New York policeman finds peace in Fairlie

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 24

New York policeman finds peace in Fairlie

By

CHRIS TOBIN

One of Ralph Hess’s favourite expressions is, "it’ll knock ya socks off.”

Just over four years ago, his job as a police sergeant with the New York Police Department provided the adrenalin and excitement in his life; now living as a Christian is "knocking his socks off."

For Just over a year, supported by his police pension, he has lived with his wife Tracey and daughter, Jessie, on a peaceful farmlet near the end of a shingle road outside Fairlie.

The hardened cop who walked a beat in Harlem, Times Square, Brooklyn and the lower east side of Manhattan for 10 years — dealing with everyone from pushers to prostitutes — now prays, fasts and talks of fostering Christian unity in Fairlie.

Although Mr Hess does not say so, one senses his world fell apart four years ago when, aged 33, he was pensioned off by the N.Y.P.D. because of damaged nerves to his right arm. The injuries were the legacy of years of front-line police work, arrests and punch-ups. The doctors told him the arm would eventually be paralysed.

He travelled, "searching for something,” all over the United States, Hawaii, Europe, the Far East and Australia. In Rockhampton, New South Wales, he met his New Zealand-born wife, and 21 months ago they married.

The restlessness remained. And the travelling, this time throughout the South Island, continued.

Just over a year ago they bought the 20ha farmlet near Fairlie and settled down to enjoy the quiet life. Then in April his life took a dramatic turn. He heard the Canadian evangelist, Leighton Ford, speak in Christchurch, and immediately had a burning desire to read the Bible. He was

converted, a born-again Christian. A fortnight later, Tracey Joined him, and on July 15, while spending eight hours praying in Fairlie’s Presbyterian Church, he experienced a baptism in the spirit.

"It was a physical presence starting in my gut. It worked up my whole body. I started speaking a language I had never spoken before and was shaking and crying. It was the first time I had felt peace and joy and it hasn’t left me.” Since then, he has taken his Christian message into Fairlie, speaking in the local pubs, trying to encourage Christian unity and a return to scripture, and even challenging the town’s freemasons. He knows some people call him a religious fanatic. It does not worry him. "In New York City, between five and six people are murdered every day. I can see what’s happening in New Zealand. I experienced it as a youth and police officer. The only way to stop this drift towards violence and the love of money is a Christian revival, loving your neighbour. This country was among the last to put the love of money before people, and the last of the Western nations to experience the problems of Western Europe. "We have to return to scripture, and when you do, the Lord blesses you with an understanding, you acquire a wisdom. If parents had their kids read the Bible as much as they watch TV, kids wouldn’t have the problems they have now."

Mr Hess grew up in the New JfeYork borough of Queens, and in aged 17, joined the Marines. He spent 16 months in

Vietnam involved in what he loosely terms “communications somewhere north of Da Nang.” He is reluctant to talk of his time in Vietnam, and says the United States forces should never have left.

On his return, Mr Hess stayed in the service for a year and then left to become an apprentice-engineer with the Long Island Railroad. At the back of his mind was a desire to become a police officer. “I always wanted to be a police officer. Two of my cousins died of drug overdoses and I just wanted to lock up every drug dealer."

In 1972, he applied to the N.Y.P.D. and in January, 1973, he started his 10 year career with New York’s 30,000 strong thin blue line. For most of those 10 years, he walked a “foot post” in what is called a tactical patrol force, along some of New York’s teeming streets. The police officers dressed as if they were going off to war. Mr Hess carried three handguns, one on his right hip, one under his jacket on his left hip, and another strapped to his left ankle. This arsenal meant he did not have to stop to reload. A radio, night stick, torch and bulletproof vest completed the street wear.

Each night, Mr Hess and other officers would drive to different areas of the city and then start a foot patrol beginning around 6.30 p.m. and finishing around 1.30 a.m. Their job was. to find crime; they did not answer precinct calls. They never had any difficulty finding some criminal activity and Mr Hess said he found more evil on the streets of New York than in Vietnam.

