.
Her tears during the memorial was a needed crack in the armour, a crack that showed how human she and her colleagues are.
She said people threaten police and their families every day; that’s why the emotional armour stays on. But sometimes that armour has to be taken off to check for damage. And there is damage; we just don’t see it.
These brave men and women in uniform have sworn to protect us and they pay the price every day.
Our world is volatile enough with all these human predators running around. But just think what it would be like if there were no police. Two words: utter chaos.
We truly thank those, including the Oliver RCMP, who chose a career to protect us from harm and make our neighbourhoods safe for our families. And being parents to our children when required.
I wish I could thank that cop who drove me home. But I’ll make it up to him by thanking a cop today, and telling him/her that they don’t have to be my rock, because they are only human like the rest of us.
