Catch Them Before They Fall

I was speaking with a friend of mine who is on a different department when he told me about this incident.

The construction of one of our State buildings is in the shape of a cylinder.  The offices, elevators and the stairwells are affixed to the inside edge of the cylinder leaving the entire center of the structure open from the roof  to the floor, approximately seventeen floors.

A distraught middle aged woman pulled a chair to the railing, climbed to the rail and jumped to her death, falling seventeen stories to the floor.  Her body remained intact, thou broken, but upon impact her skull split open and her brain slid two to three feet across the floor on the floor lubricated by her own cerebrospinal fluid.  It takes about four minutes to achieve cellular death due to oxygen starvation.  If her brain did not suffer massive structural damage and from what I was told it was totally intact with little to no sign of bleeding, she would have been conscious and aware sitting as only a brain on the tile floor for the four to six minutes till she passed.  A grim, to say the least, ending.

On her body was a note as to where her vehicle was parked, what to do at her apartment and who got her pets and personal property.  Her family and friends received the letter she sent prior to her jump, explaining her reasons for suicide and her hopes for their futures.

As a Police Officer you run into suicides in many forms, using many methods for many different reasons.  But in the final analysis they are all the same in the end.  It is a story about a depressed individual who soon becomes overwhelmed by their real or perceived problems, isolates themselves, erroneously believes their personal issues insurmountable and escapes in the only way they know how.

We need to catch them before they fall.  You know that friend/family member you had that you just somehow lost contact with?  Contact them, find out how they are doing, not over the phone, but in person.  Be brave, ask the real questions, have a relationship that goes deeper than the weather and sports.  Get them moving, get them in the shower, get them running on the street, take them to lunch, have them meet your friends.  Get them to the doctor, the hospital, have them meet some great firemen and Policemen (Trust me we all love alive people even if they do not want to see us-the dead ones tend not to do anything really fun).  Intervene, be someone's savior.  Give them Christ!  Before their last act is to sit dying on the tile-truly and permanently  isolated from us forever.

John 5:24
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Risk, Death and the Job.

I was notified about Deputy Robert Britton death on duty through the nationwide law enforcement prayer chain that I am a part of because of my membership in FCPO. He was killed by a wounded cow.

The Link to the Story

The Story from the Star Telegram

TYLER, Texas — An East Texas deputy has died of head injuries suffered when he was attacked by an injured cow while he directed traffic around the half-ton animal.

Smith County Sheriff J.B. Smith says Deputy Robert Britton of Tyler died Monday at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, where he'd been since the incident early Thursday near Bullard, 95 miles southeast of Dallas and 15 miles south of Tyler.

Smith had said the 54-year-old deputy had responded to a report of a stray cow struck by a vehicle and was directing traffic on Farm Road 344 when the cow charged him. He says Britton was knocked into the air and landed head-first on the pavement before the animal continued the attack until other deputies rescued Britton.

Smith says the cow was euthanized.
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The probability of being killed/murdered on the job by the hand of another is very slim.  According to the Washington Post there were 160 officers killed in the line of duty in 2010 (all levels, local, state, federal), out of around 900,000 officers country wide.  The officers that I have known that have died on the job have been killed in traffic crashes, heart attacks, accidents or environmental hazards.  The real risk on this job is the environment in which we conduct our business.  This risk is not understood by the public we serve.

In this case Deputy Britton was responding to a traffic accident involving car verses cow.  I was talking to my friends about the incident at Baker's Square waiting for our kids to get out of Awana.  I was being asked, if the cow was wounded why he didn't shoot it, or why he didn't hear it coming or...whatever.  I had to tell them that the cow still has value if it can be properly butchered, if the cow is shot it can not be used for anything.  Britton was trying to keep the rancher from loosing out on the total value of his property.  Second, when you are out directing traffic, it is noisy and it takes all of your attention.  The motoring public does not pay attention and will hit you if you are not watching every direction at once, I have been brushed by side mirrors more times than I would like to remember.  Third, most people have no experience with large animals.  I have been around a few cattle when I lived in Waco, Texas and they are huge and they are fast (got chased out of a pasture once).  I have had a few deer who were struck by a car, suddenly bound up and run away. If they had connected with me what happened here could easily have happen to me.

There were two times where I remember cutting it close.  One was a fire department assist for a reported heart attack and another FD assist for a burning stove.  The heart attack had been caused because the family that lived in the house had set off about five roach bug bombs but didn't leave the house.  I was the first one on scene and walked right in and promptly got poisoned.  I was found bent over on the front lawn fighting for air.  I beat the FD to the stove fire and met the family standing in the hallway of the apartment while smoke was pouring out of their front door.  I was told that "Molly" was still in the apartment, so I ran in to save "Molly" and of course "Molly" was their cat (I think they didn't say please save Molly our pet cat because I would have looked at them with the "yeah right" look), which when I had made it to the back bedroom promptly ran out of the apartment saving itself.  And again, I was found bent over on the front lawn gasping for breath.

That's the real risk to this job and since its not sensational or dynamic or "Hollywood", the public just doesn't understand what's being risked for them.   Deputy Britton lost his life trying to protect a rancher's property, directing traffic for others safety and just doing his job.

