In NYC, being a cop or firefighter is, for many, a family business. The sons, daughters, and grandchildren of cops and firefighters grow up to become cops and firefighters themselves -- generation in and generation out, decade after decade.
Not only are these good, secure, working class jobs with great benefits and pensions but there's an entire culture, an ecosystem of support, that comes with it. Someone enters the force and is mentored and looked out for by someone who knew his or her father or mother years earlier. It might seem like nepotism to some but these are, after all, very hard and life-threatening jobs, so having a family connection must make this grueling, emotionally draining much more bearable.
If you ever saw the show Rescue Me, the main character, firefighter Tommy Gavin, is the child of firefighters. This both helps and haunts Tommy, realizing that he is part of a legacy greater than himself.
That's why this particular story is fascinating: a man who works for the NYPD is the great-great-great-great grandson of the man who was the "high constable" of what is now the NYPD back in 1802. Can you imagine -- two people working for the same department more than 200 years apart? Now that's a legacy!
Generation after generation, public servants keep this city safe.
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