An Atlanta, Georgia police officer on patrol in her assigned zone came upon a homeless person and exhibited requisite traits of a cop: caring nature, compassionate exposition, possessing ability to fill needs…then filling those needs. Among many exactly like it, in this particular example a policewoman offered her heart, opened her cruiser trunk, and gave to someone in dire need.
Unbeknownst to her, it was recorded by a passerby and went viral.
Don’t know about you, but it is surely refreshing to see viral footage of great deeds performed by cops instead of the usual onslaught of the gritty side of police work and hateful spinners posting sensationalistic edits portraying cops as the bad guys and gals.
Humbled by the entire interaction in more ways than one, Atlanta police Officer S. Thomas shares with us her sentiments, her tears shed because of sad situations she encounters as a cop, her personal trials and tribulations, her exhibitive reality that cops are heartfelt individuals doing a difficult job on mean streets where threats to life are prevalent.
In her own words, she walks us through one human interaction and underscores how she and her coworkers perform many just like it on the daily:
And we are to unquestioningly believe the anti-police rhetoric that cops are the problem? C’mon!
Several times during that brief video interview we witness a beating heart behind a badge, and the emotional taxation of being a cop —a protector, a provider, a lightworker— trying to do a job ill-considered by many yet so vital to society and everyone in it.
Altruistically, Officer Thomas walks us through what a majority of cops experience: personal associations with some broken pieces or traumatic experiences in their lives which not only compelled them to strive for positions in law enforcement to enable frontline roles and be the change…for whomever, but to exemplify selflessness, source provisions, and catalyze humanitarianism.
And we are to buy into the nonsensical blitzkrieg of anti-cop propagandists forcing polluted ideology that cops are bad? Antithetical!
The authenticity in Officer Thomas rings through. You can easily derive that she is not one iota interested in fame or fortune. Conversely, we can discern her actualized fortune is the profession she keeps, enabling her to be readily activated—with a police cruiser trunk stocked with essentials to make someone’s day, perhaps even her aunt which she acknowledges is homeless…right there on her beat.
I didn’t quite expect that revelation, and I respect Officer Thomas bigly for sharing her soul. And exactly that is what is most often left out of the discussion, usurped and supplanted by the know-it-all, misguided dissertations about cops doing police work, and the undeserving castigations which follow, especially via profiteering media platforms hyperbolizing every scintilla of law-and-order conventions.
Indeed, America’s cops are ideally culled and fashioned to be God’s peacekeepers, provisioning those less fortunate, casting light where darkness shrouds many citizens stuck in less-than-ideal circumstances.
As Officer Thomas modestly conveyed her experiences as a street cop, exuding heartfelt humanism, we are mindful of the drastic flipside of being in a position to potentially take a life at any given moment. The sinister spectrum is a stark reality of public safety professionals. While the chameleon idiom immediately conjures kaleidoscope and brilliance, epitomizing many successes perpetuated by police pros, the corps of cops harbors inexplicable, grayscale encounters which many citizens can hardly imagine (or care to).
Our law enforcement officers are chronically scapegoated when utopia fails to materialize (take it up with criminals), echoed by head-in-sand naysayers blindly banging battle drums against a misperceived enemy. The price is steep!
Police officers across the nation continue working the streets as moving targets, with accusatory screams in their ears and bullets literally whizzed their way. In all this maelstrom, however, God’s peacekeepers continue to show up for duty. Officer Thomas is only one of the latest exemplifications of a warrior drying tears and getting back out there to do the job for which she enlisted.
One of the aspects I miss most about serving as a policeman is being out there, coming upon people in God’s perfect timing, equipped to meet needs, satisfy those needs, and alter the day/lives of many.
Similarly, Officer Thomas had some of her Why in the form of material goods stowed in the trunk of her police cruiser, preparedly filling needs upon spontaneous interactions with members of the public.
Let’s close with a blessing mysteriously inscribed where no one would expect its evolution, indicating poignancy and seasonings of silent majority who support our nation’s courageous and highly heroic LEOs.
From the Blaine, Minnesota police department, we uncover unambiguous messaging ironically discovered by a mechanic retooling and revitalizing engine power and integrity of a police cruiser.
On the underlayer (metaphoric ballistic protection) of the cruiser’s push bumper were the hand-scribed words “God Bless Our Police.” Indeed, God is everywhere, even around the innards of a cop car pit-stopped at the station. (To the unknown person who inscribed those four weighty words: your quality control is nothing shy of heavenly.)
(Photo courtesy of the Blaine Police Department.)
As illustrated in our cover photo atop this article and in the broader view preceding this paragraph, the revelation likely caught the auto service mechanic by surprise. Executives of the Blaine PD shared/explained it:
“Earlier today a Blaine Public Works mechanic was working on one of our squads and upon pulling off the front bumper, he discovered a message. The message appears to have been written while the vehicle was being assembled at the factory.” (In case anyone is wondering, the covered “e” in Police is likely due to the steel girder installed as part of a cop car’s enhancements added after police department’s receive delivery from the auto manufacturer. Many police cruiser’s have any of a variety of push-bars attached for road-clearing and other duty purposes. And this means that this is not the first revelation of this hidden gem.)
Relatedly, every duty day of mine was spent with a small gold cross trinket, a laminated card displaying “Our Father,” and wallet-size photos of my children, all contained in the underlayer pocket of my ballistic vest. Not common knowledge, buy many colleagues carried similar mementos, personal artifacts, and “protections,” all reminders of their Why, all harbored in underlayers of their police regalia.
Seems this Blaine police cruiser is just as blessed for duty.
Thus, it follows: Someone somewhere in time had it in their heart and soul to sanctify the imperative nature and huge value of police officers fastidiously responding in emergency vessels.
Only one thing left to say, and that is: Amen.