Post by Glencairn on Jan 26, 2015 3:06:23 GMT -6
I know that there are tons of bad police stories out there, but this is not one of them. This is about the police in my town and why I love them.
First, it helps to know that my town is small, about 1400 or so people kind of small. We are a little farming community. So, the police really do know most of us and, by and large, aren't too far removed from the friendly Andy Griffith type cops that don't seem to exist much anymore. Also, we only have a small handful of police. The only number that I can find says that we have 9. I'm not sure if that is a current number, but it is pretty close. So, it is easy to get to know our cops because there just aren't all that many.
Today I saw a neat reminder of why I appreciate the police in my town. I've mentioned in the chat that the best friend of my daughter's boyfriend died of cancer this past Wednesday. The boy was a wonderful kid, just 17, and someone that the whole community had rallied around to support. Our community is lessened for having lost him, but more for having the privilege of knowing him.
One thing about him, and this is relevant, is that he LOVED big trucks. I know nothing about trucks, so I don't know what they are called, but pickup trucks that are huge. Being a farming community, lots of those are out here. They are generally work trucks for the farms from what I understand.
Today was his funeral. The school let the family have the visitation and funeral in the school's gym so as to accommodate the number of people who would be there. After the funeral, our police closed off the main street in town for maybe a half mile, maybe a touch less (I'm sucky at judging distances by eyeball). Cops at each end. Then they let the kids (and/or parents) give the boy his big send off, his "final ride" the kids called it. The kids in their big trucks lined up. Then the first one spun his tires, what we called burning rubber when I was a teen, with a foot on the brake and the back tires spinning. After doing that for a couple of seconds, it slowly drove down and past the cop at the other end and out of the way. This happened 12 more times the same way. Then the kids got a police escort parade around the "square" - a couple of blocks around the center of town - and then I'm not sure where they went after that. To the interment, maybe. There are a number of videos of it on the kids facebook pages, though I don't have a video or a copy to share, unfortunately.
I know it isn't such a big thing, but it meant so much to his friends. A silly little thing that sounds like kids being stupid, but allowed, and supervised for safety, by our police here in town. They didn't have to allow this to happen, but they took into consideration how much this meant to those who loved this boy so much, and they helped them, set it up so it was safe and no one was in any danger, and let them pay their final respects in a way that their friend would have gotten the biggest kick out of.
So, that is my story for why I appreciate the police in my town and the reminder of that appreciation by their actions today. It was a spectacularly rough day for so many of us today. I didn't know the family much, but my daughter did and her boyfriend was one of the boy's best friends. However, I'm a parent of a child that is only a couple of years younger than this boy, so it hit home, again, just how fragile and unpredictable life can be.
In a week filled with amazing acts of support and coming together, this was one more thing that showed how good people can be to each other - even police people.
Take care,
Cindi
(And if you got to the end of this, thank you for reading my wordy little - or not so little - novel.)
First, it helps to know that my town is small, about 1400 or so people kind of small. We are a little farming community. So, the police really do know most of us and, by and large, aren't too far removed from the friendly Andy Griffith type cops that don't seem to exist much anymore. Also, we only have a small handful of police. The only number that I can find says that we have 9. I'm not sure if that is a current number, but it is pretty close. So, it is easy to get to know our cops because there just aren't all that many.
Today I saw a neat reminder of why I appreciate the police in my town. I've mentioned in the chat that the best friend of my daughter's boyfriend died of cancer this past Wednesday. The boy was a wonderful kid, just 17, and someone that the whole community had rallied around to support. Our community is lessened for having lost him, but more for having the privilege of knowing him.
One thing about him, and this is relevant, is that he LOVED big trucks. I know nothing about trucks, so I don't know what they are called, but pickup trucks that are huge. Being a farming community, lots of those are out here. They are generally work trucks for the farms from what I understand.
Today was his funeral. The school let the family have the visitation and funeral in the school's gym so as to accommodate the number of people who would be there. After the funeral, our police closed off the main street in town for maybe a half mile, maybe a touch less (I'm sucky at judging distances by eyeball). Cops at each end. Then they let the kids (and/or parents) give the boy his big send off, his "final ride" the kids called it. The kids in their big trucks lined up. Then the first one spun his tires, what we called burning rubber when I was a teen, with a foot on the brake and the back tires spinning. After doing that for a couple of seconds, it slowly drove down and past the cop at the other end and out of the way. This happened 12 more times the same way. Then the kids got a police escort parade around the "square" - a couple of blocks around the center of town - and then I'm not sure where they went after that. To the interment, maybe. There are a number of videos of it on the kids facebook pages, though I don't have a video or a copy to share, unfortunately.
I know it isn't such a big thing, but it meant so much to his friends. A silly little thing that sounds like kids being stupid, but allowed, and supervised for safety, by our police here in town. They didn't have to allow this to happen, but they took into consideration how much this meant to those who loved this boy so much, and they helped them, set it up so it was safe and no one was in any danger, and let them pay their final respects in a way that their friend would have gotten the biggest kick out of.
So, that is my story for why I appreciate the police in my town and the reminder of that appreciation by their actions today. It was a spectacularly rough day for so many of us today. I didn't know the family much, but my daughter did and her boyfriend was one of the boy's best friends. However, I'm a parent of a child that is only a couple of years younger than this boy, so it hit home, again, just how fragile and unpredictable life can be.
In a week filled with amazing acts of support and coming together, this was one more thing that showed how good people can be to each other - even police people.
Take care,
Cindi
(And if you got to the end of this, thank you for reading my wordy little - or not so little - novel.)
