Is Dead New York City Cop a Hero?

[Guest]

NEW YORK (Nov. 1) - The conclusion that a police detective who died of a lung ailment after toiling for months at ground zero may have been injecting drugs has led to a heated debate about what constitutes a hero.

The argument over James Zadroga's death echoes a situation in Boston, where two lauded firefighters who died in a blaze were later found to have been impaired on the job. One had a blood-alcohol level of 0.27; the other had cocaine in his system.

The disclosures renewed concerns that police officers' and firefighters' jobs may make them prime candidates for drug and alcohol abuse.

The inner turmoil of these everyday heroes has been a staple of TV cop shows for decades, and more recently in dramas like FX television's "Rescue Me," about a group of New York City firefighters who go home to lives of alcoholism, depression and family disarray.

Experts say there may be truth behind the fiction.

"We might think of them as stress resilient," said Dr. Terence Keane, who heads the behavioral science division of the Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

But the reality, he said, is that the on-the-job pressure for these emergency service workers can be overwhelming. "Their job is 95 percent boredom and 5 percent terror," he said.

The pressure can grow even greater after a major disaster like the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Studies have indicated that a number of first responders suffered from post-tramatic stress disorder.

"The amount of loss was so extreme that it could have exacerbated existing problems with mood, anxiety, alcohol and drugs," Keane said.

The question is, do such flaws disqualify someone from hero status?

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg suggested this week that Zadroga's public image had been altered by a medical examiner's report indicating that the detective had injected ground-up pills, which lodged in his lungs.

"We wanted to have a hero. There are plenty of heroes. It's just that in this case, the science says this was not a hero," Bloomberg said Monday.

Later, confronted with public outrage over his comments, Bloomberg backpedalled, calling Zadroga "a great NYPD officer" who had repeatedly risked his life for the city and had gotten sick from breathing contaminated air at ground zero.

He said it would be up to the public to decide whether Zadroga was a hero.

"You can use your own definition," Bloomberg said. "I think it's a question of how you want to define what a hero is."

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, a Pittsburgh-based philanthropy that awards medals and cash grants to people who perform heroic acts, doesn't have a problem deciding who deserves recognition. As of this month, 9,130 people had received a Carnegie Medal.

The commission looks at the act of bravery itself, not the person's background or moral character, spokesman Douglas Chambers said.

"Whether that person had a shady background, or had been incarcerated or was a child abuser ... none of that information is important to us," Chambers said. "We don't care. All we care about is the act. Did that rescuer risk his or her life to an extraordinary degree?"

Past recipients, he noted, included a prison inmate who saved a guard from an attacking dog.

Whether Zadroga or Boston firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne are heroes isn't a question the Carnegie commission will address; with some exceptions, the group generally focuses on recognizing civilians who are drawn unexpectedly into extraordinary circumstances.

Zadroga's family has disputed the allegations that his son took any medications improperly, and at least two other medical experts have concluded that the material found in his respiratory system included microscopic shards of World Trade Center debris.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said this month he was angry and disappointed over the autopsy reports of Cahill and Payne, who died in a fire last summer, but also suggested that the hero label still sticks.

"Two of Boston's finest died doing their job keeping our city safe," he said.

[JBE 328]

There's always someone trying to knock you down when you're on top. None of us are perfect, we all have a skeleton or two in our closets. What bugs me is certain things should be left alone. Unless it comes out in the investigation that the drugs and booze contributed to the deaths of those two jakes from Boston, leave it out of the papers.

Personal opinion, Det. Zadroga is a hero simply because of all the hours he spent down there, along with anyone else who spent as much time down there as he did. I don't buy that it was just the crushed up meds that got lodged in his lungs.

And as usual, my esteemed mayor puts his foot in his speaking/respiratory orifice, and someone should put a boot in the other one.

[Guest partyrock]

You could be a boy scout every day of your life and sill not be a hero. He is a hero for his service to the citizens of NY and his fellow officers. Before his name and reputation is trashed by the ME's report where he said the matter present in his lungs was "consistent with" the particulate found in people with a history off injecting crushed prescription pills. To my knowledge the ME's full report has yet to be released and the results on sample sent off to a federal agency have yet to be published.

