REST IN PEACE OFFICER CEDENO

DEATH COMES IN MANY GUISES FOR NYPD MEMBERS

TAGS: POLICE OFFICER ROBERT CEDENO SUICIDE,

66^TH PRECINCT, 78^TH PRECINCT, COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY,

MOS LINE OF DUTY DEATHS, LEC SUICIDES,

CONDOLENCES TO CEDENO FAMILY

(Friday, November 1, 2013 Borough Park, Brooklyn)  No one stationed at Borough Park’s 66^th Precinct knew Officer Robert Cedeno very well.  He had just reported for his newest Command last Monday.  He had stepped out to take a break from his tour around 5:30 and when he did not report back in by 6 o’clock or so, no one knew where he’d gone.  So new in his assignment to the 66^th Precinct was he that his coworkers were not sure what kind of car he drove. They had their questions quickly answered at approximately 7:30 when they discovered him in his car parked in front of the Precinct with what appeared to have been a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.  The 13 year NYPD veteran had apparently taken his own life.  This is a seldom discussed occupational hazard among Members of Service (MOS) in the Law Enforcement Community (LEC). But it is sadly not an uncommon occurrence. 

In the weeks, months and years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in Manhattan, the rates of suicide sharply increased every year for active and retired MOS of the FDNY, PAPD and NYPD.  It has only been within the last three to four years that the incidence of suicide has returned to pre 9-11-01 levels in NYPD where suicide rates have always been higher than in FDNY or PAPD.  There is no acceptable level of suicide for any group, agency or organization, in this case NYPD, but, as we all are too painfully aware, it strikes in the ranks and impacts the entire Department.  Each suicide is a death in the family.

Out of the most sincere and deepest respect for Officer Cedeno, his grieving family and friends, there will be no speculation as to motive.  At this time we offer our condolences and prayers while sharing their grief and sorrow.   

Those who did know Officer Cedeno best were fellow Officers from the 78^th Precinct in Park Slope where he had been assigned until last Monday.  To a person they expressed shock and spoke highly of a “good, dedicated Cop” who was on track for his Gold Detective Shield.  As with any suicide the questions asked have no easy or ready answers.  Everyone who knew the deceased began reassessing the contents of their last phone call with him, the last time they sat and sharing a cup of coffee.  Did I miss something?  Was there any clue?  These questions while quite normal are just too painfully wrenching to contemplate this early in the process.  Grieving and mourning are processes and they must be allowed to follow the natural flow through denial, anger, coping and, someday perhaps acceptance.  This is not the time for questions.

UNNATURAL DEATH

Fire Fighters, First Responders and Law Enforcement Officers are as intimately familiar with sudden unnatural death in all its guises, methods and modes as are Emergency Room personnel and undertakers.  They bear witness to death on a regular basis and must at times cope with the fragile nature of life and the whims of happenstance and circumstance that result in death.  By the same token it is these very same professionals whose chosen occupations that often put their own lives in peril.  While their proximity to death is close they assume the risks that come with their professions with courage and character. 

In another way death brings such professionals closer to each other.  Often their lives depend on their coworkers actions.  The sense of absolute camaraderie, commitment and sacrifice is in evidence in all high risk jobs from coal miners to high steel walkers, iron workers and combat soldiers.  The reliance on each other creates bonds that transcend all superficial differences and are rivaled only by their relationships with their own spouses and families.  For some the working relationships are even more trusted and sure than their marriages. 

Death, it’s been said, sometimes comes like a thief in the night.  At other times it trudges ever closer to a terminally ill patient who has been glimpsing Death approaching from a distance. Sometimes it slips through the bloodied fingers of an EMT rendering aid to a mortally wounded stranger.  No matter how and when Death comes calling it is always a difficult reality to accept.  Sudden death, untimely death that strikes literally out of the blue may be the most tragic; the deceased’s survivors least prepared for the fact that Death has come calling.  Death by one’s own hands is the most inexplicable, the most shocking when there had been no obvious signs that someone close was suffering.  Even when there may have been subtle signs, glimpses that are painfully prophetic only in retrospect, suicide delivers a punch that breaks hearts and rocks souls like no other.  The taking of one’s own life seems so monstrous in a way, so much darker and larger than any of Death’s other forms that the mystery it induces remains shockingly raw often for an agonizingly protracted time.

