This past weekend, Happy Joe had the honor of attending the Patriot Boot Camp 2015 held at Goldman Sachs in New York City.
I’ll follow up with a full report on the Patriot Boot Camp experience, but I wanted to share a quick recap of my visit to NYC -- particularly about my “run in” with the police.
It was bound to happen.
Several weeks ago my friend Cory Miller joked on our WP RoundTable interview that if he was ever found in the back of a police car, it would be because of me!
Now I’m not exactly sure what he meant by that, but I thought it would be hilarious to get a photo of me being “arrested” in New York City with a caption that said “Thanks, Cory!”
Of course I wasn’t sure how I would achieve this.
As enticing as it might be to commit a crime for the perfect photo opportunity, I decided it might be best do it the legal way.
So I walked endless miles around NYC hoping to find some cops with a sense of humor and time to waste. It didn't take long before I found my guys.
As Donetta and I approached two tough looking NYPD officers in Times Square, I became apprehensive about the whole idea. My ideas can be a bit crazy and this one might be going too far!
They looked at me suspiciously as I sauntered up to greet them.
"Hey guys, can I ask a strange request?"
Without any hesitation or missing a beat they told me there was no way they were gonna put me in handcuffs. I busted out laughing! Apparently I’m not the first idiot to make this request.
Because of all the recent bad press they didn't need more bad publicity, even if it was all in fun. I completely understood.
Regardless, Officer Marmolejos and Office Dastur of the 10th Precinct, were some of the finest and funniest guys I’ve ever met.
Both men obviously loved to have a good laugh and were very entertaining. They let me know that if I did get arrested, I might be OK since I was a military veteran, but that I should really keep my mouth shut and let my pretty wife do all the talking.
Officer Marmolejos and Office Dastur (an Army veteran of the 69th Infantry Division) also shared some great stories with us.
Police Officers have tough jobs.
Like the military, police officers have to deal with life and death situations on a daily basis. They usually don’t get much love from the public and they certainly don’t get paid enough for the dangerous work they do.
I’ve worked in law enforcement and have had several family members who are cops. It's not an easy career, especially when you have to deal with the ongoing storms from the media.
While there are unfortunate situations that we see on the news, this is not the majority of how police officers really are. I respect what these men and women do and certainly give them two thumbs up for their service to their communities.
We also ran into another NYPD officer that evening who stopped us on the street to joke around with us. He was a USMC Veteran and he also gave us some valuable advice about NYC.
Overall, our experience in New York City was incredible and it was partly because of all the friendly people we ran into.
Thank you to men and women in uniform in NYC. HAPPY JOE salutes you!