Everyone knows that the color black is used to designate mourning. Widows wear it. Children wear it to the funerals of parents. We drape caskets with it. We hang streamers around windows. We wear arm bands. In the law enforcement profession we tend to do two things: we tend to put a black stripe across the door emblem on our cruisers, and we put a mourning band on our badge. I’d really REALLY like to take mine off.
Most of the agencies I’m familiar with allow officers to wear a mourning band on their badge if any officer in the state is killed in the line of duty. With well over 100 officers killed in the line of duty annually (until we can get that number farther down), and fifty states, that means the officers of each state have a one in twenty-five chance of putting on a mourning band each year. The larger and more populace states usually see more line of duty deaths, so the states with lower populations don’t see officers wearing those mourning bands as often.
That said, I know of a few agencies who allow their officers to wear mourning bands for three to five days for ANY line of duty death that gets reported in the nation. That being the case, those officers could have been wearing their mourning bands almost since the beginning of January without taking it off. That’s two months; two months out of the year; one sixth of the whole year; roughly 16.5% of the year. Please, for the love of all that’s good and holy, can we PLEASE go a week without having to put on a mourning band anywhere in our nation?
While recent tragedies have caught our attention nationwide, the ugly truth is that a police officer is killed in the line of duty (on average) every 53 hours. That’s just a little over every two days. For those reading this who AREN’T law enforcement professionals… who DON’T wear a badge… you need to understand that we are a family. The Thin Blue Line and the badge are a family crest. Once we raise our hand and take that oath, we are bonded. We don’t have to like each other. We might bicker. But we are family – and NOBODY messes with our family but us.
We are constrained by law as to what we can do to avenge our fallen. The reality is that we can only honor their memory in two ways: by continuing to do the job to the best of our ability, and by trying to learn something from how they died that might help keep us alive as we move forward. No, that’s not all we want to do, but we are morally, ethically and legally compelled to take no vengeful actions. The “morals” and “ethics” aren’t outside influences that impact our behavior. They are a part of who we are. They are a part of WHY we pursued this career in the first place. To stay faithful to them we have to choke back our anger, focus on our grief, and move forward to honor the fallen.
For those who aren’t law enforcement professionals and who are wondering why the heck I’m angry in the first place, I want you to consider this outlook: How would YOU feel if a member of YOUR family died every third day? That’s right… one today, another one on Saturday… and don’t make plans for next Tuesday because another one is going to die then. Do you see what I mean? While you’re attending funeral services for one, another one gets killed! It’s unacceptable in every way you can think of or articulate.
So… I ask again: can we PLEASE take these mourning bands off? Can we get a break? We’ve already lost too many. Hell, ONE is too many, but we’re at 15 so far this year! And that’s just those killed by guns; it doesn’t include those who died in the line of duty in car crashes and other incidents. Please, Lord, let us go a week without a line of duty death? Can we make it two? How about a month?
For my brothers and sisters behind the badge… whether your badge currently is wrapped in a mourning band or not, STAY SAFE. Stay alert. Stay alive. Be courteous. Be professional. But go home whole and healthy at the end of your shift. None of our fallen wants to look down on YOUR funeral from heaven.
