An act of defiance, a beacon of courage

Sept. 12, a Tampa police officer refused to remove a mourning band, earning respect in New York City.

By AMY HERDY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 12, 2002

TAMPA -- Say the name Ernie Hedges around the World Trade Center command post in New York, and chances are someone has heard about the Tampa cop.

Since refusing a direct order from a supervisor to remove a black mourning band from his badge the morning after Sept. 11, Hedges has become somewhat of a notable figure to weary police near ground zero.

"It's nice to know that even 1,500 miles away, cops stick together," said Tommy Grogan, a nine-year veteran of the Port Authority Police.

"It was refreshing . . . somewhat courageous," agreed Ron Marden, a 23-year veteran of the Port Authority Police who answered the phone at the World Trade Center command post on Friday and immediately recognized Hedges' name.

Hedges, a 15-year veteran, refused the order to remove his black band after a 6 a.m. roll call Sept. 12. Shortly afterward, Tampa police Chief Bennie Holder issued a memo encouraging all officers to show their support by wearing them.

But the directive came too late for Hedges; supervisors had already threatened to suspend him for refusing an order. He was never suspended, but a letter of counseling was placed in his personnel file.

Since then, Hedges, 46, has received support from members of the New York Police Department, the Port Authority Police and his own department.

The attention has been overwhelming, he said.

"I don't think my contribution to 9/11 was all that," he said Friday. "But when you talk to them, apparently it really meant something. . . . My support is for them. We all wear the uniform."

In December, Grogan, whose precinct lost three officers in the Sept. 11 attack, sent a thank-you card and letter to Hedges. Dozens of members of the Port Authority Police signed it, with many sending personal messages, as well.

"God will bless you for standing tall," one officer wrote. "One for all, and all for one," said another.

The officers sent the package after the St. Petersburg Times wrote about Hedges' refusal to remove the mourning band and the story was picked up nationwide. Along with the card, Grogan and the others sent Hedges a brass collar pin with the initials "WTC."

"Hopefully it helped him a little bit to let him know that other people were thinking of him, that he's not alone," said Marden, 53.

Then in December, Hedges said, he was working when he got a call from police dispatch saying a New York City police officer was at a local hotel and wanted to meet him.

NYPD Officer Eric Johnson, in town on vacation, had brought Hedges a navy blue polo shirt emblazoned with "FDNY" (Fire Department of New York) and NYPD patches with an emblem of the World Trade Center towers in the middle and the phrase, "Gone but not forgotten."

Johnson told Hedges that his stand had heartened the scores of officers sorting through the rubble of ground zero.

"He said they had the smell of death, and that my story helped them concentrate on something else, that other officers around the country supported them," Hedges recalled.

"They weren't alone."

- Amy Herdy can be reached at (813) 226-3386 or herdy@sptimes.com.

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