Members of the force are on an emotional roller coaster after a cop fights for life, bystander slain
By PAUL GRONDAHL, The Albany Times Union
Albany, N.Y. -- In one of the most emotionally draining 10 days ever for the city police department, officers are struggling to maintain morale as violent events marred the holidays.
“They’re reeling from one tragedy after another and trying to catch their breath. For some of them, it’s almost an out-of-body experience, like a bad dream,” said the Rev. James LeFebvre, longtime police chaplain and pastor at St. Mary’s Church.
“It’s been a terrible, stressful time for all the families involved who’ve been dealing with these situations,” said James Teller, president of the Albany Police Officers Union. “God willing, we’ll get through this and never have a stretch like it again.”
Lt. John Finn remains hospitalized after a shootout with a robbery suspect on Dec. 23.
Around 4:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, 24-year-old David R.A. Scaringe was killed as he walked along Lark Street after two police officers opened fire on a motorist.
A few hours later, before dawn on Thursday, a brawl involving more than 100 people outside a Central Avenue bar left five people injured by gunfire and stabbings before police arrived.
In the wake of Scaringe’s death, police said they have been taunted on the street by bypassers with the catcall: “What are you gonna do? Shoot me, too?”
While police officers were tight-lipped Friday, several officers talked about the emotional roller coaster of an outpouring of public support for Finn swiftly undercut by the Scaringe killing.
“This job is tough to begin with and these tragedies have made it tougher,” Teller said. “It’s difficult to describe if you’re not a cop. We take care of our own and have a feeling that we don’t share our feelings unless it’s someone who’s walked in our shoes.”
Since Finn was wounded, some officers have received free counseling through their employee assistance program, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Detective James Miller.
“These tragedies have left scars on everyone involved and the department is concerned about its officers,” LeFebvre said. “They can’t help the public and do their jobs if they’re so emotionally stressed-out.”
On Friday at the Pepsi Arena, people lined up throughout the day to donate blood in honor of Finn. Red Cross workers stayed two hours past the advertised 2 p.m. conclusion to accommodate the crowd. More than 150 pints of blood were donated, Teller said.
“The support for my son has been wonderful,” said William Finn, the lieutenant’s father, at the Pepsi Arena event. “He’s holding his own, and we’re grateful for all the prayers. Just keep the prayers coming.”
City firefighters sold commemorative T-shirts with Finn’s name on them and collected donations from motorists on South Pearl Street. Hundreds of dollars were raised for the Finn family.
“It’s been an overwhelming turnout, and people have been very supportive of Lt. Finn,” said Sam Fresina, president of the Albany Permanent Professional Firefighters Association.
Fresina said cops and firefighters are linked by their work.
“We’re real tight with the police,” Fresina said. “We count on them to make sure we’re safe when we go on calls into dangerous situations in rough neighborhoods. And we’re there for them when they need us.”
Two University at Albany criminal justice professors, who study police work, said officers are jolted emotionally each time one of their own is shot in the line of duty.
“Whenever a police officer goes down, it underscores for all officers that police work is episodically deadly,” said professor David Bayley. “It certainly re-sensitizes them to the dangerousness of what they’re doing.”
His colleague, Hans Toch, said the recent shootings are “an unfortunate accumulation of incidents that are unrelated, but they’ve come in such quick succession that they could affect an officer’s threshold for reacting to a situation.”
“The timing in these things is split-second, and one hesitates to second-guess what an officer ought to have done with a car coming at him, forced to react instantly in the heat of that moment,” Toch said.
Such razor-thin margins for error, along with the constant danger, define police work. Some cops suggested the violent holiday stretch might cause them to rethink their career choice.
An officer on duty at Central Station in Albany, who did not want to give his name, summed up the sentiment: “I should have joined the fire department.”