When routine breaks in harm's way

For one police officer, it was a routine traffic stop. For another, a domestic dispute. And for a third, it was a call to assist officers.

Three police officers going about what -- for most cops -- passes as the equivalent of a typical day at the office.

The word hero, even superhero, is often used to describe the men and women who sign on to do such work.

But they are mere mortals.

They have spouses and children. They volunteer their time to a kid's sports team or their local firehouse.

They have parents, siblings and friends, and colleagues close enough to qualify as family.

It takes an extraordinary breed of our species to put themselves in harm's way, day after day after day.

Three times over the past five weeks, police officers with Long Island roots, strong and deep, died in the line of duty, doing the nuts and bolts of police work.

On Feb. 4, Michael Califano, 44, of Wantagh, a Nassau County police officer, died after the car he was in was struck by a flatbed truck on the Long Island Expressway. Califano had pulled over a motorist to the shoulder at Exit 39 for a routine traffic stop.

The husband and father of three young sons was the first Nassau officer killed in the line of duty since 1993.

Geoffrey J. Breitkopf would be the second.

On March 12, Breitkopf, 40, of Selden, a member of the department's elite Bureau of Special Operations, was accidentally shot to death by a Metropolitan Transit Authority officer as he walked, with a black M4 assault rifle on a sling under his arm, barrel pointed down, toward a house in Massapequa Park.

Breitkopf and a partner went to the scene after fellow officers had called for backup. The husband and father of two young sons, who also volunteered as a local firefighter, arrived after officers had shot and killed a suspect.

Hours later, Alain Schaberger, 42, a New York City police officer who grew up in East Islip, died after he was shoved over a railing by a suspect while answering a domestic dispute call in Brooklyn. He fell 9 feet onto a cement stairway and broke his neck.

Schaberger, who was engaged to be married in the summer, was the first city officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2009.

All three, and their families, knew full well the dangers of the job. But sometimes -- especially during current fiscal hard times, when generous Long Island salaries are under attack -- the rest of us can forget.

Policing is a hard occupation. There's no way of knowing when even the most routine of calls will turn dangerous. Tonight on Long Island, there are wakes for Breitkopf and Schaberger who, like Califano, did not make it home to their families after work.

Rest in peace, officers. Rest in peace.

By Joye Brown
Posted Saturday, March 19, 2011

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