# Cleveland police honored as heroes. For what? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 16, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520 "2013-05-16T16:37:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/1 "2013-05-16T16:37:38Z")
The police officers who responded to the 911 call about the women held hostage are being lauded as heroes. Why? They didn’t find them themselves, the women and the child were the only ones in the house at the time. It may be remarkable circumstances, but I’m not seeing anything but ordinary performance at their job. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/2 "2013-05-16T18:38:24Z")
It’s the age of lowered expectations. Just showing up to work/game/whatever seems to be enough to warrant recognition of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/3 "2013-05-16T18:39:08Z")
I like the game the media is playing in Cleveland: “Find the hero.” “Not me” says the guy who first helped the women. “Not me” says the police. We will have to wait until they are ready to speak before we will know if the women themsleves are the heros. The media coverage may implode if they say “not me.” Apparently every story has to have a hero these days and, in the absense of anything useful to do, the thousand and one reporters covering the story full time are going to find him or her damn it. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/4 "2013-05-16T19:02:20Z")
\*Merriam-Webster Definition of HERO 1a : a mythological or legendary figure often of divine descent endowed with great strength or ability b : an illustrious warrior c : a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d : one who shows great courage \* Yeah, I appreciate their role in bringing a legal and official end to the kidnapping and rape but don’t see how it would go beyond an expected performance of duties and be elevated to the level of extraordinary bravery or the like. If they had been the ones to bring a quicker end (like in years maybe?) to the situation then that would be a noble, laudable effort. But that didn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/5 "2013-05-16T19:04:42Z")
> [@shiftless](#): > > I like the game the media is playing in Cleveland: “Find the hero.” “Not me” says the guy who first helped the women. “Not me” says the police. We will have to wait until they are ready to speak before we will know if the women themsleves are the heros. The media coverage may implode if they say “not me.” > > Apparently every story has to have a hero these days and, in the absense of anything useful to do, the thousand and one reporters covering the story full time are going to find him or her damn it. I do not know if anyone but the media are using the H word here, so I’m not getting on the cops about this. But yeah, it’s probably all media, and the other H word. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/6 "2013-05-16T19:26:11Z")
Heroic cops are apparently those not so weighted down by donuts that they can no longer fit in their cruisers and respond to calls. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/7 "2013-05-16T19:28:59Z")
Well, the original media designated hero, Charles Ramsey, was the black guy next door who was the initial person who Amanda Berry ran to while he was eating his McDonalds, turned out to have a bit of an unsavory past. He had been arrested in the past for domestic violence. So he cannot be used as the heroic icon of the moment. Even though he was the one who kicked in the door and got Amanda to safety. He had a history, damn it! So now the heroes are the police who responded later. Because although you can have a tainted hero in the movies, one is not allowed in real life. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/8 "2013-05-16T19:35:46Z")
Its a huge stretch calling cops that walk into a house and escort two women out heroes. The suspect was at his moms eating dinner. AFAIK he didn’t even have a gun. I’ve read no reports of weapons found at the house at all. Cops do heroic things quite often. But this just wasn’t one of them. Really it was just another day on the job for the cops. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/9 "2013-05-16T19:44:01Z")
I gotcher recreational outrage at the Cleveland PD right here at the Daily Beast. [Cleveland Kidnapping, Anthony Sowell Case Linked by Indifferent Police](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/08/cleveland-kidnapping-anthony-sowell-case-linked-by-indifferent-police.html) "At least some of those murders and rapes could have been prevented if the police had not reacted so indifferently when a distraught woman called them in September 2008, after being repeatedly raped, beaten, and choked by Sowell. She had at one point sought refuge in a bathroom, where she saw a headless body wrapped in plastic and positioned in a sitting position in the bathtub. …snipped…She called the police. “They told me I had to come in and make a report,” she would testify. She further testified that she asked the dispatcher, “How do I get there?” The dispatcher told her: “Come in and make a report. We can’t take a report over the phone.” She told the court that after the call, “I felt less than human. I didn’t know who to turn to.” This stuff makes Cleveland sounds like twenty implausibly bad horror movies running concurrently. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/10 "2013-05-16T19:46:43Z")
To some degree, it’s a cop’s job (and a firefighter’s, and a soldier’s, and a few other professions) to be a hero. It doesn’t cease to be heroism just because it’s their job. The bigger danger here, I think, is that by attaching the “hero” label specifically to those cops who happened to be on call for this particular high-profile case, we might diminish all the other cops who were also just doing their jobs, and just happened to not be involved in this one. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/11 "2013-05-16T20:01:31Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > Well, the original media designated hero, Charles Ramsey, was the black guy next door who was the initial person who Amanda Berry ran to while he was eating his McDonalds, turned out to have a bit of an unsavory past. Kinda shortened his fifteen minutes of fame to a mere fourteen. OTOH, his transgressions pale compared to keeping 3 girls locked up and fucked up for 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/12 "2013-05-16T20:12:35Z")
Locally at least Charles Ramsey is still being celebrated. [http://www.kcra.com/news/national/charles-ramsey-gets-his-own-burger/-/11797450/20168690/-/46i7cb/-/index.html](http://www.kcra.com/news/national/charles-ramsey-gets-his-own-burger/-/11797450/20168690/-/46i7cb/-/index.html) Hodges Restaurant is selling a Ramsey burger and selling T shirts to aid the families of the kidnapped girls. Hodges is where Charles works in the kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![miss\_elizabeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@miss\_elizabeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/miss_elizabeth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/13 "2013-05-16T20:26:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > To some degree, it’s a cop’s job (and a firefighter’s, and a soldier’s, and a few other professions) to be a hero. It doesn’t cease to be heroism just because it’s their job. The bigger danger here, I think, is that by attaching the “hero” label specifically to those cops who happened to be on call for this particular high-profile case, we might diminish all the other cops who were also just doing their jobs, and just happened to not be involved in this one. I get where you’re coming from, but it’s particularly silly to call the cops in this case heroes. They weren’t in any real danger. It just wasn’t heroic. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/14 "2013-05-16T20:54:03Z")
So, who’s the hero in this thread? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/15 "2013-05-16T21:19:25Z")
Who’s honoring them? This is a huge embarrassment for them. If they want to be heroes they can find some of the other women gone missing from Cleveland. > [@BMalion](#): > > So, who’s the hero in this thread? lieu, for having a dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cleveland-police-honored-as-heroes-for-what/658520/16 "2013-05-17T16:11:09Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The police officers who responded to the 911 call about the women held hostage are being lauded as heroes. Why? They didn’t find them themselves, the women and the child were the only ones in the house at the time. It may be remarkable circumstances, but I’m not seeing anything but ordinary performance at their job. Same could be said for Boston PD. After they had that entire suburb on house lock down for 2 days, they cancelled the lock down and told the town, after a thorough door to door search, the suspect was gone. It was a civilian who then found the perp in the boat, after the police mega force left. Then, they fired 100 bullets at close range into a fiber glass boat, yet it seemS his shot to the neck was from the previous shoot out , where he got away. Plus now we learn they also shot up one of their own unmarked police cars as an officer was responding.