Blue line

I caught up with a good mate of mine for a quick coffee this morning; It was impromptu, unplanned, and only went for about forty five minutes but I'm glad I did as he needed to talk and I'm always happy to help a bro out with a willing ear and a response if they ask.

This chap is a little younger than me by about ten years and I was his boss back in the early 2000's which is where I met him. We worked together for a few years and then he joined the navy. He's out now and is a cop, something he's done for almost three years. It's a tough job but he's pretty good at it having had so much life experience and through being a pretty legit fellow all around, a parent of two and pretty smart as well.

He called as he wanted to tell me something and when my bro's do that I drop what I'm doing and get to them as they are not the types to say that without good cause. We bro-hugged and sat down for a coffee and he explained his situation, albeit though, in a fairly generic manner and with great respect for the actual scenario.

The outline

A fellow was allegedly breaking into houses in the precinct my mate operates in and his partner and himself attended. They found the alleged criminal on the roof of a house and after some roof-jumping shenanigans cornered him on the last roof on the row. My mates' partner was on the roof with my mate on the ground below.

The alleged criminal decided to make a break for it but slipped and fell off the roof to the ground. The other cop was nowhere near him at the time and the chap had simply misjudged the situation and slid right off landing poorly.

He was alive and my mate and his partner administered first aid keeping him alive until the ambo's (ambulance crew) arrived. The paramedics took over but were were not successful in keeping the alleged criminal alive.

The result is that my mate and his partner are now under investigation for a death in custody and the investigation is likely to destroy both their careers.

Attitude

My friend is taking it all pretty well. He feels there was no wrong-doing and, indeed, they never truly had the person in custody at all...Something that he feels may work in their favour. They wear body-cameras also and the vision is all recorded but the thing is that this is very likely to go quite badly due to the cultural background of the deceased and political agenda. This is what my mate and his partner have been told by their higher-ups.

My friend was a little disillusioned about that revelation and admitted that his attitude had declined somewhat. He also has some personal matters to face and combined they had left him feeling less than good; That's why he called me. He figured I'd give him the attitude readjustment that he needed and he was right. He's my bro and I care about him.

Care factor

We live in a narcissistic, hubris-loaded, entitled world full of injustice. Our world isn't fair, not even close. Bad people thrive and good people have to suck on it sometimes...I'm not referring to the dead chap above here, just society in general.

My mate served his country with pride, did what so many would not, or could not, do. He donned the blue and put himself in harms way yet again; It's a tough job, not well paid, dangerous and emotionally difficult...And now that's threatened because an entitled asshole decided to break into someone else's house and steal some stuff, probably for drugs I'd imagine. And yes, here I talk about the alleged criminal asshole above.

People just don't seem to care anymore. It's all about their immediate needs, what they need right now be it drugs, new clothing, a car, the latest phone...Whatever...There's no care factor for others or really themselves either. It's all more, more, more and take, take, take with no thought to the consequences - Certainly the alleged criminal didn't care.

And yet there's a few who choose to give a little, like my mate. He chose to put his own well-being on the line to protect that of others and...Investigated for a death in custody with his career on the line. It sucks really, especially considering the facts around the situation.

Forward march

We bro-hugged in farewell and he headed in the opposite direction to me. I stopped to watch him walk away and saw his familiar erect ex-military posture slowly begin to crumple in on itself and it made me sad. I knew he was putting on a brave face for me, and I let him do it, but I can't help feeling how broken he seemed...And the process has only just begun with a long road ahead.

He's a fighter though. I think the network he has around him will rally in support and I know he'll take great comfort from it. The outcome of the investigation may be a foregone conclusion for political reasons but he'll be our mate no matter what, an amazing father to his two boys and he'll be the man he once was all over again. He's not one to sit down in a heap and give in. He's a stand and march forward type of guy.

Life isn't always easy and we all have bad days, months and years. Some of us live with darkness inside and, despite what people see, we struggle to make sense of moments and events of the past. It is human to be this way, to be fallible, flawed and broken. What counts is that we stand though, pick ourselves up and take a step, then another and so on. It's never easy, trust me I know, but the alternative is a lump of flesh and bone that failed to take ownership and responsibility for itself.

It's easy to point the finger at the blue line, the military or those who do difficult jobs in respect of the rest of society; Yes, sometimes they make mistakes, are bad people, but not always...And some respect would be nice I think, although most would never ask it of you...They just do their job and absorb the consequences.