Murder

Last week a local police officer was murdered by a drug addicted nut job. The young police officer left behind a wife and two young sons. I am not sure what the drug addict left behind.

Yesterday a massive funeral was held for the police officer and the streets of my neighborhood were closed off while hundreds of police cars made their way from the church to the cemetery.

I did not know the officer. Thankfully I did not know the drug addict either.

For the last few days almost anywhere you would go around here there would be a sign in front of a building that said something to the effect that our thoughts are with the family.

I have written numerous times that this is a bit of a ghetto that we live in, and it is. Strange and unfortunate circumstances led us here, not the least of which was a need to find a place we could buy for cash and not have to worry about a mortgage and when that is your overriding goal, affordability trumps location. We bought our house sight unseen and for a few seconds we regretted it, but once we moved in, we made it our home and for the most part, this has been a decent place to live. Truth be told some of the neighbors we had in our upscale neighborhood in Washington state were a lot more sketchy than some of our new neighbors.

That said, a police officer was never ambushed and shot by a crazed drug addict.

A huge church filled yesterday for the ceremony, police from around the country, politicians including the governor were in attendance and the residents of the community lined the streets as police with sirens blaring following the honor guard as the casket was moved from church to cemetery.

There are plenty of things in life I do not understand. When a productive member of society is shot and killed by a non-productive member it is beyond frustrating and what is worse is the feeling that there really is nothing we can do about it.

It was a bitter cold night last night at my daughters final soccer game of the season. I have been terribly sick of late, but I wanted to go and be there for her. There were ceremonies before the game to honor the graduating seniors from both teams, a ceremony that seemed to go on just a bit too long for my comfort, and then both teams gathered at midfield and all the girls held hands. A microphone was placed in front of the stands and a pale and sad man stepped to in front of it. The police chief who had just buried one of his deputies spoke about the communities loss, how thankful he was to live in a place that honored fallen heros and what a trying time this has been for his department. He was crying, everyone was crying.