First Responder
“Most times first responders are the last people a victim of a crime or a witness to a crime wants to see. Certainly it doesn’t occur to the person the first responder is dealing with how difficult is the job of that first responder. Day in and day out our law enforcement officers see things that cannot be unseen. They are faced daily with the task of eliciting information necessary to allow for a proper response to the crime from someone who is in no shape to provide that information. Yet day in and day out, they go. They go to the scene of terrible crimes and they find a way to show compassion as they do the job they are called to do.
As the Remembrance Tree filled with the names of victims whose families were present last night, there was an irony to the knowledge that those names represented the worst day in someone’s life at the same time that it represented one of many times a police officer was faced with finding a way to compassionately move through a crime scene with the knowledge that they are not a welcome sight but a necessity. It would do us all well to consider the weight of facing a task such as that day after day after day.
These men an women who were honored last night are true heroes. Not because of some daring car chase or because of an exchange of gunfire, but because they look into the eyes of the people they serve and see the shock and the pain and the overwhelming loss and they find a way to do they job they are assigned to do – to bring justice to the survivors.
