Badge 714, Where Are You? Dragnet Stamps Issued

Criminals beware,

(He only wants the facts, Ma'am.)

Look out, he's a cop!

When I joined my mother in Los Angeles (I was fresh out of high school) to live with her while I attended UCLA, she introduced me to Dragnet on TV. My mother, brothers and sisters and I loved to watch the program
as we ate hot buttered popcorn. If you didn't finish your vegetables at dinner, you didn't get to eat popcorn while you watched.

What memories it brought back to me when I read about the Dragnet Commemorative Stamp which pictured Jack Webb as Joe Friday. It was issued on August 11, 2009. (Examiner.com Los Angeles, Sara Perkins) Along with the stamp were pieces of LAPD and Dragnet memorabilia for sale with the stamp.

According to the Daily News, Los Angeles, the stamp commemorates the 1950s TV show, Dragnet. Dragnet dramatized the Los Angeles Police Department. Jack Webb played Sgt. Joe Friday. Opal Webb, widow of Dragnet creator Jack Webb, was present along with Harry Morgan, who played Officer Bill Gannon in the 1960 revival of Dragnet. Also at the ceremony were John Stephenson (one of the show's narrators, LAPD Chief William Bratton, and Councilman Tom LaBonge. (http://daily news.com/crime/ci_13028291)

Police Chief Bratton spoke warmly of the respect the program has brought to the police department. Oh, yes, we laughed at the theme music and the stylized format, but underneath it all, we were impressed. They respected the law and the rights and dignity of all involved. When they felt rage, anger or indignity, they talked about it and related it to human life - they didn't throw you against a wall! From such programs many formed a vision of how the police should conduct themselves in a free society.

I remember years later, sitting on my couch and watching the 1992 Rodney King riots. My daughter was flying home from college. I watched the beatings and the looting and the shooting and the burning, and I feared for my daughter's safety and the survival of Los Angeles as a city. I remember having to turn back when I tried to go to work (I was an elementary school teacher) and when I did make it through, I remember seeing military tanks roll down the streets in an effort to try to restore peace. I cried. But we made it through and my daughter safely made it home.

I believe a very basic trust in the law helped us all to survive those terrible days. Not a trust in what the law is at any given moment, but an idea of, and trust in, what the law should be. TV shows such as Dragnet held up that vision of law and order in the city at a time when people really needed to look up.

Our city survived, so today we can see such wonderful events as health fairs, free to the needy, and sponsored by benevolent volunteers; or the thrilling Special Olympics, or the many other complex societal events that take place around us daily such as honoring an outstanding tv series with a commemorative stamp.

One of the other events in Los Angeles news that captured LAs attention, was the Perseid Meteor Shower. I went to look outside in the dead of the night and at 3 AM, but all I could see was an orange sherbet night sky. There was just too much by way of city lights. But in my mind's eye, I could see a rain of silver meteor showers radiating around Jack Webb's craggy face. Well, I had to admit Jack Webb was not really a cop; and all the creative people who helped make the series what it was, knew it too. But, you know what? They and Mr. Webb knew what a cop should be. CASE CLOSED! Dum - Ta - Dum - Tum - DUMMM...

This is the City (Nonet)

This is the city, Los Angeles,

A city of Angels and dreams.

With health fairs for the needy,

And Special Olympics.

This is the city,

Place of mercy,

and of hope,

Laughter,

Tears.