The Bridge S01E09 HDTV XviD-NoTV

plot summary: one of frank's former partners get's in trouble after he let's his current partner
enter an abandoned building used as a drug den alone while pursuing an armed and dangerous man.
while he waits outside for backup to arrive, the partner is ambushed and beaten by the drug addicts
in the building and has his gun stolen from him. eventually we learn that after killing in the line
of duty, in order to save frank's life, the partner vowed never again to use lethal force. although
he has been a police officer he has remained a police officer for either eleven or fifteen years
(the script is contradictory), he keeps his decision a secret and carries an unloaded gun. when he
refuses to quit before he becomes eligible for a pension, other police officers beat him up in
rabbii's bar. -spoiler ends-

i'm not endorsing what the other cops did at the end. i think that that was wrong (as are similar
incidents in a military rather than law enforcement setting in movies like 'full metal jacket' and
'a few good men'). it would have been better for them to have instigated some sort of disciplinary
procedure and tried to get the guy fired. of course, that mightn't have worked (in which case some
other officer would be endangered) and it'd have violated the unwritten code of silence (aka the
'blue wall') which requires that whenever possible cops handle things amongst themselves rather than
turning one another in (which is a recurring theme of the show).

although the other officers responded badly to the situation, the cop in question was completely in
the wrong. as with people in the military, he has a duties which can require him not only to risk
his own life, but also to take someone else's. we often think of 'losing one's nerve' in terms of
an inability to do the former, but it can refer to the latter as well. it was his responsibility to
either quit or else try to get himself classified as having a psychological disability that would
excuse him from duty. apparently he had too much pride for either - and ended up deceiving and
endangering the officers who trusted him with their lives.

partak pretended that his gun had
jammed, which actually putting hedford in greater danger than if he'd been alone. first, because
hedford would have to worry about his unarmed partner getting shot, and second because he couln't
trust that his partner would respond as he ought to do. remember that hedford did tell partak to
get the shotgun from the patrol car. roach was shot and gave himself up at about the same time
-but- given what we learned later it's pretty obvious that partak wouldn't have shot at roach even
if he'd had the time to retrieve the shotgun.

as far as i'm concerned, partak had no business being on the force at all. he'd apparently made the
decision never to shoot anyone ever again after killing someone (to save frank) on his first day.
he'd have had some sort of mandatory counseling after that shooting (just as he and hedford did
after the shooting with roach), and if his killing someone had caused him to develop ptsd or
something similar, then he could have gotten help. above all, though, as long as he knew he'd never
use his weapon, he should not be going back out on the street (_especially_ with a partner who would
depend upon him). he said he only needed another 5 years to get in his 20 (when his pension
benefits would kick in and he could retire). that means that he's been doing this for 15 years (&
plans on 5 more)!

now as to the second time that partak and hedford pursued roach, there's a real question about what
sort of judgment the two showed. hedford wanted to follow roach into the abandoned school building
immediately, but partak insisted on calling for backup. the only downside of calling is that it's a
slight delay that gives roach a little more time to get away, while the upside is that you're
getting reinforcements - so hedford was being really stupid on that point whereas his partner was
being sensible.

the other question was whether to go in the building or wait for backup to arrive first. nearly the
same question came up near the end of the episode when frank, partak, and jill debated whether or
not to go in after two people with guns. as jill pointed out, there were a lot of ways out of the
building. the assumption was that if they waited, then they were giving the suspects enough time to
get away altogether. the fact that roach got away before backup arrived (but not before beating
hedford) on the first occasion proved that that was a valid assumption.

so, the best course of action (in my opinion), would have been to call for backup without waiting
for it to arrive before going in. (in fact, frank suggests the same thing when he first talks to
hedford about what happened.) nonetheless, even if one feels emphatically that the right call is to
wait, that still wouldn't excuse partak. if your judgment was that going in before backup arrived
was impulsive and irresponsible (and again, i personally think that it was probably the right
choice, albeit a judgment call rather than a clear imperative), then it would still be your
responsibility to go in after your partner. your duty to protect one another is not contingent on
your approval of one another's judgments.

partak could have followed hedford in as soon as he called for backup, but he didn't. he waited
until he heard gunfire - at which point it was already too late. it was courageous of him to rush
in unarmed to try to help his partner that way, but it was his irresponsibility and dishonesty about
being unarmed which created the circumstances that got his partner ambushed in the first place.

later, when vera had a gun on frank and jill, frank told partak to "take the shot". he couldn't
because the gun he carried was only for show. when he saved frank on his first day by "taking the
shot" at the assailant who was about to stab frank, he did what he was supposed to do. he decided
that day that he could never take another life- which would have been fine if he'd also decided to
become a civilian. instead for the next fifteen years, he remained a cop _knowing_ that when it was
most vital for him to protect a fellow officer, he wouldn't fulfill his duty.