Review Article - (2016) Volume 2, Issue 4
A police job has a peculiarity. It is appealing to the policeman; but it usually encompasses psychological hazards, especially detrimental to private life. Marriages may suffer, accordingly. Actually; the very nature of the profession is simply incompatible with a peaceful family life. Many factors work against the family, the most prominent one being the irregularity of the life style, which, through night duties and unexpected further work-loads or cancellations of off-duty-times; keeps damaging the husband-role. In American Police Force, especially, big numbers of members are divorcees or had one more than one wedding-days behind. Those professionals who are happy in their homes actually appear to constitute a minority.
Keywords: Police, Private, Life, Family, Wedding, Happy
The typical policeman; exposed to horrible incidents of all kinds, soon develops a propensity to overestimate the evil facet of life, in general and disregard the nice things in life. Accordingly; his whole internal world begins to move in a pessimistic direction. Along with this development; a strong in-group understanding and solidarity formation occurs; while everything outside is regarded with fear and suspicion. Cohesiveness is said to represent the affinity of group members for one another and for the whole group as a unit [1]. As Çadirci [2] puts it; a suspicious person can never give up the already trusted ones; because it is difficult to nourish trustful feelings towards a new person. Similar psychological situations hold true for prison guards also. Eventually; such common traits picked up in the profession; invariably affect and manipulate the private life.
One can say that police job is ideally more suitable for a bachelor. In this respect; it has a common denominator with the life of a sailor, a truck driver or a travelling sales agency. An irregular bachelor’s life appears to be prevalent among policemen, all over the world, even if they are married. Indeed; this reality constitutes a morally inappropriate deadend (cul de sac). Even though police groupies (women who are fans of uniformed men) look alluring in the beginning; the end story is usually frustration involving trouble, bitterness, separation, venereal diseases etc.
Wambaugh [3] refers to such a character in one of his his novels: One cop is waiting in the office for the return of his partner from his ‘private job’. The private job is a woman on the verge of divorce, who has not started the legal procedure, yet. Besides, she has three offspring capable of causing trouble easily, once the romance is over. An extramarital affair itself officially deserves at least a temporary suspension penalty of some time. His partner enters the room with a smile and a lipstick stain on his shirt.
Still in another novel of his, Wambaugh [4] talks about the surfer cops of Los Angeles, namely Jetsam and Flotsam. The former opens up his soul to the latter, in hope of some brotherly consolation. He narrates that his second wife was a bowling player, with many tatoos on her body. He says that his name was also written on her buttocks and while the writing was erased by laser method she screamed a lot, as the hearsay notified him later.
In a novel by Higgins [5] the protagonist, Nick Miller, is a single police chief, who is economically supported by his rich brother. He is probably the microcosm of the ideal cop, as a bachelor. The plot evolves in mid 1960s in London. He is at the trace of an ex-convict, suspected to be perilous after his release. Nick is hated passionately by a veteran colleague, constable Brady, who is jealous of the young man’s college degree and the related fast promotion, as well as his wealthy life style. It is Brady himself, who had stubbornly suggested Nick as the appropriate man for the nasty task, to the director. Brady even got Nick’s vacation cut off for this purpose, the man-power being scarce in the force, at the moment, because of the prevailing winter flu among the men.
In a certain episode; full of zeal to hurt Nick, Brady visits the man’s house. The black colored silk sleeping suit of the single man with his initials embroidered at his chest, drives Brady really mad! Brady snarls that he be at the office, immediately. When he glances at the young man’s expensive furniture, his animosity is further aggravated.
Nick replies that he will shave his bread and be there, promptly. Brady insists on his showing up at once and tears off his pyjama-jacket. The senior cop then receives a sudden mighty blow and is kicked out of the house!
Soon the rich brother (and the financial-protective-angel in the very same person), appears at the gate. He is notified about the happenings and profiting from the incident; he renews his job offer to his brother. Instead of insisting on being a cop, why wouldn’t he work for his own big brother’s gigantic enterprise? Nick replies that he is simply in love with his police-job and all the guys like Brady lumped together, can not possibly dissuade his professional enthusiasm. He would never ever resign!
It is known that in the U.S. among police force, suicides as well as divorces followed by further wedlock are common. Full integration with spouses is difficult due to sheer nature of the job.
On the other hand; the most serene weddings appear to be those of Hispanic cops, thanks to the conservatism of the Catholic Sect. Sergeant Cruz; an auxiliary character in another Wambaugh novel, is a demonstrative example. His English had just sufficed to win the Police School at the time.
His wife knows the best Mexican culinary ways. Children are of every size within the family. Cruz is thin, pious man. In his childhood, the first student to master English spelling in his class, he was given a Catholic rosary by the teacher. He still carries it as a talisman in his pocket. He sometimes invites his half-a-century-old colleague, widower-Morgan, to his house for a dinner and urges him to a new wedding. He should quickly formalize his affair with that good-looking female French teacher (passim).
