A coworker and I recently had a conversation about law enforcement. It ended with me saying ‘If I call 9-1-1 then I want a cop showing up not some social worker.’
These are the small percentage of society (.0023%) that exit their vehicle and ask how they can help any situation when hailed or harassed as the rest of us likely hit the gas and flee.
Thankfully, 800,000 Americans pin a badge to their chest each day. Me? I show up at work and talk into a microphone. Maybe you shuffle a few papers or make some phone calls. Some of us don’t even leave our houses for professional endeavors. Yet every two weeks several numbers are digitally added to our bank accounts. What a different life those of law enforcement are called to.
They are the ones who kiss their spouse, pat their kid on the back, and head out on patrol. They run into burning buildings, chase suspects into dark alleys, calm domestic situations, pull over negligent car owners not knowing what hell will be unleashed on them. They do all this regardless of your color, creed, or sexual orientation.
They are the men and women of law enforcement. The ‘thin blue line’ between Heaven and Hell, chaos and order, peace and conflict, life and death. I once heard someone say, ‘if you close all the churches you will not have enough police.’ That statement seems to be coming truer with each passing day.
In the first 4 months of 2021, the ‘end of watch’ came for 119 active members of law enforcement. 392 officers died in the line of duty in 2020.
According to the ‘Officer Down Memorial Page’ (odmp.org), FIVE officers…..5……F-I-V-E…were KILLED at work LAST WEEK! FIVE IN ONE WEEK! I will state their names!
• Officer Anastasios Tsakos of the NYPD was redirecting traffic when a drunk driver swerved around the blockage and ran him over.
• Corporal Keith Heacock of the Delmar, MD Police responded to a call of a fight. The suspect assaulted him and stomped on his head until he was dead.
• Sergeant Chris Ward of the Watauga, NC Sheriff’s office responded to a ‘welfare check’ request. He was shot and killed by the person he was called to help.
• Deputy Sheriff Logan Fox of the Watauga, NC Sheriff’s office responded along with Sergeant Ward. He was shot by the same person and died at a hospital.
• Officer Christopher Farrar of the Chandler, AZ Police was struck and killed by a truck driven by the known felon he was pursuing.
I am not naive. I know that some of our neighbors, for good reason, do not trust the badge. I know not all officers are upstanding.
There are scumbags in every profession. It does not matter if that profession is the media, education, research, clergy, plumbing or pipe-fitting. It does not matter if that person volunteers with the Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4H, Little League, the YMCA or the Boys & Girls Club.
A certain percentage of the adult population, say 3-5%, is bad. You may know or have a feeling of who may be the evil is in your office. Policing is no different than any other profession in that regard.
However, ‘evil’ in the ranks gets enough attention from my profession. Besides, many of the ugly stories reported in the news actually change when the facts of each case come to light. Some outlets conveniently never acknowledge them. Today, I will focus on the good.
On Friday, Larry Richert and I welcomed a true hero to the KDKA Radio Morning Show. She is a mother, daughter, neighbor, and an angel among us. I casually met her last year at a friend’s home but was stunned to see her image on TV last week.
The woman I met as ‘Kristin’ is professionally known as ‘Officer Mitrisin’ of the Pleasant Hills Police Department. Her husband also serves in law enforcement in a different South Hills community.
Thank God for both of them.
I was glued to every word as Officer Mitrisin recalled to us the emotional ordeal she encountered during a recent Saturday on the job. A Saturday that found her hosting the ‘National Drug Take Back’ which allows residents to drop off unused prescription drugs that they no longer need.
She was traveling down Rt. 51 in a marked police vehicle to properly dispose of the drugs at the DEA Center in McKees Rocks when someone frantically honked and waived to get her attention. Instead of hitting the gas or starting to film for social media clicks or ignoring the noise as many of us would do, Officer Mitrisin rolled down her window and asked how she could help.
‘He said, ‘YES, please. I need to get to the hospital because my baby is not breathing.’ Mitrisin replied, ‘I need to help you here, sir. Please pull over.’ The man exited his car holding a limp body that was turning blue. “He then asked me, ‘can you please help?” as he held a 9-day old baby.
They went to the tailgate of her truck where Officer Mitrisin began performing CPR and doing chest compressions on the tiny body. Finally - a gasp for breath and ‘the best cry I ever heard.’
Divine Intervention put her near the intersection of Stewart Avenue near Route 88 on that day. A new mother and father, no doubt scared beyond expression, were watching their 9-day old infant’s life slowly leave her fragile body.
‘I think God had a plan for me that day. He definitely put me there at that time - somewhere that I shouldn’t have been on a day when I shouldn’t have been there.’
Officer Mitrisin saved a life.
It was all in a day’s work. Baby Olivia is reportedly doing well but that initial struggle for life was just the first of several fights she faces.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help defray the family’s costs of surgeries that Olivia has had as a result of, prior to last Saturday, a previously undetected heart condition.
I must also note that just outside Officer Mitrisin’s office on East Bruceton Rd. is a memorial to Albert James Breisinger and two young boys. Everyone in Pleasant Hills affectionately knew the 23-year old patrolman as ‘Alby.’ Officer Breisinger was overcome by carbon dioxide on a Sunday in September of 1979 while selflessly trying to save young Kenny & Brad, who fell ill and died while climbing in an abandoned mine shaft.
In mid-April in the city of Pittsburgh, Zone 3 Officer Aundre Wright was walking a beat in Homewood with Officers Jon Bradford, Brian Shelton, and Dom Maggio. It was a beat Officer Wright and the others were not supposed to be on that day. But that did not matter when a frantic motorist flagged them down because a man was unresponsive in a nearby doorway.
Wright ran to the scene and applied 4 doses of a powerful overdose-reversal drug then began administering chest compressions. Chief Scott Schubert was nearby and RAN to the scene to assist. Life returned to the victim several long, agonizing minutes later.
In an era when slandering or calling for the abolition of the police is fashionable aren’t you glad they ignore the defaming comments when they answer your call?
Seriously, who else would rush to the scene to save you? How many times have we seen civilians only film someone’s distress or simply walk on by?
Please remember that there are no ‘routine’ calls or traffic stops. National Police Week is coming up. Peace Officers Memorial Day is May 15th. A simple ‘thank you’ or gesture of gratitude or a small donation to a nearby department would be a nice way to begin better relations.
Thank you.
Kevin Battle is cohost of the KDKA Radio Morning Show with Larry Richert. The show airs 5a-9a on Pittsburgh’s 100.1FM & AM1020 KDKA and the Audacy app.
Listen to Larry & Kevin’s interview with Officer Mitrisin here:
Click here to read Kevin Battle’s ‘Oversimplified Rules To Stop Violence.’