This National Police Week Say Thank you

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

National Police Week has arrived once again. We honor with sadness the 181 officers who made the ultimate sacrifice in 2007. There have been a number of articles written about the value of attending Police Week and what it means to remember and honor the fallen. That's not what this blog entry is about. Instead, this blog entry is going to be about how I believe the rest of society should view this week. Yes, I'm going to be quite arrogant and tell everyone reading this how I think they should be thinking. The difference between me and a modern-day terrorist is, I'm not going to try to kill you for disagreeing with me. The beauty of America is that you're free to think and say what you want. But, as you go about doing so, I want you to consider why you're free to go about thinking and saying what you want. Sure, it started a couple hundred years ago with an abstract concept and some guys who were willing to fight for what they believed in. And as time has passed we've faced other obstacles where our armed services members have had to go and fight to defend our way of life. Here at home though, most often, if you see a man or woman fighting to protect you and your rights, they're wearing a law enforcement uniform. Now I know this might be hard for a few folks to believe. After all, there are a great many people in our country who feel that cops do nothing but violate individual rights and freedoms. Oddly enough, most of the ones I've talked to who believe that have committed crimes and found themselves lacking certain freedoms as they sit in the back of a police car in handcuffs. Somehow, when they start to complain about how the big bad ole policeman denied them their rights, I'm not overly impressed. For the rest of you reading this: those who don't think the cops are evil incarnate, I challenge you. I challenge you to walk up to every law enforcement professional you see this week and say, "Thank you." Say thank you and mean it. Thank that police officer or sheriff's deputy for putting their life on the line every time they put on the uniform to keep YOUR town, neighborhood, burough, whatever safe from crime. Understand that, as we're all human, none of us is perfect and certainly we can't be everywhere all the time. As such, we can't prevent ALL crime. But for that moment in that place, we're preventing a crime from occurring... a crime you might well have been the victim of. Take a minute to say thank you and offer some sincere heartfelt words of appreciation and honor for the 181 law enforcement officers who gave their lives in 2007. Remember that they died in the service of maintaining peace and safety, often for a meager paycheck and little thanks. As they have passed and we now mourn the loss of them, you can't thank them for having made that sacrifice. You CAN thank another officer for being willing to do so. National Police Week is the one week each year when, if at no other time, the general public should take a minute to recognize what the police community does. Is that arrogant of me? I don't believe so. If so, so be it. There are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people living peacefully in the United States today as a direct result of some action police officers have performed. Some of you reading this may actually have been a near-victim and know the officer who intervened in a timely fashion to keep you from being assaulted; battered; robbed or worse. Seek them out. Shake their hand and say, "Thanks." It's not a hard thing to do. It takes little time. It will mean more to them than you'll ever know.

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