2011 National Police Week 5k

It’s that time of year again. The 5th annual National Police Week 5k is coming up, scheduled for May 14, 2011. This year the race is benefiting both COPS and ODMP. I’m not the type that attaches herself to the “cause of the day” as so many seem to do, but these ones are actually close to my heart. My husband is a police officer. Since he joined the department I’ve seen two of his fellow officers killed in the line of duty.

When an officer dies they leave behind wives, children, parents, friends and brothers and sisters. COPS (Concerns of Police Survivors) is there for them. They help them rebuild their lives after they lose someone near and dear to them, and continues to help support them for years afterward, through an annual conference and all sorts of other activities catered to the different family members (spouses, children, coworkers, etc.).

ODMP recognizes each officer killed in the line of duty by serving as a place that records the officer’s information in an online searchable database.

These two groups go hand in hand to support the families of police officers–both at work and at home and I couldn’t be prouder to help support them this year.

The National Police Week 5k is allowing donations to these two groups to be made through its participants. After 4 years of friends and family saying “we can’t participate, but is there somewhere we can make a donation?” I’m so glad they added it this year.

You can make a donation or if you’d rather participate, feel free to register to participate if that suits your fancy (my team name is “too slow to ticket 2011″ if you want to join me), but please DO SOMETHING. Our police officers, and all those family members that surround them deserve that much.

Free Meals on Veteran’s Day for our Veterans

On Facebook, I’ve been coming across random postings here and there of various restaurants that are doing something for our veterans this year. They’re offering up a free meal to say “thanks” for your service. I’ve been posting and retweeting them when I got a chance but thought that rather than little posts here and there about it, I thought I’d put ‘em all in one place:

• Applebee’s
  Free meal for all veterans and active duty on Nov 11
• Chili’s
  Free Entree for all veterans and active duty military Nov 11
• Famous Dave’s
  Free Entree (up to $15) for active and retired military on Nov 11
• Golden Corral
  Free “thank you” dinner to anyone who’s ever served in the military Nov 15 5-9pm
• Krispy Kreme
  Free doughnut for all veterans and active duty military personnel on Nov 11
• McCormick & Schmick’s
  Reservations recommended. Free entree for veterans on Nov 7
• Outback Steakhouse
  Free Bloomin’ Onion and non-alcoholic drink for all veterans and active duty Nov 11
• Uno Chicago Grill
  Free Entree or Individual Pizza for all veterans and active duty on Nov 11

Most places are asking for proof of military service. Applebee’s list of acceptable proof is:

• U.S. Uniform Services Identification Card
• U.S. Uniform Services Retired Identification Card
• Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES)
• Photograph in uniform
• Wearing uniform
• Veterans Organization Card
  (i.e., American Legion and VFW)
• DD214

I will continue to update this list until next Thursday, so please if you see anything that I’m not listing, let me know and I’ll add it! Thanks!

Why is it so easy to bad-mouth police?

So, yesterday morning one of my “friends” on facebook posted the following article:

Raleigh police cruiser hits utility pole :: WRAL.com www.wral.com

A Raleigh police officer responding to a foot chase crashed into a utility pole on Poole Road, near Ashford Street, around 5 a.m. Thursday.

Of course this grabbed my eye. Earlier this year an officer in PG county died from injuries sustained in an accident just like this. Thankfully, this officer is okay. But, I read further on in the comments to find this:

*name removed to protect the ignorant*
And this Dumb Ass cop will still have a license and his job tomorrow.

Let a normal person hit a utility pole! Hell if Anyone hits a fixed object, like a utility pole or a building. No License Forever! Too Stupid To Drive!

I couldn’t resist. I HAD to say something, so I responded with the following:

that “dumb ass cop” was responding to a call–attempting to keep someone off the street that shouldn’t have been. Why don’t you go ahead and put yourself on the “do not assist” list at your local police station so that no “dumb ass cops” risk their lives trying to help you.

I anxiously awaited his response, when I realized my post wasn’t there. So what did I do? I reposted, with the explanation that I thought facebook had inadvertently “eaten” my post. Strangely enough that one disappeared as well, almost instantly. So being the antagonist that I am, I made my status

*name removed to protect the ignorant* must not like what I have to say

where his name was a link to his profile.

Imagine my surprise when suddenly the link to his name didn’t work and he had *vanished* from facebook. Yikes!! he had blocked me!

