In the line of duty…

Cameron, Texas, police Sgt. Joshua Clouse won’t be going home this evening. He won’t survive another day of doing his level best to protect the citizens of Milam County in east Texas, just west of the Louisiana state line.

Why? Because on May 11, the 39-year-old father of two took a bullet to save those he swore to serve and protect, becoming the 41st officer so far this year to die in the line of duty in the U.S.

He was murdered by a domestic violence suspect he and other officers were trying to arrest.

This is the week we honor those officers who gave the ultimate sacrifice to shield the rest of us from what typically is, without mincing words, the scum of the earth.

Officers from across the nation gathered in Washington this past weekend to commemorate the bravery of their fellow law enforcement professionals, some of them, like a contingency from the Carolinas, rode bicycles for 500 miles for what they considered the privilege of recognizing the men and women who literally gave it all so that you and I could sleep better at night.

National Police Week began Sunday with its 61st observance since President John F. Kennedy made it official by signing a joint resolution in Congress in 1962.

More than 23,000 names are engraved on architect Davis Buckley’s granite monument in DC, where under four bronze lions are quotes from Proverbs to President George H.W. Bush, whose words for eternity are Carved on these walls is the story of America, of a continuing quest to preserve both democracy and decency, and to protect a national treasure we call the American Dream.

Eleven of those added just last year on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial are from North Carolina, six from South Carolina.

Lately, it seems, we see more news coverage of criticism of those behind the badge than the plaudits most of them overwhelmingly deserve.

For generations, veteran cops have put up with the often-misdirected wrath of the unappreciative. I can remember my father coming home at night, weary and sometimes with a distant look in his eyes because he had to deal with people of a walk of life that few of us ever encounter.

My own brief stint behind a badge only underscored what I already knew, that our officers were a necessary shield between an unsuspecting populace and what would doubtlessly be social chaos without them.

It seems that fewer people pay attention to the good stories like when a local deputy saved an infant who’d stopped breathing in his mother’s car or when an officer pulled a suicidal man off a bridge and hugged him tight.

There are those who understand the sacrifices of ‘the job’ more than most, and some of them come in surprising form, like that New Jersey schoolgirl, Rosalyn Baldwin, who made it her personal mission to hug officers in every state.

“Mama, they’re killing our heroes,” she observed after one incident.

So if you have the time this week, why not thank a police officer?

They honestly don’t hear it enough.