Brave Hearts by Cynthia Brown captivated me from the very first pages. I received my copy late on a Friday after a long week dealing with law enforcement issues on my job. I built a cocktail, as is my usual habit, and settled down on the lanai to relax. Many hours later I stumbled off to bed having read the entire first half of the book. By Sunday, I had finished it after devouring every page.
What an outstanding piece of work!
The author has done my brothers and sisters in law enforcement proud and she has done herself proud. With more than twenty years of representing law enforcement officers around the country since leaving the job in 1990, I consider this book to be a must read by law enforcement officers and civilians alike.
The stories of fourteen exemplary officers will instill pride in both rookies and veterans. Perhaps, more importantly, it will set standards for rookies and justify the sacrifices so many veterans have made in the course of their careers. The subtitle, “Extraordinary Stories of Pride, Pain, and Courage” truly describes this book.
The author found the perfect balance between the modest first person narration of the officers with her own deep understanding of how their actions were of great importance to the citizens they protect. Every bit as important is what those actions did to the officers and their families. Brave Hearts should be required reading by every police academy recruit.
For civilians not intimately familiar with police work, or inured to the realities of the job by often hopelessly inaccurate fictitious depictions on television or in film will finally see the true cost of commitment. Those readers will see the true courage and commitment required of these men and women and those they love and those they too often lose through toll the job takes on marriages and families.
The impact the job had on all fourteen families brought back numerous memories and experiences of colleagues and officers I have been proud to work with over the years. There were moments while reading the book that my wife would ask me a question only to look over at me realizing that I couldn’t look up from the book or even speak because of the emotions that the book generated. Given my long reputation for objective discipline, my silence took her by surprise.
I urge everyone to immediately go directly to www.braveheartsbook.com and order Brave Hearts on line by clicking the "Buy Now" button or calling 1-800-270-5317 listed below the button.
Rich Roberts
Director of Special Operations & PIO
International Union of Police Unions, AFL-CIO
No comments:
Post a Comment