March 19, 2024

Just think about it

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to watch your loved one get dressed for work every day when there is a target on his back? To wear a bullet proof vest? To put on a 20-pound gun belt each and every day? To know people who have never met him are judging him, even hate him, for simply doing his job and collecting a paycheck with few other accolades? Probably not.

Tell me, how would you handle having threats made against your life and the lives of your family simply because you’re doing your job? To have other law enforcement officers keeping an eye on your family because some of those threats are considered viable, while you’re at work trying to keep a community safe for the families of people you’ve never even met?

You don’t know ‘real’ until you’ve lived with someone who has had to pull the mangled body of a child from a car accident because some drunk got behind the wheel of a car and selfishly thought they were OK to drive — a drunk driver my LEO might have been able to stop had he not been taking care of a shoplifter or helping a lost Alzheimer’s patient find their way home.

Have you ever really seen what remains of a skull after someone they know has taken their own life with a bullet to their head? My husband has.

Did you ever stop to think what it must be like to wonder if the next person you stop for a traffic violation will be the last face you’ll ever see?

Have you ever slept next to someone who commonly yells out in his sleep and violently thrashes about because his dreams aren’t peaceful?

You can’t begin to imagine the extremes law enforcement officers deal with on a daily basis or some of the awful things they can never un-see.

Most men and women who go in to law enforcement believe they will make a difference for the better. Unfortunately, like in every profession, a few bad ones get through ... no denying it, and we’re all sorry for that.

Are you surprised my husband prays he never has to take the life of another human being, but will protect complete strangers or his fellow officers at the cost of his own life. Would you do that for the people you work with or would self-preservation be your first instinct? Seriously? In a split second, could you process all that information and make a decision that could affect not only your existence but the lives of many?

Do you know 60-75 percent of marriages of LEOs fail?

Do you know my husband shed tears at our kids’ high school graduations?

Did you realize I have two sons who wanted to follow in their dad’s footsteps and we have pleaded with them to NOT go into the same line of work. The same profession that kept their dad from attending their ballgames, music programs, school plays, parent/teacher conferences, Christmas dinners, Easter egg hunts, birthdays, you name it ... from infancy to adulthood.

Do you have any idea how comforting the sound of velcro is to me after his shift? Unless you’re family of an LEO, you don’t. It’s the sound of that kevlar vest coming off after a shift, meaning your officer is home safe one more time.

I’m going to let you in on a secret. Respect. That’s it. Respect.

Don’t want a ticket or want to be arrested? Don’t break the law — a law I might add, my husband didn’t make, but is sworn to uphold. But if you do encounter an officer, remember ... respect. It goes a long way and it goes both ways. Trust me.

Now, what are you wearing to work today?

Contact Dana King at dking@shawmedia.com