Tuesday, November 28, 2006 Obenieta: Goodah! By Myke U. Obenieta So to Speak
All we have to hear is a cop’s whistle to whip us into accepting the way things have turned awry: We’re used to bad news.
If no less than a bubonic plague has benighted public trust while peace and order has gone to the sewers, it’s no thanks to the recklessness of some rodents out of the PNP.
And so it happens that stereotyping or shoving people in a box has been no sweat as we shudder at our ho-hum perception of the police force. Of mice and men in uniform, the media have been cranking out a cracked image enough to accustom us into expecting the worst.
But the best is yet come, or so we grope for rose-colored spectacles in search of good examples.
Will PO1 Jerome Morales please stand up, and swear there’s more to his line of duty than meets the projectile of spit and raised eyebrows?
For a cool change yesterday, Morales proved a law enforcer can make headlines without whittling himself down to the level of hooligans or slapstick comedians.
No, sir, one doesn’t have to be seen as a crocodile (which is unfair to the reptile, really). Nor go inside a motel for a quickie while on duty and then shoot himself in the mouth while telling us there was nowhere else he could have relieved himself of his diarrhea.
To his fellow officers whose ignominies have become front-page stuff enough to pack rotten eggs with, Morales might as well have struck a Pacquiao punch smack at the solar plexus.
Down with the disdain, indeed. A knockout reality check for all of us cynics who have deemed it convenient too see our law enforcement with a black eye.
Here’s one policeman, believe it or not, who dares to be different and compels us to wish he were the rule instead of the exception.
Consider the details of the news about his exploits while off-duty: Morales had just heard mass with his family when he got in the way of a robbery suspect who allegedly robbed two women in a jeepney, then held hostage a hotel intern along Gen. Maxilom Avenue. “Officer resolves hostage drama,” beams up the headline. “Robbery suspect gets shot, but no one else injured.”
If this column sounded like slurping, come on, isn’t it swell to hold back the usual urge to gnash one’s teeth for a change and just, excuse me, whistle for even a rat’s tail of a chance to savor the scarce whiff of good news?
