Brad Wagner has had enough.
After decades as a cop, the Washington DC officer feels ground down by the city’s carnage.
“The violence and death never stop,” he says in ‘Walk The Blue Line – True Stories from Officers Who Protect and Serve’ (Little, Brown), by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann. “It just goes on and on. Every year, it gets worse. Every day, I feel like a soldier on a battlefield.
“It’s insane.”
Featuring first-person testimonies from nervous rookies to long-in-the-tooth veterans, ‘Walk The Blue Line’ reveals how officers join with noble intentions but soon become overwhelmed.
Like Brad Wagner, for example. “When I started out, I was such an idealist. I had such high hopes,” he says. “God, what’s become of me? I’m losing my humanity.”
Shawn Paterson, an officer in the South, agrees. “I’ve gone through traumatic events that turned me hard. Made me rough around the edges and, at times, unapproachable,” he says. ‘But behind every badge is a human being who has flaws and suffers and is trying to do the best job he or she can.”