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Respect the Blue Line

ByRandy Nicholas

Yes indeed. Call them the Thin Blue Line, the police, the cops, or anything that is respectable. The men and women who “protect and serve” our communities deserve to be respected. I have better than average insight into the life of a policeman, because my earthly father was one in our hometown of Humboldt, TN. His name was Ralph Nicholas, and he retired as a captain after a historic 35 years of service to the city that he loved and protected. I say that it was historic because at one point in his career, he was honored as one of the top three living law enforcement officers with the longest streak of consecutive years of service. Considering the other two men, one was another policeman from Memphis and the other fellow was a TN State Trooper.

Oh, I have stories to tell… many of them. My dad was one of those larger-than-life, John Wayne types; a man’s man (if you know what I mean). My dad was a rock in my family, not just my immediate family, but in the extended Nicholas family as a whole. If you needed a firm, no-nonsense answer to a tough question, my dad had it to give. However, he delivered the answer with wisdom and conviction. Dad started his law enforcement in the military while he served in the army in Korea. If memory serves me, part of his service there was as an MP. After coming home from his military service, he soon found his way into the Humboldt Police Dept.

Here are a few of those interesting facts about dad:

  • Dad’s nickname was “Big Junior” because when he came to work in the late ’50’s, he was known as a tough young, but big guy who was fearless in his work.
  • At one time, dad was one of the top three (or five, I can’t remember for sure) shots with a handgun in the state of Tennessee.
  • Early in his career as a cop, dad started out simply knocking out criminals during fights, until he discovered that he would often sprain his wrist with the force expended. Ultimately, he went to the tried and true hickory stick to disable belligerent criminal types.
  • When he was a young cop, he sometimes drove a Harley-Davidson trike on the street.
  • Again, in those early days, the city had ONE police car, so when dad’s night beat was a high crime area in a tough neighborhood… he would often fight, knock down criminals, and chain them to a telephone pole by the street until the car could come to pick up the offender. At times, he might even have to fight two or three people single-handedly.
  • Once, way back when I was a young child, dad introduced me to Buford Pusser when we bumped into him at the Humboldt Lake (as it used to be known).
  • Oh, there is a lot more, but I must wrap up 🙂

So, I have seen my dad incredibly scary angry, and I have seen him exhibit amazing calm during trying times. As I finish this little post, I’d remind you that policemen (and women) are humans who have good days and bad days, just like you. In our modern culture, they are expected to take inordinate amounts of verbal abuse from idiots, who then expect to be protected from other idiots who break the law. If we do not allow the Blue Line to do their job properly, we will all pay the price in the end.

Be kind to the police in your circle of life, you may just need them sometime.

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