IN THE LINE OF DUTY

For men and women who toil in the trenches where the presence of Death looms large there comes a grudging sense of coexistence.  Some wonder what fuels such people to routinely perform what they see as “heroic” acts of self-sacrifice.  It is simply in the nature of certain people to choose such occupations and it is only by the bonds of their Brothers and Sisters that they create a unified face staring down the specter of Death.  That which outsiders or “civilians” see as heroism is for these souls routine; more than the Job itself it is how they are viewed in the eyes of their Brothers and Sisters that carries the greatest weight. 

In daily reality few among us will face Death although, as is constantly demonstrated, none of us is guaranteed a tomorrow.  For the few who pass Death in the alleys and streets, in burning buildings, at horrific car crashes or in the heat of battle, they often sneer at Death’s face and go on about their business.

No one may ever learn why Officer Cedeno took his life.  Maybe, at some point in the future someone will.  At this time we can only pray for his Soul, mourn him as a fallen colleague while we remember, respect and honor his 13 years of dedicated service to our City.

Rest in Peace

PO Robert Cedeno

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/killed-rising-star-nypd-article-1.1503914

http://gothamist.com/2013/11/01/cop_fatally_shoots_self_outside_bro.php

Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2013 © All Rights Reserved

HURRICANE SANDY ONE YEAR LATER

WE'RE STILL HERE

TOO MANY STILL WAITING FOR PROMISED AID

 A Statue of The Madonna is all that remained standing on this 
fire ravaged section of Breezy Point after Sandy hit

causing a massive inferno

TAGS: HURRICANE SANDY, SANDY’S AFTERMATH, NYC, NJ, EASTERN SEABOARD,

METRO AREA DAMAGE, SOUTH QUEENS, STATEN ISLAND & NJ COAST,

FEMA, VICTIMS STILL WAITING FOR PROMISED FEDERAL AID, UPROOTED FAMILIES,

DESTROYED NEIGHBORHOODS, HOMELESS IN TEMPORARY HOUSING FOR ONE YEAR

(Tuesday October 29, 2013 Rockaway, NYC)  The advanced warnings were ominous.  There was a storm of epic proportions and ferocity barreling towards the coastlines of New Jersey, Staten Island and the vulnerable low lying communities of South Queens, New York City.  There had never been a storm of such magnitude to strike this region at least in modern times.  While many who could safely evacuate for inland locations many more stayed to ride the storm out; in most scenarios it was the combination of grit and sense of place that kept so many in their apartments and homes even as the wind velocity roared at gale force.  This was going to be a super storm, the “Frankenstorm” of meteorologists’ nightmares.  With the images of massive destruction from Hurricane Katrina that hit the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in particular in 2005 still fresh in the minds of many there was some element of doubt that such a storm would result in comparable damage.  This is New York City, after all and, for all our attitude, bluster and idiosyncratic logic the impending surge still seemed remote.  By some act of nature other unseen prevailing forces would spare our coastline from the worst this storm, Hurricane Sandy, had to offer.  We were sadly so very wrong.

Hurricane Sandy’s wrath was felt along the eastern seaboard from Virginia to Maine but the New Jersey and New York City coastal communities bore the brunt of her fury.  She veered inland just north of New York City and carried her destruction well into the suburban counties until losing momentum and disintegrating into a defanged but still hostile remnant of what she had been just days before. 

It was one year ago today that Sandy came to visit and what she left in her wake cannot be fully quantified or qualified; yes, homes and businesses can be counted but the damage done to so many people, families and psyches has not abated for many.  To this day there are hundreds living in “temporary housing”  many of whom have been waiting for the financial aid and resources the federal government assured the would be coming in short order.  A year is not “soon” by anyone’s calculations. To walk this long stretch of barrier islands and beachfront communities from Coney Island to Breezy Point, Laurelton to Far Rockaway and points in between is to walk through what had been tightly knit neighborhoods were generations of New Yorker’s were raided and had been raising their children until Sandy forever altered their lives and reality.     A ferry ride from Battery Park to Staten Island will show the same horrific chaotic landscape of torn houses, broken trees and scars left behind by the storm surge that crested there and raced inward sucking away so many homes and cars as that angry crest receded.  

Lives were lost in that storm and many lives saved by the heroics of neighbors, friends, civil servants and strangers.  Many lives remain in shambled disarray due to the inability of the federal government to live up to its promises.  Ironically many of the most vocal opponents of federal aid for the damaged coasts of New York and New Jersey have since come hat in hand before their Congressional colleagues seeking similar aid for their home districts in the wake of floods, fires and tornadoes.  These senators and congressmen represent the worst of the worst and that they can lambast Sandy’s victims while pleading for help for their own constituents is the height of hypocrisy and immorality.  But that is all we can expect from Washington DC.  New York City alone sends far more revenue to Washington than it will ever receive in return. The  NYC Metropolitan Area collectively sends more revenue to Washington than all of Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas combined yet New Yorkers are viewed with contempt by the legislators in Washington?  That is a stunning fact and a very telling statement as to the rabid partisanship that defines our do nothing Congress.

