Research Reponses Exercise by Zach Sudal

 Zach Sudal

English M-W

Professor Lohre

11/18/20

Research Response Exercise 

            The Story I picked was the policewoman, Pat Hays. This story was about Pat; she came from an abusive background. She choose an occupation to essentially pay it forward to victims with similar situations as her. What I learned from this person "is you're the only one who is in control of your life." Pat firmly stated, "But I was not going to repeat my mother's life, and told him, I'm not going to take this. I called the police, and that was it." (Isay, 158) This brings out that you shouldn't be living a miserable life to someone who's terrible, nor should you let yourself be miserable. She then purses her career while helping out dysfunctional families, etc. Her attitude is different from other officers, and takes the nurture over nature approach. Although it is a tough job, she feels like she can rest easy after following this calling. 

            A few questions I had during reading this chapter was, "Why did she retire?" and "How many other policewomen are on the force?" With further investigation, I found out that Pat was the last female officer on the force, and she retired in 2001. I am assuming there are not many if any officers who take the same approach as her in the Chicago police force. I also found why she retired. She stated to a news source that, "It was because I couldn’t stand all of the nonsense that the bosses were going through,“ she said, “I still like solving people’s problems. I would have done it forever. It was the paramilitary mindset that I had the most trouble with." (WBEZ news) Good things don't last forever, it is good that Pat made the best of her career by giving it her all. 

            Pat joined the police force in the 60s; this is what her uniform looked like for the majority of her job.