Disavowed, Dishonored and Disgraced Lt Joseph Gliniewicz

This blog has long been about promoting all the good that Christian Police Officers spread throughout their communities and to educate the public about the face and heart behind the badge.  Further I have attempted to dispel the misinformation that the media consistently reports about officers and our profession.

That said, I have to address Lt Gliniewicz  of the Fox Lake Illinois Police Department.  One of the frustrating aspects of being a police officer is that the 900,000 of us in the US, who are doing all the proper ethical and moral actions, are slandered and labeled by the less than one percent who are just despicable.

Everyone in my department has known for a long time that it was probably going to eventually be labeled a suicide.  We did not have any inside information, but after hearing the 911 tapes and getting the trickle of information that the task force press conferences provided, that was the only conclusion that made sense.  Case in point, the fact that they picked up the three youths and then immediately released and exonerated them is not typical of a murder investigation.  Even if you get the wrong guys, you don't tell anyone right away because the right guys get stupid and lazy thinking they are free and clear.

That said, we have been waiting to find out how bad of a guy he is, because no one commits suicide for no reason and trust me its going to get worse than simple embezzlement.  This type of person carries others to join with his evil and leaves a trail of victims.

I may not be the first to condemn him on behalf of all of law enforcement, but let it be known that he is a disgrace to the uniform, a sorry excuse of a human being, has poisoned any good he ever did, if indeed he ever did anything good.  He is not resting in peace.

A selfish life led to a selfish death.

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.

Another one lost

I was at work when a friend and teammate came in and told me that another one of his friends on a different department had committed suicide earlier this week with his service weapon in the front lot of his department in his personal car.

These acts are becoming alarmingly and tragically too common. We are currently killing ourselves at a rate higher than twice the rate at which we are murdered. We are worse on ourselves than the bad guys are on us.

Law enforcement now has the highest rate of suicide when compared to any other profession.

We are trained and strive to be independent and emotionally bullet proof. There are no easy answers to this problem. But each and everyone one of us can take positive actions to at least stem the bloody tide, lets all start right now and really pay attention to the officers around us. Ask questions and become more involved in their lives and INTERVENE. Maybe one of us can help another not become one of them.

John 13:34
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Romans 12:10
Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.