This is True®
by Randy CassinghamRandy Cassingham's Honorary Unsubscribe Recognizes the Unknown, the Forgotten and the Obscure People who Had an Impact on Our Lives
Simon Eisdorfer
Copyright 1998-2012 ThisisTrue.Inc, all rights reserved. May not be copied or archived without express, prior, written permission. "This is True" is a registered trademark of ThisisTrue.Inc, Ridgway Colorado. 9181
In the summer of 1972 Eisdorfer, an Assistant Chief Inspector at the New York Police Dept., watched as a hostage drama unfolded on TV. It was during the Munich Summer Olympics, when 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed by terrorists. As the commanding officer of the NYPD's Special Operations division, Eisdorfer realized that such an event could happen in his city -- and he knew his department was not prepared to deal with it. He spent several months developing the operational plans for the nation's first Hostage Negotiation Team, which was deployed in 1973. Before the HNT, cops surrounding barricaded suspects would call out, "You've got 10 minutes to come out, or we're throwing in tear gas," says retired police captain Frank Bolz, who was the unit's first chief hostage negotiator. "And, unfortunately, people got killed. Cops got killed." Eisdorfer knew that he could put fresh cops on day after day and wear down the hostage takers; his emphasis was saving lives, not ending things quickly. And it worked. Police departments from all over the world studied the team, and its techniques are still used today. Eisdorfer retired in 1978, and died March 23 in New York from heart failure. He was 87.
From This is True for 20 March 2005
About the HUs
About This is TrueSubscribe Free
to This is TruePrev: Superdad Richard Dutrow
Next: The cold-hearted Wilfred G. Bigelow