But the strange politics of Washington are not the story.  No.  The story is of individuals and collective resilience, tenacity and character.  It is a story of neighborhoods where the small homes are passed down through generations.  These communities are home to many Members of Service of the FDNY and NYPD as well as tradesman, construction workers and teachers, just to list a few.  They are and have always been blue collar in the best sense of that term.  Their blue collar-ness is seen in their strength of character and body, in their ability to stand back up after being blindsided and bowled over. 

Those who have been able to have rebuilt while, far too many wait for the promised assistance from FEMA to start the rebuilding process.  Still others will never be able to return for whatever practical reasons have cast them adrift long after the storm subsided.  Sandy dealt wicked blows to our City but, as always, we have stood back up and are stronger for the fight.

Many stories of heartache and heroism became known after the storm; many more will remain anonymously in the hearts and minds of those touched by the courage and grace of others. 

The Far Rockaway branch of the Long Island Railroad is just a short siding-like jog from the Main Lines that carry commuters from the more affluent communities in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.  Traveling west back into Manhattan after changing at the hub in Jamaica Queens there are fewer and fewer reminders of the great storm that smashed as she made landfall one year ago tonight.  Arriving at the end of the line in Penn Station that places such as The Rockaways and Fire Island are part of the same City seems odd.  Although surrounded by water on all side New Yorkers seem to give little thought to our maritime past, our rich history as a port of call for immigrants, freighters, oilers and passenger ships.  We are a City like many others born of a seafaring past.  Every now and then the remnants of tropical depression will die a slow death over our City; sometimes, especially at this time of year, meteorological conditions will combine to create a potent Nor’easter , a cold air mass from Canada collides with the remaining force of a tropical storm that hugs the coastline as it moves north and drenches our City. 

It is at that particular time of the year that the early morning air carries the scent of the salty water of our rivers and Bay.  The cool Autumn air takes away the smog and grit from the recently receded Summer and the salt scent is welcome; but it is a harbinger of what is to come next.  Winter will be upon us shortly and the salt will be captured by the frigid waters that will often coalesce into chunks of ice.  On this day in particular we are reminded of our precarious perch on the coastal edge of a country that spans far to the west of us.  On this special day of remembering we are all mindful of our neighbor to the east, the expansive Atlantic Ocean and the fury she can unleash. 

To all of those lost, taken by the sea and surf,

By the fires and storms fury,

Rest In Peace

and

For all those who survived and are still coping

With the hardships Sandy left behind

Our thoughts and Prayers are with you all.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurricane-sandy/mini-documentary-story-behind-hurricane-sandy-article-1.1499804

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurricane-sandy/sandy-vics-60-billion-aid-article-1.1499613

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hurricane-sandy/hurricane-sandy-year-rockaways-article-1.1494222

http://www.nydailynews.com/sandy-1-year-storm-winds-article-1.1495677

http://nypost.com/2013/10/29/the-long-climb-back-following-hurricane-sandy/

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/nyregion/for-subway-riders-fallout-from-hurricane-may-last-years.html?ref=nyregion

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/nyregion/coming-back-a-year-of-recovery.html?ref=nyregion

http://abcnews.go.com/US/jersey-residents-waiting-hurricane-sandy-rebuilding-money/story?id=20371933

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57609702/coney-island-residents-still-feel-forgotten-one-year-after-superstorm-sandy/

Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2013 © All Rights Reserved

IT’S THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: NOT “OBAMACARE”

CALLING THIS LANDMARK LEGISLATION BY SUCH A

DERISIVE TERM ONLY CLOUDS THE ISSUE

TAGS: AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 2009, ACA UPHELD BY SUPREME COURT,

MESSAGE DISCIPLINE, DEFINING THE DEBATE, PRESIDENT OBAMA’S

SIGNATURE LEGISLATIVE ACT, GOP OPPONENTS MUDDY THE WATERS,

“OBAMACARE” IS A DERISIVE, DISMISSIVE LABEL

(Tuesday October 22, 2013 Washington, DC)  For all the swanky techno sophistication the candidate Obama employed during his first run for office you would think he would be better at utilizing two of the tools that propelled him from the obscurity of a freshman senator from Illinois with no national name recognition, through a brutal primary against the once towering Clinton Machine and ultimately into the White House; messaging and marketing.  With a legion of computer geeks and nerdy volunteers the Obama campaign in 2008 capitalized on the growing array of “social networking” and Internet based social media to construct a formidable grassroots “ground game” and a broad coalition comprised of various demographics. 

