So the New York City cops are like the UN? No. I'm sorry. While I'm not a fan of New York, the boys in blue there, so pivotal in the great turnaround of the 1990s and so heroic on 9/11, deserve better than this. They're New York's finest and frankly Mary Madigan is letting one incident cloud her mind and slander some of the finest folks in the nation-the NYPD.

No, the NYC cops aren't like the UN. After the Times Square rally, some Hamas supporters got violent. The NYPD didn't waste time, they arrested the jerks and put them in jail. They may have used mace to stop the violence. If they did, good for them.

I said that "the situation with the cops in NYC is similar to the situation with Israel and the UN". The NYPD tries to prevent the kind of violence that occurred yesterday, and they sometimes do this by pressuring the non-Muslims, who are less likely to cry 'racism' and 'Islamophobia'.

Karol posted about an incident that occurred a few years ago, when a woman taking pictures of a mosque was pushed and cursed at by an angry Muslim. The police made her feel as if she was to blame, even when she wasn't. They took the easy route to keep the peace.

But even if the NYPD does play these games in the interests of 'keeping the peace', I still believe that they're one of the best police forces around. Much better than these guys..

Thanks for the clarification and my apologies for reading you wrong. The NYPD is really above and beyond and I can not say enough good things about them.

1)Who, specifically, called NYPD the "finest" and "bravest"? I always thought they themselves were the authors of this misnomer. Case of false advertising, if ever was one. 6 men, armed with ready weapons and authority of the State behind them, cornering lone unarmed woman, could hardly be called "brave" and "fine", in my opinion.

2)If these unthinking brutes, who "keep peace" by silencing the innocent are the finest, I can only mourn for the state of civil liberties, or rather the absence of, the citizens and residents of this country experience in the hands of less fine policemen, someplace else.

3) On 9/11 and in 1990 police was just doing their job. They were not heroes*. They were doing what the taxes-paying public pays them to do. And they didn't do it in the most efficient and professional way, either. Believe me, I've been here on 9/11.
The non-uniformed people, regular NewYorkers - they were heroes. People who didn't panic, didn't riot, didn't engage in mass killings of the Muslims (as most certainly Muslims would if the situation was reversed) - they are heroes. Children of Stuyvesant High School who returned within 2 months to their human remains-dust-contaminated school, despite being offered to stay in a safer substitute school, and who sat in classes looking at the barges behind their windows being loaded with debris of WTC, those who did returned - they are heroes.
People on the streets, who offered help, including material, to injured and wounded, who rushed to Ground Zero to help in search teems- they are heroes. Nobody paid them, they didn't ask for pensions and reimbursements. They did it out of goodness of their hearts.

*Incidentally, nor were firefighters. Same reason.

NYPD is the Finest and FDNY is the Bravest.

As for doing nothing heroic on 9/11, when the non-uniformed regular New Yorkers were running out of the doomed buildings, the police and fire were running into them.

Yes, they may have just been doing their job, but they were the ones who chose to take a job which puts them in life threatening situations on a daily basis. In return for this, they get paid very little and, in the case of the police, often receive no thanks from the public they protect.

Marco, do construction workers receive thanks from occupants of the houses they built? Do doctors receive thanks from the patients they treat? Or teachers from their pupils? The answer is "yes, they do - if they are especially good at their job".
The fact that someone choose the job does not entitles hem/her to thanks from people they serve.
The fact that job pays little (which is a matter for discussion, btw. I think they get paid way too much) and they still chose it says more of their low position on the job market. In any case, this fact is not a reason to admire them, quite the contrary.

Especcially good [paid] professionals do receive thanks from their customers - but calling them "bravest", "finest" and "heroes" is a gross exaggeration.

Would you say the same thing about members of the armed forces Tatyana?

The "people on the streets, who offered help, including material, to injured and wounded" believed that the firemen were heroes. I remember the wild cheering that greeted every firetruck that went by.

Immediately after 9/11, even the media commented on New Yorkers' newfound admiration for people who held dangerous jobs (firemen, policemen, iron workers). We saw them run into the burning towers, we saw how they saved thousands of lives, and we saw them working beyond the call of duty to clean up horrific smoldering mess that was the WTC. If it wasn't for those heroic efforts, if the job were left up to anyone else (especially the politicians) the children attending school nearby would have been breathing bad air a lot longer.

