Coretta James of Queens is trying to give a thank you note to every NYPD officer. (Photo: Coretta James)
A New York City woman has spent the last four years quietly handing out handwritten thank-you notes to NYPD officers—and she’s on a mission to give one to every member of the NYPD.
“I have tremendous respect for the uniform: military, firemen and cops,” Coretta James told The Post. “They are not used to being thanked. And I feel for them. They need encouragement. I used to see guys with 30 or 35 years on the job but no longer,” she said, adding that many are demoralized and retiring earlier.
She called the surge of anti-cop sentiment and the defund-the-police movement that has brought violent demonstrations and destruction to parts of the city “heartbreaking.”
The idea came to James, 49, after she volunteered with the FDNY to send thank-you cards to service members stationed overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the troops started to return home, she decided to turn her pen and gratitude toward the NYPD.
To date, she has written more than 4,000 cards that she’s given to officers in all of the city’s 77 precincts and some working details at Yankee Stadium. She keeps a list of everyone she has thanked so far.
“There are 36,000 cops, so I have a lot of writing to do,” she said.