As we enter the new year, we offer you this story of courage, compassion and solidarity – all in the name of justice.  Clearly, the real “new year” begins with such actions, mirrored in so many circumstances in our struggling world.  May we all continue to celebrate this new year again and again and again.

HOMELESS PEOPLE THANK COP WITH $3,000
December 25, 2002 - Chicago Tribune

NEW YORK -- A police officer got a Christmas gift of $3,000 from homeless people who
wanted to thank him for standing up for them.

Officer Eduardo Delacruz, 37, was suspended for 30 days without pay last month after he
refused a sergeant's order to arrest a homeless man found sleeping in a garage.

Organizations for the homeless put together the fund for the officer, his wife and their five
children. Homeless people also contributed change scrounged from passersby, money from
recycling cans and bottles, even a portion of their welfare checks.

"We just wanted to thank him by contributing however we could," said Joe Bostic, one of 30
former and current  homeless men and women who announced the gift.

According to police, Delacruz told his superiors he would not arrest a homeless man because the
man had nowhere else to go. He was suspended for refusing to comply with an order.

Attorney Norman Siegel said Delacruz was back at work Tuesday and "very moved" by what the
homeless people did.

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