Given his success as a persuasive candidate able to attract followers with lofty often hyperbolic rhetoric as well as by rigid adherence to a handful of proposed policy initiatives developed by his “Chicago Operatives”, it has been more than disappointing to see how he has been unable to govern with any real effectiveness despite two landslide victories.  Some argue that he has proven to be unsuited for his current office; others say his cool, aloof demeanor and reputation represents a deeper disdain for retail politicking and cajoling Congress; two essential duties of any president operating with a divided government.

Designating himself as an agent of change in 2008 he has now become, just a year into his second term, a president uninterested in the nuts and bolts of the legislative process, turned off by the “business as usual” attitude in an extremely partisan time with no appetite for the mechanics of the two party system that has allowed our government to at least run with some modicum of consistency for 236 years.  Sure, the ride has often been rough, the roads traveled rutted and pitted but still the trips were completed and life went on.  For most of the most divisive debates in Congress it has appeared that the president has not even wanted to get in the car let alone take the wheel.  Quite the contrary.  He still has three more years to right some of his wrongs and recalibrate his internal compass. 

MARKETING AND MESSAGE

It is a well-known axiom in public relations that he who defines the debate will usually win it.  Since our electoral politics have morphed into a hybrid form of PR and marketing this axiom is even more relevant. One of the most damaging errors the Obama administration has made may seem trivial to some but, from a messaging perspective, it was a huge blunder.  The presiden and his staff should never have allowed the term “Obamacare” to become the label assigned to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the Republicans, right wing zealots, Tea Partiers, and the conservative establishment.  It is one matter when your opponents utilize demeaning, misleading and trivializing terminology for a piece of legislation or an initiative; it is a completely different matter when proponents use it as well.

Back when Ronald Reagan was running for president in 1980, he had a tough primary with George H.W. Bush also known now as Bush I.  Bush I repeatedly used the terms “Voodoo Economics”, “Reaganomics” and “Trickle-down Economics” to disparage what he saw as unsound positions posited by his opponent.  Bush I hammered Reagan with these terms and journalists and pundits alike came to use these derisive terms regularly.  One thing that did not happen was that Ronald Reagan himself nor did any of his advisors, operatives or inner circle ever utter any one of those phrases in public.  To have done so would have been to lower his campaign and his economic message (no matter how unsound it actually was and proved to be) to nothing more than some bickering over slogans.  George H.W. Bush went on to serve as President Reagan’s Vice President from 1980 thru 1988.  Some close to Reagan have written that Reagan never fully forgave Bush for calling his economic plan Voodoo or Trickle-down economics or Reaganomics.  Reagan’s campaign was so tautly disciplined and well run that it ushered in the new era of politicking that we have seen so negatively affect our electoral process.  Some point to the Republican operative Lee Atwater as the founder of the “slash and burn” tactics used so flagrantly in campaigns today.  The use of sophisticated polling, focus groups and other quantifying metrics are as much a vital component of modern campaigns that candidates who cannot afford the services of “professionals” in public relations, advertising, polling, marketing, crisis management, media consultants and a host of other sub-specialties do not stand a chance especially if they are hoping to unseat an incumbent or break out of the pack of a Party primary.

Bill Clinton used many of the strategies and tactics first employed by the GOP, et al and was infamous for his dependence on and faith in polling.  As his personal campaign pollster, Dick Morris has oft said, Bill Clinton would commission polls at the drop of a hat; there was no issue or topic that Clinton did not first want to be poll tested.  His successor, George W. Bush and his campaign refined all the previously utilized methods in his campaigns.

Political professionals are almost as abundant in Washington DC today that their numbers are topped only by the legions of lobbyists, political action committees (PACs) and special interest consultants, advisers and lawyers.  Campaigning today on the national level most particularly, but also in Congressional and Governors races is an industry.  It is a dirty filthy industry fueled by outright lies, deception and all manner of sleight of hand tricks.  That is why message discipline, staying “on point”, as they say is so important.  President Obama should have never even once referred to his single most ambitious, defining piece of legislation by his enemies’ term.  Now, “Obamacare” is so embedded in our public discourse that it has reduced the scale and scope of the ACA to the status of a cheap bumper sticker mockery of its true value as a signature legislative victory for this President.

