3,000 Lives Saved

Through 2007 The Badge Company of New Jersey sold several brands of police body armor – what the general public calls “bulletproof vests.”  We are always tweaking our product offerings, and at the end of that year we discontinued offering body armor, primarily due to the amount of field work necessary to measure and fit the products.

In the years since there has been ongoing improvement in the design and manufacture of body armor, including enhancements to the process of fitting an individual officer.  But no recent improvement comes close to what was accomplished years earlier by Stephanie L. Kwolek, a DuPont chemist who invented the technology behind Kevlar.

Kevlar, the lightweight but incredibly strong fabric – lighter and stronger than steel – has been incorporated into body armor since 1975, and DuPont estimates that over one million Kevlar-reinforced police vests have been manufactured since then.

More significantly, Kevlar-reinforced police vests have been credited with saving the lives of some 3,000 individual officers.

We say all this because last month the obituary appeared for Kwolek, who died at age 90.  Her research that led to Kevlar began in the early 1960s, when she was part of a team at DuPont’s research laboratory in Delaware that was trying to develop a lightweight fiber that would be strong enough to replace the steel used in radial tires.

As is often the case in scientific research, Kwolek’s results were a product of hard work, perseverance, trial-and-error, and luck.  When she finally was able to produce an unusually stiff fiber in the mid-60s, that fiber proved to be many times stronger than steel of equal weight, and resistant to fire.

DuPont quickly recognized the market potential and in the years since we have seen Kevlar used in a wide range of products, including police and firefighter gear and in the cut-resistant search gloves that remain among our product offerings.

Given the remarkable performance of the fiber she invented, given her accomplishments at a time when women in science were few and far between, and given the number of lives saved and still being protected by her discovery, it is only fitting that we pay our respects to Stephanie L. Kwolek.

In this photo from 2007, Stephanie L. Kwolek is wearing gloves made with Kevlar.

Photo courtesy The News Journal/Jennifer Corbet.

Into the Second Century

Weyhing Brothers Manufacturing Company has been making badges in Detroit for over 100 years, and now that century-long tradition will continue with the acquisition of the company by Smith & Warren.

The Badge Company of New Jersey is a factory-direct distributor for Smith & Warren, and so the distinctive badge styles made by Weyhing Brothers are available from the Badge Company of New Jersey.

Smith & Warren itself is no newcomer to the industry, dating back to 1925. (The Badge Company of New Jersey is the baby of the group, having been founded in 1974.)

The bulk of Weyhing Brothers’ business has been badges for Detroit and other Michigan agencies, but the company also served agencies nationwide. Those agencies are now assured of continuing availability of their unique badges. The Weyhing Brothers’ tooling and dies have been moved into Smith & Warren’s production facilities in Westchester County, New York, USA.

Marathon Man

It’s not a very good photo, but this particular police officer was not posing for photos.  He was running a marathon.  In full uniform.  Including body armor.

He is officer Israel Deutsch of the Hobart-Lawrence (Wisconsin) Police Department, and he wore his uniform and carried all his standard gear in the marathon to raise money and awareness for the families of police officers killed in the line of duty.

“It's basically about honoring and the memory of law enforcement killed so it doesn't matter how long it takes me. I'm not sure how long it's going to take me, but that's all it's about,” Deutsch was quoted as saying.

As it turned out, it took him 4 hours and 24 minutes to complete the 26.2-mile distance.

In case you the reader are not yourself in law enforcement, wearing the full uniform, gear, and body armor adds more than 12 pounds of weight, not to mention the added restrictions on movement and cooling as compared to a runner’s standard attire.

Officer Deutsch may have completed the marathon but he’s not done yet.  He says he'll continue to honor fallen law enforcement officers when he enters a September Iron Man event in Madison.

To Protect and Serve!

It has been reported that the East Chicago Police Department is offering the use of its headquarters parking lot and lobby for residents looking for a safe place to conduct transactions arranged online.  They will even have a police officer present, if you wish.

What a great idea!  We have all seen and heard the stories of Craigslist-related assaults and robberies, where victims are lured to locations with the promise of a purchase or sale.

The East Chicago Police call it “Operation Safe Sale.”  We call it an excellent service to the community.

Not Worth the Paper It's Printed On

Earlier this month the US Department of Justice issued a report asserting that the Albuquerque Police Department has established a pattern and practice in the use of excessive and fatal force that violates the Constitutional rights of those shot or injured by police officers.

The DoJ reviewed 20 fatal shootings by Albuquerque Police between 2009 and 2013 and concluded that in the majority of cases the level of force used was not justified because the person killed by police did not present a threat to police officers or the public. The DoJ also reviewed the use of nonlethal force involving significant harm or injury to people by APD officers and concluded that there was a similar pattern of excessive force and lack of justification.

Naturally, this has stirred up quite a controversy in New Mexico, with strongly held opinions and high emotions on all sides.  There have been anti-police protests, pro-police rallies, raucous confrontations, solemn news conferences, and little agreement.

But now, some dimbulb has begun circulating flyers in the city that read “Save a Life, Kill a Cop.”

From nearly 2,000 miles away we can hardly claim to be well acquainted with all the issues in Albuquerque.  But we can sum up those flyers in three words:  Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Deja Shoe

Today we learned of a criminal who apparently knows only one crime:  Robbing a shoe store.  One specific shoe store.

In 1999 he robbed the Stride Rite shoe store in Toms River, an act for which he was arrested, charged, and convicted.  He then served 15 years in jail.

His 15 year sentence was completed last week and he was released.  A free man, the very next day he returned to the same Stride Rite store and robbed it again.

An act for which he was arrested, will be charged shortly if not already, and in all likelihood will be convicted.  Unless he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity.  Which is plausible.

Two for the Price of One

A while back we wrote about a guy who was arrested twice in the same day.

Today we have a new story about a bright light who was not only arrested twice in the same day, he was arrested the second time without having left police headquarters following the first arrest.

The first arrest was the result of officers responding to a call concerning a fight, at which Our Hero was taken into custody and charged with possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.  The weapon in question was a crowbar and the unlawful purpose was threatening another man with bodily harm.

Once processed for the arrest and released, this rocket scientist began threatening two of the officers who had arrested him.  Belligerent, he was taken back into custody and charged with a disorderly persons offense for the loud and threatening behavior.

This time, instead of being process and released, he was taken to jail and held on $1,500 bail.

We should note, while oftentimes the subject of one of these dumb criminal stories is a younger person, this guy was AARP-eligible at age 55.  How he made it to 55 with his demonstrated capacity for rational thought, we don’t know.