Cops deserve more respect

“A policeman’s lot is not a happy one,” sings one of the characters in “The Pirates of Penzance.” He may be right. Every 37 hours, a police officer is killed in the line of duty in the United States. Want an even more startling statistic? Every 22 hours, a policeman commits suicide in this country.

In terms of respect, public-opinion polls rank policemen near the bottom of the list, with used-car salesmen and Rodney Dangerfield. If we were to play a word-association game, the word most people would use after “police” would probably be “brutality,” not “protection.”

We used to teach our children that the corner cop was their friend. Now we teach kids their Miranda rights in case a policeman tries to bully them. Fortunately, that attitude is changing since the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Policemen are working their way back into the pantheon of heroes in our society – men and women who selflessly risk their lives, even make the ultimate sacrifice, often for people they don’t know.

But there’s still a long way to go.

It would be hard to say who was responsible for the adversarial relationship between a community’s citizens and those who act as guardians of their lives and safety. In any case, it’s time for a truce. Both sides need to reform. For sure, many policemen could use a Dale Carnegie course or two. In fact, the police do the most to shape a city’s image — especially in the eyes of outsiders. If the image they project is poor, the whole city has a public-relations problem.

When I lived in Cleveland, there was a traffic cop at the corner of East 6th St. and Superior Ave., who would accompany pedestrians on their journey across the street, all the while complimenting the ladies on their good looks and joking with the men. People like me would walk an extra block or two just to cross the street at his corner. I imagine out-of-towners staying at the nearby Hollenden Hotel returned to New York, Dallas or Milwaukee with a good feeling about our city.

But if we want more policemen to act like this officer, we will have to change our disdainful attitude toward the police. They are giving back what we are giving them. Even so, the police probably show more goodwill toward citizens than citizens exhibit in return. We are ready to cry brutality if an officer so much as speaks sharply to us when we commit an offense that should land us in the clink. In one big city recently, a woman physician was charged with resisting arrest, and she subsequently accused the arresting officer of police brutality. Many people might have been inclined to believe her story if the officer hadn’t recorded the entire incident on a video camera in his cruiser.

There was not a hint of brutality in the policeman’s conduct, as documented by the video.

A policeman’s lot may not be a happy one — but it can be.

Officer Tom Lambert, whom I met working the police beat for a newspaper in Boston, is thrilled with his station in life. When I asked him how he would like it if his three young sons grew up to be policemen, he said, “Nothing would make me prouder.”

George Plagenz is an ordained minister and veteran newsman based in Columbus, Ohio.