A FEW GOOD MEN 11-21-12

A good cop is born , not made---- or was that meant to
read the other way around ?


As a Police Sgt, I always liked to have men around me
who would take direction and act without hesitation.
One of those men was Tom Murphy.
Tom came to America from the Dublin, Ireland Garda.
The Garda in Ireland are the police.

Tom and I became good friends, but he was all cop
without any help from me, in fact I used to treat him
pretty rough, accused him of being verballiy dislexic.
He accused me of being other than Irish---- A terrible
insult.

Tom was injured one time.  "That" motorcycle gang were
tearing up a bar on Lincoln avenue when Tom being the
first one on the scene, as usual, one of their dogs bit him
in the butt.  Tom came out of that bar fuming, but with
three of the cyclists in custody, and the dog.

Once , at  bar closing time I had my hands full with some
drunks when Tom came on the scene.  He said "who do you
want taken out ,, John."  I pointed to a group of five across
the street and said , check `em out.
In a few minutes Tom asked me if I had any more handcuffs,
he had the five in custody.

We had a big Captain who was very ambitious and always
trying to do the right thing,  usually at a time when no one
wanted the right thing, for example....
One day when we were real short handed, myself and one
officer with his arm in a sling on the radio----Tom was the
only patrol officer on the street.  We got a call that the big
Captain had left his car and attempted to break up a fight
on the beach.   The crowd was unruly and had the Captain
down on the ground mauling and kicking him when Tom
arrived on the scene.

Taking his shot gun with him Tom waded through the crowd
using his shotgun as a club, he beat a path to the Captain,
got the Captain out of there and headed for the station.

While Tom was saving the Captain`s ass a large part of the
crowd came roaring in to the police station demanding to
file a report of police abuse (having been beaten with Tom`s
shotgun.
Several of the rowdy crowd started yelling that they were
going to take over the police station.

I always had a riot club leaning against the desk when I was
Desk Sgt.    I grabbed the "stick" and went over the counter,
nto the middle of the crowd swinging that stick like the mad
man I was.  I dropped several of them before they got away
from me and raced out of the station hitting the large plate
glass door, smashing it out as they raced to get away from my
stick.

Tom showed up a little later and turned his shotgun in to me.
It looked like a large pretzel, twisted and broken.
I patted Tom on the back and told him to check out a new gun.

I really thought I would have to pay for that exspensive plate
glass door on the front of the police station, but the next day
when I came to work it had been replaced with a new door.

Sure that I would be fired, or at least disciplined, I met the
Chief in the hall a few days later and out the corner of his
mouth he said, " good job".

Tom got a big letter of commendation shortly ----- from me.

----- John Crowley