“We’d be assigned a partner and a particular area to patrol on foot. We’d have vertical patrols and be responsible for everything on the street, the hallways of buildings and roofs of buildings. We’d patrol or wait for violent crime or drug dealing to take place and arrest the perpetrators.” Often Mr Hess arrested up to 100 people a year and he saw every crime imaginable, except rape. He has been shot at (all missed), stabbed, punched, kicked and had. bricks, bottles and sticks thrown at him. He has also been run over by a car — he believes deliberately. "It’s hard for people in Fairlie or Tlmaru to understand what it’s like in New York where thousands are living in buildings and thousands are walking the streets. Those . people didn’t respect what you represented, they didn't respect you. The .only thing they respected was the gun on your hip. If police officers didn’t have guns, 1000 cops would be killed in New York each year, not six or seven.”

He feared for his life many times, and every night would be aware that he had survived another day. None of his partners were killed, but two other fellow officers who lost their lives came quickly to mind and he recalled others who had been shot. To unwind, most of his associates chose drinking, womanising,, gambling or drugs. Mr Hess took his release through weightlifting and jogging. He said he never went home with a “negative stress.” He loved the job and was like a “boy playing cops and robbers."

Of all the countless incidents during his time on the force, Mr Hess remembered one occasion which he thought conveyed how all hell coulo break loose when working as a cop in New York.

Mr Hess and two other officers stopped a car — with four Jamaican Rastafarians inside — on a minor traffic violation. “We realised the driver’s licence was forged and while calling in to see if there were any outstanding warrants, a passenger in the front seat jumped out with a gun and fired three shots and ran away. “The driver then jumped out with a gun in his hand and ran in the opposite direction. One officer chased one and my partner ran after the other. I was left with the two men in the back seat. I had a gun on them but the one nearest me took a .45 calibre Colt semi-automatic from- his coat pocket and was starting to point it at me. I told him to drop it and grabbed it out of his hand with my left hand and at’the same time forced the other passenger to drop his gun to the floor.

“I arrested both of them, my partner arrested the driver. The fourth guy escaped but we caught him when the jerk came to court to see how the others got on. We checked, them out and all four were wanted for doing over 40 supermarket robberies at gunpoint They thought we knew who they were. This is just one occasion, and in a similar situation I lost an acquaintance who I worked with.” For this, Mr Hess, earned $44,000 a year in 1981, and $65,000 when he was promoted to sergeant in 1982. He says he never took any under-the-counter money. “Up until 1972 there was organised corruption, but while I was a cop and sergeant I never experienced it At the time I believed It was a. thing of the past, now I’m not so sure. It’3 not for me to judge or guess. “The morale was very, very low throughout,me seventies because the media, judicial system

and public wouldn’t support us. It was a very lonely job because the hierarchy was more interested in public relations than law enforcement”

Four years on, all Mr Hess retains of'those years are memories, his uniform and. an old cigar box full of badges, medallions and his I.D. card. During his time with the N.Y.P.D., his first marriage ended in divorce. One day he came home from work to find a letter on the table and his wife and two children gone. For nine years he had never been able to see his son and daughter for more than a day at a time. Recently all this changed. “I prayed here in Fairlie and asked the Lord that I would like to see my kids for two months since they had time off school for that length of time. Next thing I had a phone call from my first wife in New York: 'Would you like to have the kids for two months?’ ”

Mr Hess flew out his daughter, aged 11, and son, “a complete atheist,” aged 13, from Queens. They stayed in Fairlie for the two months and then flew home... Christians.

“To me it was a very small investment to send them home with hope as Christians." But how long will Mr Hess’s religious fervour continue, and is it a substitute for the excitement he enjoyed as a New York cop? "Some Christians in Fairlie say my interest will wane. They say it’s exciting at the moment but it won’t last. Brother, it’s now been almost seven months and each day I get more excited. • “I never believed life 'ended with death. Backpacking around the South Pacific, Europe, I was searching for the answer and when I got to New Zealand I found it and it has taken hold of my Hfe, ttpw I know why jfm here; I understand what life 1 is about”