In Memoriam

Seeing photos of the deceased accompanying their death notice is now not at all unusual, even for the New York Times. On any given day there can be several photos of deceased that are accompanying their paid death notice. Paid death notices are a bit of a profit center for newspapers, and I'm sure adding a photo adds to the cost.

What is unusual is seeing a photo of the deceased accompanying their In Memoriam tribute. These tributes are also paid notices, and are likewise priced by the number of lines. A photo here I'm sure adds to the cost.

In Memoriams are typically taken to acknowledge a milestone number of years after the death, or the birth of the deceased. Photos are somewhat rare, but I do remember one in particular when it was the 100th birthday of the actor David Niven. His son acknowledged his birthday in the NYT with an In Memoriam piece.

Today's NYT carries an In Memoriam tribute, with photo, that at first seems a bit cryptic. We don't get an obvious date of birth, and the milestone acknowledgement seems to be marking 70 years, when the deceased, Thomas J. Gargan left the NYC police department. Did the die in the line of duty? Yes. Killed by a burglar as he was responding to the call.

The motto of the police department, Fidelis Ad Mortem is the last line in the tribute. Faithful Unto Death. Above it are years marking Mr. Gargan's time spent in the U.S. Marine Corps (1923-1927), his time spent in the police department when he was part of the "Strong-Arm Squad," (1927-1933), and then when he was assigned to the 6th Precinct (1933-8/14/1947). The EOW in the tribute stands for End of Watch, the day he was killed in the line of duty.

The reference to the "Strong Arm Squad" is the first I ever heard of a group so named in the NYC Police Department. As a kid I loved to hear of the guys who were with the "Safe, Loft and Truck Squad," a unit that investigated commercial burglaries, safe crackings, truck hijackings, kidnappings, and art thefts. It was an elite unit, disbanded and reorganized in the 1990s.

A Google search for Strong Arm Squad yields plenty of hits about a very colorful unit of the police department tasked with breaking up and fighting street gangs, of which there were plenty in the latter part of the 19th century and the early 20th century.

My own memory of a special squad that was somewhat like the Strong Arm Squad was of the TPF, the Tactical Patrol Force, a unit charged with maintaining crowd control during the many demonstrations that were held in the 1960s. The TPF was disbanded when it became associated with bad publicity for their aggressiveness in controlling demonstrations.

Years ago I worked with a former member of the TPF who headed our fraud unit at a major health insurance company. He left the force and went on to get a Ph.D. in Public Administration after his wife convinced him that police work was far too dangerous and she was worried sick about him.

The In Memoriam notice for patrolman Thomas J. Gargan is not signed, but it does convey the message that police work can be dangerous in any era.

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