Officer Schoolcraft

In my response on what defines a trouble-maker, I said that a trouble-maker is someone who goes against societies norms.  In this sense, it is plausible to classify Officer Schoolcraft as a trouble-maker.  Most police would just do what they are told without question because they do not want to lose their job.  However, in this case I would not label Officer Schoolcraft as a trouble-maker because of the circumstances surrounding his situation.  The reason Officer Schoolcraft did not follow orders to issue more tickets is because he did not have a family, so he did not worry about losing his job as much and he thought it was not only illegal, but immoral what the chief was trying to do.  For this reason I think that Officer Schoolcraft is much more of a truth-teller then a trouble-maker. 

I think that what Officer Schoolcraft did was very stupid and very brave at the same time.  I think it was stupid because he could have gotten into a lot of trouble.  He failed to realize that it was him against the whole New York City Police Department and a lot of things could have gone wrong by him letting out secrets.  He was stupid for trying to play superman, but I also think that takes a certain amount of bravery.  Surely Officer Schoolcraft was brave by standing up to the whole police department even when they entered his home and arrested him.  I think most people would agree with me that Officer Schoolcraft was doing his job correctly.  Even though the chief’s orders were to issue more tickets, he did not follow those orders because he knew that that was not the right thing to do.  Officer Schoolcraft was the only officer to remember that he was there to protect the rights of citizens, not to dismiss them.  Even if other officers were not comfortable with the new orders and they had a problem with them, they still carried them out, making Officer Schoolcraft the only “good cop.” 

If I were in the same situation as Officer Schoolcraft I would have handled it a little differently.  At first, I would have done the same thing as him by not listening to orders and continuing on with the correct way of enforcing the law.  The thing I would have done differently though is as soon as things started to get out of control and when he started fearing for his own life, I would have quit the job.  There are plenty of other cities in the country and plenty of other opportunities as a police officer.  I also would not have told anyone about the extortion that was going on inside the police department.  This is what led to all of the trouble he faced throughout the story and the police department trying to get rid of him.