Opinion/Letters: Barnstable Citizen's Police Academy highlights agency's 'finest people'
My parents taught me to always respect others, especially teachers and police officers. I retired from my corporate job in 2009 and since 2011 I have been working in the Barnstable Public Schools. It didn't take too long for me to understand why my parents taught me to respect teachers — it's a difficult job.
Regarding police officers; My wife and I along with 37 others just completed the Barnstable Citizen's Police Academy. It's a 10-week, in-depth, and transparent look at just about every aspect of the Barnstable Police Department. Here is a sampling of some of the topics covered:
— The selection process for police officers, hiring and training.
— The K-9 unit, including a demonstration by 2 K-9 dogs.
— The Community Impact Unit and its work with the homeless population in Hyannis.
— Several of our School Resource Officers spoke
— The SWAT team spoke and we got a close-up look at its specialized vehicle.
— We had the opportunity to drive (in the police lot) a fully equipped police car.
— We had the opportunity to select a 4-hour period to ride along with a police officer during his or her shift.
The content of the Citizen's Police Academy was incredible, amazing and truly eye-opening. However, that was not the best part. The best part was getting to meet and know the women and men of the Barnstable Police Department. They are some of the finest people I have ever met.
My parents taught me to respect police officers. It's a difficult, dangerous and complex job. They deserve our utmost respect.
Jay Conti, Hyannis
Marcus Hendricks' walks provide deeper information than scholarly research
I have no desire to engage in a struggle between the Brewster Historical Museum and Marcus Hendricks, (May 12) who’d been hired to direct "walks" and replaced to do talks and treks in the area around Wing Island in Brewster. For several years, however, I've been going on treks led by Marcus of the Wampanoag tribe. He’s guided me and other folks from Chatham, Brewster, Harwich and Orleans for several years, and was full of information we white folks may have known little about.
It may be a simple thing, but let this stand as what an “expert” white person who's read all the scholarly books but may know little about: During a trek up a hill in the woods of Brewster, Marcus stopped suddenly, bent down, and plucked a green plant growing along the trek we were on, a small green plant he invited us to smell. It was a wild onion, which his ancestors used in cooking.
Letters to the Editor: Times article about Brewster Historical Society 'misinformed'
When we trekked in Dennis, closer to my house in Harwich, I was honored to be able to listen as he chanted what Native Americans chanted after they’d lost a loved one, after he’d recently lost his beloved grandmother. I got no such information from scholarly books. What I did get from Marcus was visceral knowledge and lore from Native Americans here long before white people came to the Cape.
I’m a retired professor. I’ve done much research in my academic career. But only on the Cape have I learned what Marcus teaches, lives, and passes on. I emphatically and humbly appreciate what he's taught me. Scholarly research may be a credential — I have many of those — but it doesn't replace knowledge passed down by the Cape's earlier ancestors who are committed to passing on knowledge to white people on the Cape. I dearly hope the Brewster Historical Society takes that to heart.
Susan R. Horton of West Harwich is a retired professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Stay connected with the Cape Cod news that matters. Sign up for our free newsletters.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Opinion: Barnstable Citizen's Police Academy an eye-opening experience