A lot of ordinary people are capable of responding with remarkable bravery in an unexpected situation, but when this is your job, you're not only taking risks, you're taking on a tremendous responsibility. Not only do you have to wake up every morning knowing that you're going to have to rush into burning buildings, but if you screw up, you won't just disgrace yourself, you'll disgrace your whole profession.

And you know that the press, a notoriously risk-averse group, will tear you apart if you make a mistake. Firemen, policemen deserve a lot of credit for knowingly walking into that situation.

Yes, von Beck, I would, with reservation. These people have a job they are paid to perform. When they go beyond their job description and indeed behave bravely and selflessy, not just follow orders, they deserve to be called heroes. Besides, holding a position in US military they acquire skills and education that make them highly marketable in civilian job market.
Not so with police and firefighters; their job requires very little in terms of education or qualification; what else can they do beside being state-authorized bullies?

Of course it was a wild cheering, on 9/11. People felt helpless in the face of this catastrophe, and welcomed help.

Every job has a set of requirements, some less pleasant that others. The job of public defenders that got paid by the public - police, state troopers, firefighters, army and navy, etc - includes risk to their life. That's why they and their families are getting all these tremendous benefits for life that ordinary citizens don't; the society recognize the job has to be made attractive enough for an applicant to put their health and life at risk.
But if you do subscribe, if you took the job and got your paycheck, don't expect the crowds to cheer for you just for the fact you did. You're not a hero, you are PUBLIC SERVANT.

Interesting and I appreciate your candor and consistency. I generally have a higher opinion of the men and women in our military and police and fire departments. I do think it take something special to go into those areas-just as it does say nursing (and having worked at a nursing college, I honestly think we don't appreciate nurses enough for all that they have to do-and since this is probably the only time I will ever get to tell this story, the most awkward moment in my professional career had to do with student orientation when a nursing student demanded to know what she could do about pantie lines showing in her white student nurse outfit-for once in my life had nothing to say besides "Uh Ms. Tyler well....uh....this is....uh.....John Tyler was a much better president than we usually give him credit for.."). I suppose it comes down to John 15:13 to me ("greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends") and it is often hard for me not to put the police,firemen, troops etc. up in a pedestal.

I share your opinion of nurses, von Bek. Nurses, incidentally, are good example of brave professionals, doing their difficult, sometimes dangerous, always mentally charging, job without much fanfare and shouts "heroes!heroes!". Unlike policemen and other government defense employees, their level of compensation is determined by market forces - and i'm glad to know they, generally, are not starving (and that their median income is higher than that of a policeman. Deservedly.)

Hope you tell the cops how you feel next time you get robbed ;)

bryan, sweetie, it's not a "feeling". Must I try to teach you English? Or is it Anglo-American gap, again?

Cops do nothing when someone gets robbed. Less here, more in your hometown. Or so I read.

Tatyana, your feelings and how you feel are two discrete concepts.
You feel a certain way about the NYPD, that means you have an outlook or opinion.
Your 'feelings' are not quite the same thing.
As to how much the cops do (or not, how true!), I imagine a couple of minutes informing them they are paid to get your stuff back, and that their heroism (and losses don't forget) during 9/11 are exaggerated will instill them with a wish to put you at one end of their 'to serve and protect' list. Guess which end?
All the UK police I have met have always said this: people they pull over for minor motoring offences get let off with a warning (and thus no fines or endorsements) when they seem actually remorseful, the belligerent don't.

What's the difference, bryan? belligerent or subservient (as you are, it seems), you still don't get your stolen stuff back.
And you are confused again, my far-away friend: people who were robbed were not "pulled over for a minor offense". They are the victims of a crime, not the criminals. Know the difference?
They have nothing to apologize about.
And it's the Plod that have to get off their "hurt feelings" mood; if they did their job, taxes-paying public were not "belligerent" towards them.

I'm not confused. The point is one's attitude begets anothers. And having never been stopped by the police for speeding, I have had no need to say "Oh no! I'm sorry about that" (hardly subservience, but my brother drove badly for 20 years being let off for speeding on average twice a year with that line.) No points on your licence means you can hire vehicles and insure your own car for less.
Maybe it won't get your stuff back, but taking out your annoyance on some cop ain't gonna do it either. If you don't think treating people respectfully is a win/win for both of you, there's no point trying to push it onto you.

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