Yesterday on the streets of the city where I live in Louisiana, was a funeral, a parade for a musician. Spectators lined the streets as if it were a Mardi gras celebration. Mourners and others came from all over to pay their last respects to a man for his beloved music. Please, don't get me wrong, I listen to and enjoy music as much as anyone else. And I have nothing against the long-standing tradition of music and marching to memorialize an entertainer who has died.
"WHY ARE WE NOT MOURNED?"
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By: Dee Dee Serpas,
Deputy Sheriff - Retired
On the other hand, why don't people line the streets to say goodbye to emergency responders, is it not our brothers and sisters who put there innocent lives on the line day in and day out?
Sure we work a dangerous profession. For many public safety families, to serve and protect is a family tradition, like it was for my family.
And when one of our bravest die on the battlefield of emergency response do we ever see much of the media other than a few paragraphs in the local newspaper?
When it comes to our funerals, the news media is seldom around. In all due respect, look what it took to finally get national attention from the media, and to capture sympathy from the general public; more than 400 brave public safety members had to die on 9-11-01 in New York as they tried to save innocent lives at the World Trade Center.
However, let one public safety member do something that is considered out of line and like swarming bees on an open jar of honey, the media is at our doorsteps with cameras rolling. They will usually do their best to showcase officers that have fallen out of respect.
And that's okay as all public safety professionals have an unwavering obligation to conduct themselves within the laws that govern this wonderful country we call America. There are no exceptions.
Tell me why we are looked down upon, we are called to help the public; sometimes at the worst moments of a persons life. We have to have hearts of steel, to make the right decisions regardless of the consequences.
The law prevents us from shooting first and asking questions later. Often giving time for cold-blooded killers to blow us away.
It is us who search the streets for a murderer, child molester, a serial rapist, and other deadly criminals. We know serving arrest warrants on fugitives or disrupting violent family disputes can turn on us at any moment. We have many dead officers to prove we can be ambushed at any moment.
A simple traffic stop can turn deadly when we least expect any problems. For officers that travel alone on patrol at night, the likelihood of being in harm's way increases. We never know whether a person has just robbed a bank or killed someone.
On a felony stop we have to be extremely cautious or lose our life if we get careless. It's a sub-conscious fear we must live with on patrol.
And when appropriate we call for backup, provided we are not the only police officer on duty in our community.
We cannot lose control on any incident; we are not allowed to force a suspect to obtain a confession.
It is the police officer, which is required to put on a bulletproof vest before a tour of duty. For the officer, it's a primary means to stop a bullet, to offer some degree of protection.
But that does not mean we will not be injured or even die when a shooter aims at our face or any other exposed body part not protected by the vest.
It is us who walks through a darkened entry, where the threat is very real as some deranged predator may be waiting in hiding to gun us down.
Like two days ago when Marion Louisiana's, Police officer Hector Gomez, was shot and killed with a 9mm pistol as he approached a vehicle in a ditch after a high-speed chase.
And all over a bogus check - three young men decided to flee and when cornered decided to take an officers life.
Is there any sense to such madness or man caring so little about the life of another human being?
A young 25 year-old police officer with less than a year on the Marion Police Department, a U.S. Army vet who served his country proudly. Now leaves behind a wife and unborn child.
He was the first officer lost in the History of Marion, Louisiana Police Department. Will the media attend his funeral and will the community of Marion turn out to offer their final respects? I sure hope so.
God bless all emergency responders around the world!
This is no less than the reality of our world today which day by day grows increasingly anti-police. We have been held up to a standard that few can match and no criminal follows those rules. There was a day when we could not even count the multitudes in support lining the streets and highways of our towns, cities, counties and states...and in some places we still garner that respect by the public and the media. It is not so bad everywhere but the internet is riddled with copblockers and antipolice groups filled with hate and talk of death to the pigs. Most of those are young, rebellious and ignorant types that have not been taught respect by their parents and those who have received the wrong attention from the law. Your write is excellent on this subject and is cause for thought.
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