The Republican Federated Women of The Villages continue to show support for law enforcement here and across the nation.
Several weeks ago, the Republican Federated Women’s group took patriotic plants and baked goods to local police and sheriff’s stations, with messages that the people care about and support their police. The car caravan had a motorcycle escort from the Blue Knights along their route.
This week, the GOP women heard from some retired law enforcement officers living in The Villages.
Retired New York City police officers, Mike Spalding, Tom Triosi and Bob Haack spoke of their years on the force at the Bacall Recreation Center.
Club president Joanne Cooper’s husband is a retired Long Island, New York, police officer. The club has been pursuing a ‘Blue Lives Matter’ theme in light of recent incidents across the nation — in which police officers have increasingly been killed in cold blood — and when demonstrations and riots, fueled by community agitators and the mainstream media, ensued after Caucasian policemen shot and killed minority suspects.
Spalding, who served in the Marine Corps, at Guantanamo Bay and then in the Mediterranean, began his law enforcement career with the Port of New York Authority Police, which regulates tunnels and bridges between New York and New Jersey. He moved on to street patrol and tactical forces with the NYPD in upper Manhattan and the Bronx, and later worked with the U.S. Marshall service. He went to college in Wichita, Kansas and pursued graduate level studies at Fordham University and the N.Y. Institute of Technology.
“I was a cop for a long time. I graduated from three police academies — and have lots of awards. ‘Cop of the month,’ meritorious service awards and commendations. They award you for doing something — what they don’t award you for is holding back, and not shooting or killing perpetrators. They are happy when situations are resolved without injury or loss of life — we all are — but they don’t give awards for that,” Spadling said.
When Spalding worked in Harlem, they used to set up roadblocks and bust Caucasian teenagers, who drove over from Long Island to buy drugs.
“Any law enforcement officer has the right, within his or her jurisdiction, to stop a person when there is reasonable cause to believe there is inappropriate intent ,” Spalding added. ” For example, now that terrorism is rampant, we might look with suspicion on someone who is wearing a heavy coat during a hot summer day — he just might be hiding weapons or a bomb — or someone who leaves a large purse or basket on the pavement — as happened at the Boston Marathon bombing.”
Spalding started meeting for breakfast with other NYPD retirees the The Villages some years ago — and that group, through the efforts of several people, evolved into the NYPD 10-13 Club. The term 10-13 is the radio code for “officer down.”
Retired NYPD officer, Tom Triosi, who worked out of the 75th police precinct in Brooklyn, contrasted today’s society which, in some quarters, fosters a climate of hostility towards the police vs. years ago, when police were generally respected. He traces the breakdown in societal ethics and morality to the disintegration of the stable two-parent family unit — with responsible working parents, and guidelines and discipline for children.
The officers all blame sociologic breakdowns for emboldening disparate elements to act out against law enforcement personnel. All three speakers, including Bob Haack, agree recent pressures on police have had a demoralizing affect on job performance.
Several members of the Blue Knights, a retired NYPD motorcycle group in The Villages, of which Bob Haack is currently president, attended the meeting, as did several members of the NYPD 10-13 club.
Joanne Cooper read an emotional verse, author unknown, titled ‘I WAS A POLICE OFFICER,’ excerpted here:
“TODAY I will not answer the radio call that you boyfriend has come home drunk and is beating you again…
TODAY I will not answer the radio call that your 16-year-old daughter, who is very responsible, is four hours late coming home from school…
TODAY I will not answer the radio call that your store has been robbed or your house has been burglarized…
TODAY I will not catch a rapist or murderer or car thief.
WHY?
TODAY I was suspended from duty for doing my job, because the media, a community organizer, a lawyer who formally represents terrorists and a mayor who ran on an anti-police agenda…and who all know nothing about policing — have vilified my profession.
BECAUSE:
TODAY I was killed by a drunk driver while I was helping push a car off the highway.
TODAY I was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop to tell someone they had a tail light out.
TODAY I was shot and killed serving a warrant on a known drug dealer.”
The recitation went on to describe a chaplain informing family members of the officer’s death; taps and pageantry at the officer’s funeral, precinct flags at half-mast — but no one knows or cares why.
“There will be no cries for justice; no riots in the streets; no officers marching, screaming ‘no justice, no peace.’ No windows smashed, no stores looted, no cars burned.
I WAS A POLICE OFFICER.”
President of the Lake Sumter Landing Republican Club John Black and the Sumter County Republican Club president Ed Sullivan came to show their respect for the police, as did Steve Printz, who is running for Sumter County Commissioner.
