The Toll It Took

Bloomington police officers cradle the dying, rush toward gunfire and miss holidays with their kids. Over 18 months, they fought for better hours and pay.

...As he gets dressed, Paul sees a Bible quote from 2 Timothy 4:5 hanging above his gun cabinet: “Keep your head in all situations.”

A challenge coin, earned after completing hostage negotiation schooling, goes into Paul’s pants pockets, along with a handkerchief, leather gloves and two pocketknives.

...The conditions, negotiations and day-to-day police work create a stressed home life, Paul said. “The pressure from both sides wears you down.”

Read more from IDSnews.com [HERE]. 

Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business

“The large majority of kidnap victims are successfully ransomed,” Anja Shortland writes in her new book Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business, in which she claims that 81 percent of kidnap-for-ransom victims are returned, unharmed, in under seven days. “Clearly the hostage trade functions surprisingly well in the large majority of cases. How can such a difficult market operate so successfully?”

Read more from the SantaFeNewMexican.com [HERE]. 

The Real Deal Behind the U.S.–Iran Prisoner Swap

Donald Trump celebrated a surprise prisoner exchange with Iran in a tweet on Saturday (Dec. 8, 2019), just hours after a Princeton graduate student and an Iranian scientist were traded on the tarmac of Zurich’s international airport. 

“Thank you to Iran on a very fair negotiation. See, we can make a deal together!” he wrote. 

The swap was a rare moment of détente following months of escalating hostilities, which came within minutes of a military confrontation in June, after Iran shot down a sophisticated U.S. drone.

Read more from the NewYorker.com [HERE].