Bear Down Wildcats

Officer Paul Czupryn prevented a 4th of July tragedy when he steered the car of a drunk driver away from a crowd of people who had gathered to watch fireworks in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Indiana's Porter County Sheriff's Department said that Officer Czupryn was working crowd control at the Valparaiso fireworks display when he saw a grey Jeep Cherokee drive over the curb between him and a line of children waiting in line at an ice cream truck.

The Jeep then accelerated toward a group of more than 100 spectators who had gathered to watch fireworks. Officer Czupryn ran alongside the speeding car yelling at the driver to stop. When it was clear the driver was not going to stop, the officer ran alongside the car and opened the driver's door before being pushed back by the driver.

Moments before the car plowed into the crowd, Officer Czupryn reached for the steering wheel and successfully steered the car away.

"It still gives me goose bumps when I look back at how close he was [to the crowd]," Czupryn told Indiana's The Times.

The officer then fell from the car, ran back to his motorcycle and followed the fleeing vehicle. When the driver again refused to stop, Officer Czupryn followed the car to a red light and reached in through the passenger side and shut the vehicle off.

The 20-year-old driver was arrested and later registered a blood alcohol level of 0.20 percent – nearly three times the legal limit.

"Officer Czupryn's dedication to this profession is inspiring, and I'm very proud of him," Patrol Commander Phil Miller told the Post-Tribune. "He's out there, aggressively pursuing bad people in our community. He's saving lives. We should all be very thankful for his efforts."

When a paramedic handed police officer Nick Struck a weeping toddler soaked in gasoline at the scene of a deadly car crash in Brighton, Colorado, his fatherly instincts kicked in.

Struck did the same thing he does when his own 2-year-old daughter is upset. He began to softly sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

Somewhere in one of the lullaby's verses, a bystander snapped a photograph of Struck and the child. Her family's white SUV lies upside down in the grassy field behind the two. A paramedic is seen treating another passenger in the background.

Struck, holding the barefoot girl on his hip, points at something outside the frame. The child holds the fingers of one hand in her mouth, and clings to Struck's shoulder with the other.

That image whipped through online social networks, rendering Struck a heartfelt hero.

"I had no clue [the bystander] was right there," Struck told CNN's Brooke Baldwin on Tuesday. "It was just me and that little girl."

The photographer, Jessica Doug Matrious, had witnessed the single-vehicle roll-over crash on June 18 in Brighton, which is a suburb of Denver. She shared the image with CNN affiliate KDVR.
"He was definitely trying to keep her from watching what was going on behind her," Matrious told KDVR. Matrious said she could see the child relax in Struck's arms.

Brighton Police said all six passengers -- two adults and four children -- were thrown from the car during the accident.

PHXCATS wrote:Amazing. Job well done. Good to hear and see stuff like this. Cops especially on here seem to get a bad image. 98 percent are good people. Which we could see and talk more about these things than calling them all pigs.

ASUHATER! wrote:And 98% of cops arent good people. the general population has nowhere near percent that high

Chicat wrote:

PHXCATS wrote:Amazing. Job well done. Good to hear and see stuff like this. Cops especially on here seem to get a bad image. 98 percent are good people. Which we could see and talk more about these things than calling them all pigs.

Here's the thing: Police are paid to protect and serve the public. That is the essential function of their employment. So of course you're not going to hear about every great thing they do. It's expected. You don't hear about garbagemen picking up the trash every day because that's what they're supposed to do. But if one rescues an abandoned baby from a dumpster or tracks down the person who lost an engagement ring, then you hear about them.

When cops go above and beyond, putting their personal safety at risk to help people, then of course they should get the kudos they deserve. But I'm not going to call every cop a hero just because they put on a uniform and do what they are employed to do. That would be pretty silly, and it would devalue those that do go above and beyond the call of duty like the cops in this thread.

Merkin wrote:Not a cop, but still a hero...