This video shows why cops are still great

This video is from body cam footage from a Trenton Police officer. Forget the city. This could have happened in any city or town in New Jersey. Good cops, there for the right reason, not only protecting and serving, but also actually caring.

This happened back in July but the police department just now made the footage public from Officer Richard Gonzalez's body camera. Together with partner Richard Agabiti they responded to the scene of a man about to commit suicide by leaping off the Lincoln Avenue bridge. That bridge crosses over active train tracks and electrical wiring. It's impressive enough to see them grab the unidentified, despondent man and pull him back to safety. More impressive to see what happened next.

Officer Gonzalez could have just subdued the man and waited for the ambulance and let it be the hospital's problem. Instead he talked to him. Like a friend. After the man told them he wanted to kill himself, Gonzalez said, "You don't want to do that. You don't want to do that, I don't want you to do that, he doesn't want you to do that."

"We're here to help you. We're here to help you."

Gonzalez asks him what's been going on, and the guy answers that he's "been going through a lot of stuff."

"I got you," the officer says. "Listen, it's nothing that we can't work out, you know? Just talk through it, you'll be all right."

This is the kind of thing police officers do every day, day in, day out. We usually never see it. Never hear of it. These officers are there because they care. Gonzalez will tell you he was just doing his job. Yes, and he was doing it with the humanity and compassion most officers do their entire careers. Next time you jump to generalities about law enforcement, please remember this video.

We're here to help you. In those simple words, Officer Gonzalez restated the mission for police officers all across New Jersey at a time when it's desperately needed.

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