The Bonus Book of the Week is “True Blue, Police Stories By Those Who Have Lived Them” by Sgt. Randy Sutton, published in 2004. This was a bunch of first-person anecdotes told by police officers– who recounted the most memorable moments of their careers; several of them NYPD members who survived 9/11.
Robert Brager’s 9/11 story was of confusion. He wrote, “At different times throughout the day, I was told that the Empire State Building, the United Nations Complex, the White House, the Pentagon, and many other places might have been hit. You can’t imagine the distorted information during a time like that: Here we were in the greatest city in the world in the middle of the news capital of the country and we couldn’t find out anything because all cell phone sites were down.”
Read the book to be reminded how dangerous and traumatic, or emotionally fulfilling, police work can be.
As is well known, traumatic is a word that describes the past week in the United States. Pursuant to Wikipedia (which is probably not comprehensive), below is a chronological rundown (month, year and state) from the year 2000 and later, of shooting sprees, in each of which there was at least one death of an innocent person. These do not include: road rage, robberies, burglaries, home invasions or workplaces or any situations of solely targeted murders in which the shooter knew the victims. What they all have in common (besides a temper tantrum with a firearm) is that the shooters were all male (except for one couple– a male and female).
More than half were white males. It’s okay to say “white males” now without sparking outrage among the tabloid set who would associate the speaker or writer with “The Squad” because that news cycle is finished. Luckily, the unwashed masses have short memories.
- January 2001, CA
- September 2001, TX
- October 2002, Washington D.C. area
- June 2003, MT
- August 2003, WV
- May 2004, CA
- March 2005, MN
- October 2006, PA
- February 2007, UT
- April 2007, VA
- October 2007, OH
- December 2007, CO
- February 2008, IL
- September 2008, WA
- April 2009, NY
- August 2011, OH
- September 2011, NV
- October 2011, CA
- April 2012, CA
- December 2012, CT
- June 2013, CA
- April 2014, KS
- June 2014, NV
- October 2014, WA
- July 2015, TN
- October 2015, OR
- February 2016, MI
- September 2016, SC
- April 2017, CA
- May 2017, OH
- November 2017, CA
- December 2018, CA
- December 2018, NM
- February 2018, FL
- July 2019, TX
- July 2019, OH