I was just watching CNN, and they are still talking about the car bomb that was found in Times Square, New York yesterday. At the bottom I saw that they had "Mayor having dinner with hero cop". I immediately turned to Laura and said, "double you tee eff? how is that cop a hero?".
Sure, he is a basic hero for what he does, in general, but then aren't all cops? Therefore, "hero cop" would be redundant. That means that a cop just does "heroic" things, and is not a hero according to the media.

However, having a pedestrian come up to you and tell you that something is wrong, and then you pick up the phone and tell the higher-ups about the bomb is hardly worthy of being given the title of "hero". If anything, shouldn't the citizen receive all the attention, if praise is truly warranted?

Do you consider him a hero? I don't feel he went above and beyond the call of duty. All he did was assess the situation and call for help.

http://www.ireport.com/ir-topic-stories....cId=439130

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/01/new...stigation/

Hmm... If that's the case then, I think the pedestrian deserves the praise. The cop wouldn't have known about it if someone hadn't reported it.

You have a point there, the cop was just doing his job, maybe the pedestrian is the one that deserves praise IMO

If anything, he's probably more of an hero.

i suppose no.

its all publicity anyway :/

are wee truly in such a society where wee work for praise?
I feel the true hero would be the one that acts to help people. Not the one that act's in hopes of being rewarded.
People who genuinely wish to help and are willing to lay down their lives for another are truly hard to come by, even more so in the modern day. But that, in my opinion, is a hero

Good. So I'm not the only one. And yeah, Slush, I have a feeling that is how most "intelligent" people feel, but the mob mentality of America seems to be that of a feel-good nature. Make everyone feel like they are awesome, and tell everyone that he or is has led a meaningful existence.

But, the bomb was a dud, wasn't it? If the cop had like pushed people out of the way of the blast, or done something where his life was actually at risk, I'd agree. But he didn't, and so I don't think he quite deserves the title of "hero".

Well thank goodness the bomb turned out to be a dud.  So... in that case, no one is the hero?  Because there was never a threat?  I end these in question marks because, I wonder myself.  But I think everybody involved who stopped this mess from happening deserves the title hero.  The pedestrian and the cop, because without the information from the pedestrian and the cop taking action, then the threat could've turned out to be something worse.