PAX Centurion - March / April 2015

www.bppa.org PAX CENTURION • March/April 2015 • Page 17 Only fools don’t appreciate how police protect us By Joe Fitzgerald, Boston Herald Representing and providing counsel to members of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association since 1993 regarding critical incidents, criminal and departmental investigations, and civil rights matters. Many members have also sought our guidance and representation in a wide variety of matters, particularly personal injury claims on behalf of injured officers and/or their family and friends. We also provide representation in criminal and civil litigation, real estate and estate planning. We invite you to learn more about Byrne & Anderson, L.L.P. by visiting our website – ByrneAnderson.com JAMES E. BYRNE KENNETH H. ANDERSON ERIC S. GOLDMAN • JONATHAN E. TOBIN • ANDREW H. MILLER 50 Redfield Street, Boston, MA 02122 (617) 265-3900 • Fax (617) 265-3627 W ith the ugly exception of those fools who railed at the police last Friday night on Humboldt Avenue, officer John T. Moynihan is everyone’s son, everyone’s brother, as he clings to life at Boston Medical Center this morn- ing. That’s how it is with cops these days; they’re seen as heroes only when they’re mortally or catastrophi- cally wounded in their perilous line of duty. Other- wise, they’ve become punching bags for marauding mobs of hell-raisers masquerading as protesters. This is insanity. Have we lost our senses in under- standing who the good guys are? There’s a memory here of an outraged merchant standing in front of his burned-out business in Ferguson, MO, screaming into a CNN camera, “Where are the police?” The answer was they were a block away, being spit upon by anarchists. Moynihan’s unit, known as theYouthViolence Strike Force, works on the front lines of lawlessness, dealing directly with cold- blooded predators, but no one cheers their valor until a John Moyni- han goes down. Who cheered Moynihan’s colleague, officer Jean Jean-Louis, Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Nora Baston embraces a woman after a mass at St. Patrick’s Church for wounded officer John T. Moynihan. Photo by Faith Ninivaggi, Boston Herald when he chased after two armed partygoers whom he’d seen shooting at the occupants of a car in the middle of the night? Who cheered his colleague, Detective Brian Smigielski, when he chased a suspect into a darkened rear yard, illuminated only by his See Fools on page 18