However, unexpected unfortunate things do happen: (Morgan is secretly preparing himself for retirement and) Cruze goes into a shop to get him a farewell present. A robber, panicked at the sight of the official dress, shoots the sergeant dead at the spot. Morgan arrives at the site. While he is taking the rosary concealed in a leather bag from the pocket of his dead-friend, a lieutenant warns him. Touching the evidence is a prerogative of the forensic team now. Morgan explains the significance of the object in a mumbling voice. He says he thinks they shouldn’t know that he used to carry around a religious relic like a nun (the overwhelming majority of America are Protestants). The lieutenant grants him the exception [6] (Figure 1).
Figure 1: A Catholic rosary / chapelet just like that of Sergeant Cruz, in the novel (internet).
Still another realistic novel of Wambaugh has its plot derailed in California in 1978. Detective Walnikow and his female partner Natalie are assigned together to investigate the case of a stolen house dog.
The Mutual work brings them nearer. Both are divorcees of quarantaine-years-old. The former has a son in college while the latter is the mother of a girl.
Walnikow is the descendant of anti-communist white-Russians, who had escaped into America after the October Revolution, via Vladivostok harbor. His family still commemorates the reminiscences of good old Tsarist Russia. Their tiny orthodox-Christian community have their own church (In fact, on a Christmas day the sacristan-boy saw the hand-cuffs hanging from the belt of that alcohol-stinking middle-aged man and thought perplexed:?What? So he is a plainclothes cop? He?).
As mentioned just above; he had been drinking (his national liquor vodka) like a sponge, lately. His dreams were only nightmares. His former partner and best friend Charlie, a smart and successful detective, had taken his own life soon after retirement and this event had been quite a blow for the man. A little while ago his superiors sent him into a new environment, giving him a chance of psychological recovery. Indeed; the new assignment’s enigma and the presence of Natalie makes him stop drinking and care for his clothing, abruptly (Figure 2). However, this Natalie, presently, is going out with an assertive police-chief stationed elsewhere. One evening upon return to the station, he witnesses that the guy is with her in a car. And they form an intimate bundle. Walnikow’s heart aches at this sight of the rival! Natalie introduces the two men to each other. The chief wants to depart with the female cop, immediately, urging her to leave the report-writing-drudgery to Walnikow. He says that Balinkow can handle the red tape issue all alone and returns to Walnikow. Natalie used to consider Walnikow a mere hindrance, in the very beginning. But she gets jealous of the female owner of the stolen-dog. The woman is trying to court with the male detective!. All of a sudden the female cop comes to note the virtues of the man nearby! He is a gourmet, full of good table manners. He is crazy about Russian food. Once he had taken her into his brother’s delicatessen / charcuterie shop. The brothers kissed each other’s lips in the Russian manner. The shop-keeper then prepared a special package for them. He appreciates Russian opera. Tchaikowski above all, he is a committed classical music listener [7,8].
Figure 2: A pure coincidence for our topic, from the internet: A drunk cop curled up in a corner, in severe depression.
Moreover; he is a good-hearted man. He likes to mingle with elderly people wherever he encounters them. In fact; old men and women who see him come to him as if pulled by a magnet. Walnikow is also a very slow and cautious driver of the official car. With all those means and ways of him; is not this old-fashioned gentleman superior to his present “boy-friend”, who is just burning with professional ambition to move ahead? (Figures 3 and 4).
Figure 3: A further coincidence for our topic, from the internet: Russian food for Walnikow’s “traditional” stomach!.
Figure 4: Tchaikowsky’s (1840-1893) music for the tender ears of Walnikoff! (internet). After all; he is the grandson of an Easern Orthodox family who had escaped from Bolsheviks, Vladivostok port, during the October Revolution.
At the last pages of the novel; now willfully-retired André Walnikow interlaced with Natalie (who had just expulsed her ambitious flirt) are described in a Russian restaurant listening to musique tsigane. Natalie had firmly decided to invest her savings into the music shop they will open together with his Andruschka, instead of wasting it in further Caribbean holidays with that ambitious one (Figures 5 and 6).
Figure 5: Still another coincidence from the internet: So, it appears that the most suitable spouse for Walnikow is a fair-sex colleague, Natalie!.
Figure 6: Policemen handling a riot : police job is indeed rough! (illustration by the author).
The night presses and all customers beside the two leave the place. The young violinist means to close the evening. When further tips do not suffice to motivate the musician, Natuschka takes her “machine” from her bag and plants it in the middle of the table. The violinist looks at the gun and goes on to display his talents thinking: They call the youth wild and crazy, ignoring the madness of those middle-aged. And this man, whose head is full of bandages like an Indian Sikh insists on staying, instead of walking home to get some sleep. I wish a police patrol just walked in! But the cops are always absent whenever one needs them most! (Figure 7).
Figure 7: Irregular life style: A patrol cop furtively eating an apple to relieve his hunger. An improvised, “surrogate” lunch; while walking around! (illustration by the author).
One can talk about a strange aspect of the police job. On one hand; members of the profession are passionately attached to it; but on the other hand; hazardous-for-individual effects of the occupation exert their influence: What a paradox. Besides; private life comes at the top of the negatively affected fields. Those who can lead happy lives at home constitute a “fortunate-few” among the law-enforcers.
