It reminds me of something right out of Dickens, or maybe even more appropriately O. Henry, where a selfless gift is seen not just as an act of kindness but a microcosm of all that is good in us. Anne Frank once famously wrote that despite all that happened “I believe that people are really good at heart.” As if meant to confirm this, here in New York City we have a young cop buying boots for a homeless man, getting caught on a tourist’s camera doing so, and becoming something of a celebrity.
This is probably an even greater story for New Yorkers coming in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and right at the start of the holiday season. People like to think New Yorkers are tough and uncaring, but we really all want to rise above that reputation established by the media, movies, and TV. New Yorkers do show they care all the time, and in those desperate moments like 9/11 and the hurricane, the best of the city always shines brightly as neighbors help neighbors and strangers too.
We can only wonder what Police Officer Larry DePrimo thought when he first saw 54-year-old Jeffery Hillman sitting barefoot in the cold. He could have shrugged it off as just another homeless guy on the beat and walked away; he could have also given the man a hard time or forced him to go to a shelter. With the cold night approaching, frostbite and even death were distinct possibilities.
The story gets to us as we hear that the cop asked the man if he had anything for his feet. Hillman told him that he did not and, in fact, that he never had a pair of shoes. Hillman started walking away, but DePrimo did not give up on him. He followed the man and went into a nearby Skechers store and bought the pair of $100 boots, with the store manager giving him an employee discount to cut the price in half.
DePrimo went outside, gave the man the boots, and then Arizona tourist Jennifer Foster took the picture that everyone is talking about. It seems a certainty that DePrimo did this selflessly and expected no fanfare, but now he has gone on the Today show and CNN to talk about his actions. Even tourist Foster made it clear that what the cop did was “an act of human kindness and he had absolutely no intention of receiving any credit for it.”
Article comments
1 - Dr Dreadful
A follow-up on this story: not a happy ending, and an astute commentary on attitudes to homelessness in this country.