THE DANGERS OF REDUCTIONISM

When we allow vitally important matters of broad public interest to be reduced to just so many clichés’ and sophomoric slogans we are playing in to the hands of the politicos and their operatives who count on a “dumb” electorate.  As one of the oldest Democratic Republics on earth, the United States of America has come in to the 21^st century complacent, cynical, and distrusting of all politicians.  As well we should.  However, as fewer and fewer among us take it as a responsibility to become informed voters with some deeper familiarity with the issues of the day aside from the crap we are exposed to on the extreme ends of the political spectrum in the partisan infotainment media, we will see our needs and interests fade further into the quagmire of Washington DC.  We have already become disengaged from our Congressional delegations and we have allowed enormous wealth of a few individuals hold huge sway over electoral politics as well as actual governance.  This is a distinctly unhealthy state of affairs and to have the American people re-engage with the important issues will be a difficult undertaking. 

We seem to think in very black and white terms when it comes to our politics as Americans.  This is clearly reflected in the divided gridlocked condition of Congress.  So rabidly partisan has the process become that those elected to the highest offices in the land no longer even pretend to have our best interest in mind; they no longer make the most timid efforts to conceal their disregard not only for the Constitution but also their constituents.  Voters have been reduced to hardcore blocs on the far Left and far Right with those who identify as moderates or centrists basically an extinct breed. 

Sadly we have become a nation divided, divided by radical ideology on both sides of the aisle that prohibits accommodation and compromise each of which are requisites for effective governance.    As at no other time in our history have the decks of power been so stacked; our representative government has devolved into nothing more than the white collar equivalent of professional wrestling.  The only difference between the antics of spandex clad buffoons in contrived wrestling matches and politicians is that politicians wear expensive suits. 

IT’S THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, STUPID

During Bill Clinton’s first presidential run his campaign was famous for having an operational “War Room”.  The mission of the war room was to counterpunch every attack, negative ad or embarrassing revelation that came their way.  They were also famous for strict adherence to a simple message that was coined by the Democratic serpent-like looking campaign guru James Carville.  The war room was plastered with signs that read, “It’s the economy, stupid”.  This was intended to constantly remind everyone involved that no matter what his primary opponents or his ultimate rival, the incumbent President Bush I threw at them, their most effective rejoinder was to always deftly tact away from the superficial issues, innuendo and rumors by turning to “focus like a laser beam on the economy”. That message discipline allowed a very flawed and damaged Arkansas governor to unseat and incumbent president who just months before the election had a whopping 97% approval rating due in large part for the success of the first Gulf War. Had the Clinton campaign not defined the real issue, he would most likely have been soundly defeated.

The Obama Administration, their allies and proxies, should completely abandon the use of the term “Obamacare” and always call it by its real name, the Affordable Care Act. In a time when media and message are everything the President needs to be far more disciplined in his message and far less aloof in talking it up. The ACA passed in 2009, was brutally attacked and ridiculed during the 2012 campaign as “socialized medicine”, “government run health care” and as an Act of government that would undermine the profitability of “small businesses” and saddle people with a severe tax penalty if they failed to purchase some form of health care insurance which was easily labeled as “the individual mandate”. The US Supreme Court upheld some of the most hotly contested components of the ACA and still the rancorous partisan gutter fighting continues.  Since message is everything the debate that began when the ACA was winding a serpentine route through Congress every misrepresentation of it and its specific clauses should have been corrected by the Administration.

RHETORIC AND REALITY

  

At the end of the debate when all the tired arguments have proven to be gross misconceptions promulgated by the GOP and her bombastic media machine in the form of Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly and the rest of FOX “News”,there will be a system up and running that will allow some people who have lived for years without access to health care to have that reality profoundly altered.  The Democratic Party has on again, off again, since the post-depression days of FDR tried to provide some form of government regulated health care.  Republicans, on the other hand, have fought each and every such initiative savagely often appealing to the basest instincts of their Party’s members.  They speak incessantly now of working to “repeal” the ACA when they must also realize deep inside that to promote such an appeal is a bogus argument.  To repeal a law it requires a 60% vote from Congress as well as a signature from the President to make it official.  Anyone who believes President Obama would actually repeal his own signature accomplishment probably needs quality mental health care urgently.  Its health care, the ACA, stupid. 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/165548/approval-affordable-care-act-inches.aspx?utm_source=google&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=syndication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

http://www.cbo.gov/topics/health-care/affordable-care-act

https://www.healthcare.gov/

https://www.healthcare.gov/how-does-the-affordable-care-act-affect-me/

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/report/2013/10/23/77537/the-affordable-care-acts-lower-than-projected-premiums-will-save-190-billion/

Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2013 © All Rights Reserved