Police officer Dennis Hopson’s back casts a shadow over New Jersey crime and a light on the amateur ranks.

In his bliss, Dennis Hopson can be found sequestered in what he calls his “Loud Library.” There he peruses the classics, contemplates their wisdom, recurs the techniques that gave the physiques of Flex Wheeler, Bob Paris, Shawn Ray and Kevin Levrone their ancient Greek aesthetic of perfect symmetry and dramatic proportions. Immemorial volumes of bodybuilding are written there in the chalk-smeared walls of the gym, in the rough cast-iron plates, in the glorious symphony of crashing weights — their inspiration is palpable to Dennis. “It’s weird,” he muses. “As much noise as there is in the gym, I don’t hear anything because I’m so involved in my workout and my own zone.”

Dennis had that ability to tune out external sounds, he says, right from the start. New Jersey has long been home, and still is, for the extended Hopson family; it was there, at age 12, that Dennis first touched weights. “I happened to be at my older cousin’s place,” he recalls. “He had a gym in his garage, and he had friends who were close to Rich Gaspari. I was told I could have a glass of iced tea afterward. I never forgot that experience. Ultimately, I asked my parents for a weight set, which I got for Christmas, and it went from there.”

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