Shield Our Fallen Angels

Here we are at another annual Police Week, celebrated by many for many different reasons, none that escapes the ever-vigilant brain. The Law Enforcement community comes together this time of year to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our American way of life. Decked out in dress uniforms we stand, salute, cry, and sweat in the most beautiful serenity of our beloved capital, Washington D.C. Social events and stoic engagements pockmark the week's calendar, all with the express intention of honoring those who have chosen to swear an oath to uphold not only the law but the decency of humanity. It is a time of reflection not only for us but for each other behind that thin blue line.

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Arriving on your first day on the job you know them, or you should. Plaques on the walls, murals painted, roadways enshrined, and annual golf outings named after them. The social legacy of those who were so quickly stolen from us, some criminal in nature and others through sheer accident, leaving an uneasiness upon the soul. Lives snuffed out over the intoxication of the mind and spirit. You get to know these stories, regaled and relived in the eyes and reactions of predecessors who long ago learned habitually that letting go meant letting go and that could not be tolerated. Hold the line.

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Marching on, as time inevitably does, the pathway for your own stories becomes illuminated, sainthood to satan others will decide. The calls for service pour in with death, destruction, and mayhem in tow. The initial question has been answered with a deafening "yes" for most. Yes, I will be back tomorrow. Yes, can I work another shift today. Yes, that coffee smells good. Yes, I'll have it when I get back after this call. But sometimes you don't. You don't come back tomorrow. You don't work another shift. You don't have that coffee that smells so great because it's being brewed by the one person in the house that knows how teaspoons work. You don't because you can't.

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Honoring those who sacrificed often equates with sacrificing it all. There is no worse demon among Police Officers than the internal agitator. The person who escalates a calm situation into newsworthy event through a Darwinian ability to evolve a molehill to Everest. The person who demands social suicide over a parking ticket. The person who has a keen knack of timing while a subject is being processed. It is our responsibility to locate, educate if we can, but more often than not remove these individuals from our proud, professional agencies. They have no place amongst us, let alone our fallen brethren.

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We shall honor our loved patriots who signed the dotted line with the proverbial quill pen in blood to uphold the American Constitution, treating all with fairness and firmness, in obtaining the ultimate goal of a tranquil society. There is no more room to coddle these less than stellar individuals who stain Police Officers everywhere, including our most cherished. Do not sit idly by while these infiltrators gnaw away at your heels. You, are holding the line. You, are bearing that shield. You, have integrity on your side. Our position as a spoke on the community's wheel is that we are entrusted to defend most, remove some, and set the example to all of the highest caliber American imaginable. Do not let those fallen angels fell our Angels.

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