Another cop in the news

[WolfeMacleod]

... but this time, it's a random act of kindness.
Good cop.

PHOTO: Picture of NYPD cop giving homeless man winter boots goes viral | National News - The Greatest Hits of All Time


Tis the season of giving, and no time was that more apparent than on a street corner in New York City earlier this month.

That’s when a tourist witnessed an NYPD officer giving a homeless man without shoes — and with blistered feet— a pair of winter boots. The photo taken of the scene, unbeknown to the officer at the time, has since gone viral.
Facebook Picture of NYPD Officer Lawrence DePrimo Giving a Homeless Man Boots Goes Viral

NYPD officer Lawrence DePrimo purchased boots for this homeless man who had blisters on his feet. (Image: NYPD Facebook)

The cellphone photo of Officer Lawrence DePrimo, snapped by Jennifer Foster of Florence, Ariz., on Nov. 14, has been made it onto news sites and blogs around the world. The photo posted on the NYPD’s official Facebook page has been liked more than 315,000 times and shared more than 74,000 times. According to the New York Times, as of Wednesday evening it had been viewed by more than 1.6 million people.

Here’s how Foster, who is the communications director for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona, set the scene, according to the NYPD’s post:

“Right when I was about to approach, one of your officers came up behind him. The officer said, ‘I have these size 12 boots for you, they are all-weather. Let’s put them on and take care of you.’ The officer squatted down on the ground and proceeded to put socks and the new boots on this man. The officer expected NOTHING in return and did not know I was watching. I have been in law enforcement for 17 years. I was never so impressed in my life. I did not get the officer’s name. It is important, I think, for all of us to remember the real reason we are in this line of work. The reminder this officer gave to our profession in his presentation of human kindness has not been lost on myself or any of the Arizona law enforcement officials with whom this story has been shared.”

The NYPD stated in its post that the photo had been cropped to better show the scene closer up, given that the original was taken at a further distance.

The comments on the photo, approaching the 20,000 mark, reflect positive sentiments. Here’s a snapshot of a few of them.

[Hydrocket]

Class act right there! Good on him!!

I hope nothing but good happens to this guy for the rest of his life...

[Nostril Cheese]

Good on em. New York's finest.

[widgeon13]

Saw that, great story.

[daepp]

SikverWhaleTail?

[tevake]

What a great story, to bad we don't hear more of the kind and caring things done by LEOs. I'm sure they far out number the sad tales that seem to get the press coverage

Speaking of Silverwhaletail, I was just thinking about him today, sure hope he is finding some way tune his head and find some peace.

Cheers Richard

[weseeeee]

That is a great story. I was in that line of work for years and witnessed many acts of kindness. It's to bad that the bad cops usually get the headlines, or leave the lasting impression that people talk about.

[speeder]

If that police officer is a christian, he's one of the real ones. My uncle, RIP, was one. Real christian and cop.

[Jim Richards]

Originally Posted by daepp

SikverWhaleTail?

Hahahaha!

This NYPD cop has a great heart.

[sammyg2]

Warning, serious kumbaya buzz-kill ahead. If you would prefer only feel-good stuff, don't read:





Over the years I've done lots and lots of charity work with people who were temporarily down on their luck, and also with people who basically made a career out of it for one reason or another.

There's no doubt those experiences have made me more than a little cynical but when I first saw this story on the news the first thing that came to mind was this:

I bet within the hour he trades those new shoes for $10 worth of booze or drugs".

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Good on the cop. He represents the finest of us.

I bet within the hour he trades those new shoes for $10 worth of booze or drugs.

The thought crossed my mind as well. Further support for this notion: ask yourself why he was sitting barefoot in front of a shoe store. Seems rather convenient, no?

When I was working in NYC I commuted from NJ down to Water St. every day. I frequently took the ferry from Hoboken to Battery Park. Every day at 5:30pm there was the same ragged-looking-but-not-totally-destitute woman standing at the exit ramp holding out an empty foam coffee cup.