Our prayers are for his family and the ones he left behind

1 Timothy 6:12
Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses

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Four Lakewood Police Officers-May you all rest in peace

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I have spent a lot of time with my co-workers at the beginning or the end of shifts at different coffee houses.  A truly evil person came in and took these Lakewood Police Officers lives, it easily could have been me or anyone that I work with.  At times like these I rarely know what to say other than I know that:

1.  God is always good-Daniel 9:7 -"Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame,

2.  God is always working for good-Romans 8:28

3. God Loves us-John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotton Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will have everlasting life." 
This verse is so important because it shows that God loved the world (Every person who has ever been born or will be born) so much that He was willing to allow His one and only Son to be born into the sin filled world; just so we can live eternal life with Him one day, if we chose to.

4.  He will never leave us-Deuteronomy 31:8 - "And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. he will be with you, He will not leave you nore forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed." 

5.  His justice is perfect-1 Timothy 1:9-1We also know that law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers--and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me."

These men died serving their community.  Why God allowed this to happen and how with will be used to further his perfect plan-I will only know when I am finally reunited with him.  As for now I can just fall back on the above five promises, and pray for the people these men left behind. 

A look at the four police officers who were slain at a suburban coffee shop on Sunday:

Sgt. Mark Renninger, 39

Renninger was described as a cop's cop: A tough guy who excelled at his job and was regarded as a leader and teacher in the close-knit Lakewood police force.

"He was the most competent and tactically proficient man I ever knew in police work. I do not say this because he was killed and that is something you should say," Lakewood police union president Brian Wurts said. "Everyone in our department and all who knew Mark know this was true."

Relatives said Renninger, who grew up in Bethlehem, Pa., came to Washington state through military service. The East Coast native was blunt-spoken but "never belittled anyone," Wurts said.

"Mark had that spark that made you like him and respect him. He was truly a rock in our department, someone you always counted on," Wurts wrote.

The union said Renninger was married with three children.

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Officer Tina Griswold, 40

Her sister, Tiffiny Ryan, said Griswold liked to cook, ride her dirt bike and was a certified diver.

"My worst nightmare has come true," Ryan told reporters on Monday. "I can't tell you how painful it is to lose my sister."

Griswold knew she wanted to be a police officer by the time she finished high school, a weeping Ryan said.

Their father is a retired police officer, while their mother was an administrative assistant at the Washington Supreme Court, Ryan said.

Tina Griswold began working in law enforcement as a dispatcher in Shelton, then became a police officer in Shelton and Lacey before going to work in Lakewood five years ago, Ryan said.

Griswold also has a 21-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old son, Ryan said.

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Officer Ronald Owens, 37

Relatives said Owens - known to friends and family as Ronnie - was a lifelong resident of Parkland, the Tacoma suburb where he was killed. The police union said Owens has a daughter.

Wurts said Owens' fun-loving personality "made everyone around him feel positive."

He "was the laid-back, dirt-bike-riding, surfer-hair-having cop you would always want at a party or with you on any call," Wurts said. "Though he had a laid-back perspective, he was sharp and an extremely dedicated and hard worker."

Owens was a Washington State Patrol trooper from 1997 until 2004, when he left to join the Lakewood police, Patrol Chief John Batiste said.

"While we have many ranks and honors that we offer for exemplary service, the most coveted honor is to simply be respected by your colleagues as 'a good troop,'" Batiste said. "Ron Owens was most definitely a good troop."

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Officer Greg Richards, 42

Richards liked nothing better than spending time with his wife Kelly and three children, the union president said.

Richards enjoyed music in his spare time, playing drums in a rock band that performed this summer at a charity event for a hospitalized fellow-officer.

Richards was liked by everyone he met, sister-in-law Melanie Burwell said. Even though the family knew his job could be dangerous, his death was a shock, she said.

What happened...and how this man should never had been out of prison to kill.

Former Arkansas governor/GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee might have made a huge mistake when he commuted Maurice Clemmons' 60-year prison sentence nine years ago: Now, Clemmons is wanted for questioning in the horrific shooting of four Washington State police officers.

This morning, a man walked into a coffee shop in Lakewood, Washington and opened fire, killing four police officers in what officials are calling an "execution-style" shooting. Now police are looking to question 37 year-old Maurice Clemmons, who theSeattle Times reports has had a long criminal history. It started in 1990, when Clemmons was sentenced to 60 years in prison in Arkansas for burglary and theft of property:

When Clemmons received the 60-year sentence, he was already serving 48 years on five felony convictions and facing up to 95 more years on charges of robbery, theft of property and possessing a handgun on school property. Records from Clemmons' sentencing described him as 5-foot-7 and 108 pounds. The crimes were committed when he was 17.

Clemmons served 11 years before being released.

News accounts say Huckabee commuted Clemmons' sentence, citing Clemmons' young age at the time the crimes were committed.

After Huckabee freed Clemmons it was all downhill: According to the Seattle Times report, Clemmons racked up eight felony charges after moving to Washington—the most recent being second-degree rape of a child, for which he had been in jail pending a trial for the past few months. Clemmons was released from jail six days ago after posting his $150,000 bail with help from a company called Jail Sucks Bail Bonds.

Then he might have gunned down four police officers this morning:
Sgt. Mark Renninger, Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards.