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On the morning my son was born, my wife insisted that the doctor hand our newborn baby to me first despite the arduous and painful labor she had been through. Impressed and deeply moved by her unselfish gesture, I was reluctant to argue, and I gladly received my new offspring with open arms. Holding himContinue reading “When First I Held You”

I was seventeen years old when I met the best friend I would ever have. It was September, the first week of my senior year of high school, and I was sitting with my girlfriend in the cafeteria before the start of class. A longtime friend stopped by the table, accompanied by a tall, severe-lookingContinue reading “Sometimes We Begin at the End”

She was outside the battered duplex home when I arrived, her thin arms hugging her shoulders as she ran to my patrol car. Wide-eyed and crying, she pointed towards the road. “He drove off that way,” she said through tears. I had been sent for an attempted rape report at a rental house behind aContinue reading “Fight Like a Girl”

It is Thanksgiving Day, 1982. I am seventeen years old and a senior in high school. My mother, a gourmet cook, has been working in the kitchen since early that morning. She is preparing for an event that has not happened in many years; my father is coming to Thanksgiving dinner. My parents have beenContinue reading “Let Us Give Thanks”

As I pulled up to the laundromat, located at the back of a small strip mall, I saw her standing outside by the door, a frail, grey-haired woman of about 70. The call was for simple larceny, with no real details provided, and I wasn’t expecting much more than a quick report. As I walkedContinue reading “Justice Is Not Blind”

When I first became a supervisor, one of the new responsibilities I dreaded most was performing death notifies. In most police departments, any death notification must be handled by someone the rank of sergeant or above. Though I encountered exceptions to this rule before my promotion, I had scant experience with the unpleasant job. ThereContinue reading “We Regret To Inform You…”

     I was parked at the ambulance base when the dispatcher’s voice came over the radio, breaking the silence of what had been a remarkably slow Sunday shift. “For the violent family trouble, male choking the female, son is punching the father trying to intervene, sister is the caller, she is staying on theContinue reading “White Collar Criminal”

     Her name was Carol, and she was the first person I’d ever seen die. I was 23, and I had been a police officer for about a year. She certainly wasn’t the first dead body I’d seen, that number was already in the teens by the end of my first year on theContinue reading “Carol”