To protect and to serve

Years ago, the Big Man and I were driving on an interstate in the pouring rain. I noticed that a policeman had pulled someone over and said, "Can you believe he'd pull someone over in the rain?" Then, I was terribly ashamed when we passed him and saw that he was kneeling in the pouring rain, not writing a ticket, but changing a tire. The Big Man just said, "To protect and to serve" which was a great reminder. It was a bit of an aberration for me, because I have always respected those who serve us as police officers, firefighters and military, but I've never forgotten it either.

So, last Saturday, our area was shaken when two deputies were killed in the line of duty. As I understand, deputies had responded to a domestic abuse call in another town. A man had beaten his wife, but an arrest was not made at the time. It was learned he was going to be at a shooting range in our town, so Deputies York and Lopez went there. He resisted and they tased him. While he was on the ground, he accessed a weapon that he had on him and shot these two deputies to death. He then fled the scene and drove to a neighboring county. Deputies there were waiting for him, rammed his truck and shot him to death.

Our area is completely stunned. When I went to school Monday, many of the kids had connections to the families...neighbors, went to church with them, etc. One of them went to my church and his kids were at my old school for a time, then the wife of the other worked with me at that school. Then a neighbor told me more connections. It's just amazing.

Today the funeral for Deputy Lopez was held in our town. I was driving home from work and as I entered this part of the county, I started seeing emergency vehicles on the side of the road and people just standing on the side of the road. I then realized that the funeral procession was about to pass. I parked in a parking lot and stood outside to pay my respects. I am so glad that I did. There were hundreds of police cars from so many places I couldn't begin to remember...all of the local counties had sheriff's cars and local cities with police cars, Alabama, Louisiana...even a car from Pittsburgh. There were red and blue lights as far as you could see, but only one siren.

I tried to respectfully take some pictures, and I hope that you realize I'm posting these with that in mind. I do not mean to show any disrespect by doing so, but I wanted to show the enormity of what this meant to our town.