Fox on the Beach – NYPD Chief Steve Bonano, a Person of Service

Back in 1979, at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, a student was robbed. NYPD Cops in plain clothes were chasing the guy who did it. Another student, Steve Bonano, actually jumped in and helped them grab him. That was all Steve needed to set his sights on joining the NYPD, and living a…

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Fox On The Beach – If not for the pain that day…September 01, 2022

Days after September 11th, 2001, I opened a hand written letter delivered to my office. At the time I was a two star Chief in the NYPD, Chief of Brooklyn South. The writer expressed his gratitude for what police officers did that day, and remembered those who died. I was a younger man, jumping to…

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Fox on the Beach – Serving Us – August 5th, 2022

Two years ago today, a man died, serving all of us. Did you ever look out from our Rockaway Beach and notice that cluster of cargo ships off in the distance, about 10 nautical miles out? A little more than half of all the imported goods come to the United States from cargo ships. Many…

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Fox on the Beach – Of Our Darkest Moments – June 3, 2022

Several years ago I visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC for the first time. It impacted me in a way that nothing else has in my life. Recently, I extended a business trip to DC for one full day, just so I could see the museum again, with no place else to go,…

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My Last Hours with my Father

He struggled to lift his arm and place his hand over my badge.  At about three o’clock in the morning, I decided to visit him in the hospital.  He was seventy-nine years old and he would die in three hours. I was on my way home from a late night at work, still in my…

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Fox on the Beach – We Just Move the Rocks – May 4, 2022

As most of our Rockaway residents probably know, they have been doing significant work on the beach, building rock jetties to try to stop the erosion. A few months ago, during an early morning walk on the boardwalk, I stopped to talk to a few of the construction workers. They were standing together chatting, just…

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Fox On The Beach – The Commander – April 1, 2022

A wonderful thing about life is that people touch us along the way and bring us the gifts that last long after they leave us. I was in a classroom on the second floor of the 61st Precinct, Coney Island Avenue, Brooklyn, the day after I graduated from the Police Academy, in December 1981. Speakers…

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Words Matter

I have learned that after we experience something in life and we look back, we have a clearer understanding of what actually happened. During the last two years police officers have been vilified, assaulted and murdered at levels we have not seen in decades. Today, our hearts are broken as our city and nation mourns…

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