‘Attitude Creates Reality’

摘要

It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to write this article for the MPPOA Journal. You see, today we buried a Partner, a Teammate, but most importantly, a good friend. Officer Jim Benson passed away after a five year battle with Cancer on 10-07-11. Jim started his law enforcement career in 1981 working for the Dodge Center Police Department. In 1986 he was hired by the Rochester Police Department and spent 20 years as a street cop. Only after he was diagnosed with cancer did Jim Benson leave the street spending the last 5 years of his career working in the Staff Development Unit of the Department. Jim was 53 years old at the time of his death. Abraham Lincoln once said ""And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." Jim certainly had plenty of life in those 53 years. I'm not really sure when Jim started including the words "Attitude Creates Reality" as part of his email signature, what I do know is it was after he began his five year battle with cancer. Although the cancer had a devastating effect on Jim's body, it really had very little impact on his attitude which changed very little from the time I first met him in 1994. As a new RPD officer, I was assigned to the Mid Shift with Jim. Jim was a calm experienced Officer who was always the voice of reason on calls.