We’ve been hearing a lot about the police since Memorial Day — and none of it good.
Ever since the unfortunate (and, yes, brutal) killing of George Floyd on Memorial Day weekend, it’s been open season on police. Some people want to defund police departments, which is an unfortunate and misleading word. It doesn’t mean to stop funding police departments. It just means to take some of the money they get for areas that some might consider secondary to police work, and put it toward agencies that might be able to do these things a little better.
And yes, in some cities there has been a groundswell of sentiment about abolishing police forces all together. One of those cities is Minneapolis, where the Floyd incident took place.
Thursday we saw the other side of the equation clear as a bell. Saugus police made what looked to be a routine call at a house on Tuttle Street. The street in question is in a thickly residential section of the town, off Essex Street, not far from both a fire station and Anna Parker Playground.
It’s peaceful — or, at least, it seemed peaceful until Thursday morning. That’s when the peace that we all take for granted (but shouldn’t) was shattered.
First one police car came speeding down the street going more than twice the limit. Then two. Then three. The commotion rousted neighborhood residents from their homes to find out what was the matter.
By the time people got their bearings, three police officers had come out of a brick house down by the end of the street, at least one on a stretcher, with stab wounds.
According to statements by the police, all the officers were doing was executing a search to find out why the person who lived there hadn’t returned a U-Haul van he’d rented. The vehicle was so overdue that the company had reported it stolen.
The person — Steven Sossong, 43 — reportedly did not allow the officers to enter the home. Police said the officers then tried to force their way in, and that Sossong responded to that by slashing them with a knife.
The hero of the day was Lt. Gregory Cinelli of the Saugus Fire Department — and thank the Lord the station was right there next to Anna Parker — who, according to the Essex District Attorney’s office, was fortified with the thick gloves of his trade, and was able to wrestle the knife away from Sossong without getting hurt himself.
It matters little that the officers’ injuries aren’t life-threatening, though it’s sobering to realize that a couple of swipes with a blade can expose one person’s arm bone and another man’s tendons.
What matters is that regardless of what any of us might think, the reality is that this is what police officers do. They put themselves in harm’s way. Every call, every time they step out of their vehicles, they’re risking their lives. Sometimes, they don’t have to leave their cars. I still remember the night I heard about two Brooklyn, N.Y., officers who were ambushed and killed while they were inside their squad car.
Thankfully, it was only their arms that were cut up. But it could have just as easily been somewhere else on their bodies, and we could be talking about something much, much worse.
I firmly believe that nobody in this universe gets more offended and angry at bad cops than good cops. I also firmly believe that the ratio of good to bad is astronomically in favor of good.
So before we all pile on and condemn the entire profession, let’s stop and think of these three police officers from Saugus who ventured into a situation that may not have appeared to be too dangerous, but turned out to be treacherous.
And then remember that this is a risk these people take every day — to protect us.
A “thank you” wouldn’t hurt.