WHY would someone post something like that, so inflammatory and offensive and not want to at least have a dialogue about why they said that? I’ll be honest, I was pissed.. REALLY pissed, and I could have been nicer, I suppose. But I was trying to make a point.

Why is it so darned easy for people to bad mouth law enforcement? Why do people feel it’s ok to say crap like that and not have to answer for it? These are the same people who bitch and moan when they get pulled over for speeding, saying “don’t the police have anything better to do?” and then complain that there isn’t better traffic enforcement in their neighborhoods.

The police have some of the most difficult jobs out there and I think the majority of people forget that. A person can get a tiny glimpse of what their jobs are like by going on a ride along. Most local law enforcement agencies allow them. I’m starting to think this should be a requirement for all adults. I think high-school aged children are still too young to really grasp what they are seeing, and to appreciate it.

The next time you see a cop, even if they’re in your rearview mirror with their lights on, rather than cursing them, say a prayer for them and all those that they work with.

A thought about the age of Catholic priests

As a little girl at St. Thomas More in Arlington, my perception of priests was that they were stuffy old men that I would never be able to relate to. I was a little girl, no older than 8, and they were OLD men.. maybe 40 or even older! Actually, I remember them being much older than that. If I recall correctly, one of them passed away shortly after I left there in the 4th grade. I never had much interest in religion, attending church or anything.

Growing up, i had more questions about my religion, read about it a little, but when questions still arose, I was hesitant to approach a priest about it. Why? Well, I wasn’t active in a church, so I didn’t know any priests, and when I did know priests, I never would’ve considered talking to them.

Fast forward to now, 20-something years later, and i’ve been regularly going to church for several months now. My daughter is enrolled in a Catholic school, and I have FINALLY figured it out-I think. It happened yesterday. I was scheduling some tweets for my daughter’s school’s twitter feed and I came across a tweet from the archdiocese of washington regarding transfers. I actually got a little excited at the prospect of the transfer of a younger priest to the campus where she’ll be attending school next year.
Why? Because I’ve found that when a priest is closer to my own age I feel like we might have something in common. I suppose it’s simply because of the closeness in age. I feel more comfortable approaching and talking to a priest my own age, rather than one the age of my father, or grandfather even. I’m guessing I’m intimidated by their age, or experience. I don’t know which.
I even felt comfortable contacting my own parish’s younger priest, simply because I felt his homilies were so much more memorable and inspirational than any I’d eber heard elsewhere. Had he been an older priest I don’t know that I would’ve done that.
I’m not suggesting that every catholic must feel the same way as I do, but its certainly possible I’m not the only o.e out there. I suspect the catholic church would do well to strive to have priests of varying ages at every parish, just so the parishioners can feel more connected to their clergy. I would think it was at least worth a try, considering the number of people that leave the church, because they feel like it doesn’t speak to them. Its just an idea though.

Oil Spill in the Gulf

A recent status of mine on facebook reads:

Been thinking a lot about the oil spill. This goes way beyond politics. It goes way beyond who thinks its whose fault. People need to STOP pointing fingers and start working toward FIXING THIS SHIT

A guy I went to high school with responded to this… mentioning something a rep from bp said… I looked it up because I couldn’t believe it..
this is what I found.. and I believe it’s true. even newsweek confirmed. (http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/04/bp-s-global-pr-vs-bpglobalpr.html)
“BP representative Hugh Depland said that while the company wasn’t sure exactly when more workers would be hired, the $239 billion company was spending “a lot of money, time and effort to bring this event to a close.” And to those worried restaurateurs facing rising prices for shrimp and oysters? In the words of fellow BP rep Randy Prescott: “Louisiana isn’t the only place that has shrimp.””

I’m not talking about the politics here.. but the NERVE.. WHO CARES if you can get shrimp elsewhere.. What about all the wildlife that is dying because of this? What about all the people who, once this is cleaned up (i realize that a LOT of the fishermen are still working, because they’re helping with the clean up) won’t have jobs?? The area will be recovering for YEARS from this. How will these fishermen make their livings when there aren’t any crabs, shrimp, and fish  to catch?

It made me look up what companies in the us sell bp gas. If you’re interested, it’s BP, am/pm, Arco, and Amoco. I’m not telling y’all what to do with this information. but I know what I’ll be doing.

re: UMD Student “Beaten” by Prince George’s County Police

One month ago, the University of Maryland basketball team beat Duke in a regular season game. Nothing special about it all. What do the students do? They celebrate. They take it to the streets, blocking US route 1 through College Park, starting fires, and uprooting street signs. