samurai-beheading-2

was just a regular, hard-working, and caring guy who wanted the best for his family, one who
used a firm but loving hand to keep his wife's oldest child from getting in with the wrong
crowd. When his former cop buddies testified in court, there was no mention of his drinking
binges, violent temper, or whoring around in the neighborhoods of the Bronx or Upper
Manhattan, back in the Eighties and early Nineties. When cops speak of these secret lives,
it's done in hushed tones, punctuated by raised eyebrows - a type of Morse code that only
cops can understand. To them, it was simple: he locked up bad guys. He saved the lives of
innocents, worked his shift, clocked out, and drove home to the suburbs night after night,
where he would put in more time with   his family, his collection of razor-sharp Samurai
swords, and his world War II paraphernalia, including Nazi Flags and pictures of Adolph Hitler.
      The boy said, on the stand, that his stepfather had abused him physically, mentally, and
sexually. To him, his stepfather was a monster who need killing. So, what was he: a monster
or just a regular family guy? Or was he both?
      A vintage sword can harmlessly glisten on a wall and lend a sense of history and military
splendor to a fireplace's mantle. That same sword, taken from its artistic perch, can become
a lethal killing instrument, with it razor sharp edge and perfect balance, making it easy to
swing with deadly decapitating force.
      A young man’s arms can throw a baseball or a football, or hug a mother or a girlfriend.
An old man’s anger and hate and twisted thinking can push a young man’s mind to the
breaking point without him even knowing it.
      When the dead man retired and left the police force, did he bring the crazed New York
streets of his past back with him full-time to the quiet Long Island home where his wife and
stepchildren lived? Were his toys of war mere extensions of his past crime world, still raging
endlessly on in his own cop mind?
      What - or who - if truth could ever be told, actually controlled the thoughts, which
tightened the hand, that gripped the handle, that raised the arm, which swung the Samurai
sword of one man’s demise?
      The murder sentence was 25 years-to-life, today, for the young man wearing the light
blue shirt.