She probably earned more than I did each day.

[Joe Bob]

Originally Posted by daepp

SikverWhaleTail?

Hasn't been around since July....don't miss him.

Class act on the guy.....

Sincerely hope it wasn't staged. The cynic in me, I guess.

Merry Christmas.

[Jeff Higgins]

Nothing the bum can do will even lessen the charity shown by this young officer. What a fine young man. I wish him and his all the best.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Warning, serious kumbaya buzz-kill ahead. If you would prefer only feel-good stuff, don't read:





Over the years I've done lots and lots of charity work with people who were temporarily down on their luck, and also with people who basically made a career out of it for one reason or another.

There's no doubt those experiences have made me more than a little cynical but when I first saw this story on the news the first thing that came to mind was this:

I bet within the hour he trades those new shoes for $10 worth of booze or drugs".

Could be, but that guy doesn't look like a hustler to me. More like someone mentally ill, like a high percentage of the homeless. I work with them a lot myself.

Not to PARF this, but I think that your philosophy about helping people is fundamentally different than mine. I know as a pragmatic person that if you help any group of people, (or even one at a time), some are going to be undeserving. This does not bother me as much. It's a numbers game, if you want to hit the truly needy, your going to have a certain percentage of waste into the hands of scumbags and hustlers. It's unavoidable. The alternative is to say, "screw them all", and help no one.

You may be surprised if you ever saw me telling young beggars to go fk themselves outside the 7-11, particularly if they are aggressive or obvious drug addict criminal types. I'm a hard ass when I can identify them. But I'll still accept waste in my charity because I know there is no choice. My brother spends about $20+ million a year of other people's charity donations on some of the most deserving people in the world, (and with possibly the best ratio of actual dollars reaching final recipients in the business), and he has to accept a certain amount of waste and theft, etc. in every program they run. It's part of the game.

Actions define people, not words. That cop gets the rewards of living life as a good man, regardless of what the other guy does with the boots. I'd like to be non-cynical and believe that he expected no recognition whatsoever and the story of the tourist snapping the pic is legit.

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Nothing the bum can do will even lessen the charity shown by this young officer. What a fine young man. I wish him and his all the best.

great minds think alike--we typed at the same time.

[sammyg2]

I still do the charity thing through my church, but not the one-on-one I used to do.

I got ripped off twice by people I was helping, got a guy a job working for a buddy of mine once and he ripped off my buddy's company. Make that ex-buddy.
Oh and I almost got mugged at the mission on thanksgiving morning 'cause a gang banger wanted the pallet of food in my truck that I was dropping off.

There are very deserving people out there than need our help. there are also people out there just looking to scam others or are just looking for their next high.
And it's sometimes hard to tell the difference.

[speeder]

Agreed. At least you do try to help people, that's admirable and I would argue that it benefits the giver as well as the recipient, most of the time.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Just to be clear - none of us "kumbaya bubble bursters" had anything but praise for the cop.

[Nostril Cheese]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

There are very deserving people out there than need our help. there are also people out there just looking to scam others or are just looking for their next high.
And it's sometimes hard to tell the difference.

And some people still have faith in humanity rather than becoming miserable, bitter complainers.

Good on the cop. We need more LEOs like him. It would help to rid the world of miserable, bitter complainers.

[gsxrken]

Kudos to the cop, it did however remind me of a very similar scenario I had in the '90s.
I had a short walk in midtown to work and would nearly always pass this same homeless man. I'd think about "whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers" etc and often give him half of my bagel or egg sandwich but never money. One winter day he had no shoes or socks, next day same thing. So I brought in an old pair of boots and wool socks, he was happy as hell, i felt great after carrying them all the way in, but the very next day he had newspapers on his feet again. I asked him what happened and he was just whacked out and incoherent. Whether they were stolen or traded who knows, but I eventually adopted a policy of giving to the Sisters of Charity over panhandlers.
Regardless of whether the same thing happens, the cop is a good egg.