[20Truck 7]

Is it a mandatory qualification for the position of NYC Mayor, that you are a complete idiot and are throughtless regarding the heros of NYC Emergency Services from 9/11?

...or do the last two mayors just posess those qualities in general?

[trauma74 111]

HERE IS MY VOTE......HERO!

[Monty 35]

HERE IS MY VOTE......HERO!

ditto

[Guest]

Unless it comes out in the investigation that the drugs and booze contributed to the deaths of those two jakes from Boston, leave it out of the papers.

dude, you gotta be kidding...

we are all held to a higher standard, all those "BLACK EYE" articles are because people forget this!

you wanna sniff coke or drink yourself silly, STAY THE FRIGG HOME!

i wouldn't be surprised (although i don't wish) that those Boston guys lost there benefits, especially the drunk one...

IF, the drugs the NYPD guy took are not cognitive altering drugs than YES he is a hero

Edited November 2, 2007 by vacguy

[Guest partyrock]

i wouldn't be surprised (although i don't wish) that those Boston guys lost there benefits, especially the drunk one...

IF, the drugs the NYPD guy took are not cognitive altering drugs than YES he is a hero

The Boston firefighters, if they were in there doing a job they were assigned and didn't do anything outside of what would be expected of a firefighter in similar conditions then they died as heroes. We don't know yet if the drugs and alcohol in their systems were contributory in their death. What I do know is sometimes things go wrong and they rapidly get outside your control. I am not in any way condoning their behavior, and I believe the true tragedy is these guys never got the help they needed. If you get yourself killed because you ignored building construction 101 and entered a fully involved bowstring truss structure with no life threats are you any less deserving of rewards, accolades, or remembrance as a hero?

Three sheets to the wind and high as a kite, if you save someone's life you're a hero. Being a hero doesn't get you benefits or money. Its a title of honor given to those who selflessly give of themselves for the benefit of others. I don't care what drugs he was on, he's a hero. Maybe Det Zadroga was abusing drugs, but he was a good enough cop to make it to detective, devoted hundreds of hours at ground zero, and his record as an officer has never once been called into question. Before 9/11 he was a hero and after he was a hero. He should be and will be remembered as such.

[helicopper 1,050]

dude, you gotta be kidding...

we are all held to a higher standard, all those "BLACK EYE" articles are because people forget this!

you wanna sniff coke or drink yourself silly, STAY THE FRIGG HOME!

i wouldn't be surprised (although i don't wish) that those Boston guys lost there benefits, especially the drunk one...

IF, the drugs the NYPD guy took are not cognitive altering drugs than YES he is a hero

Agreed, we're all held to a higher standard and should stop and think about that for a second once in a while.

As for the NYC detective, it seems from what I've read that he was not using/abusing the drugs while at Ground Zero but rather became addicted to prescription medications after becoming severely ill AFTER working at ground zero. He would not be the first MOS to become addicted to pain meds while confined to his residence while out injured - in this case sick - in the line of duty.

To me, NYC is trying to limit their liability by tarnishing the reputation of this detective and implying that the drug use was the cause of his death and not his weeks spent at Ground Zero. Typical NYC move. Shame on them!

No question, the guy's a hero. First for putting up with living below the poverty line while in the academy and serving the NYPD as a cop and detective AND second for his efforts at Ground Zero.

[Guest]

As for the NYC detective, it seems from what I've read that he was not using/abusing the drugs while at Ground Zero but rather became addicted to prescription medications after becoming severely ill AFTER working at ground zero. He would not be the first MOS to become addicted to pain meds while confined to his residence while out injured - in this case sick - in the line of duty.

very true, and im sure his MD's know who he was and would have to guess the drugs the MD gave him wouldn't have made him stoned during the day. but at night, another dosage could be taken...a stonger dose.

im not arguing if he is or is not a hero, i know he is.

[Bababoosky 24]

What I dont understand is that in the ORIGINAL autopsy, in which Dr. Michael Baden was consulted, there was no mention of any track marks (scar tissue from numerous injections). Also, the decedant died in NJ, therefore it is THEIR jurisdiction, i don't see how NYC can make a ruling on this, and it gets accepted as law?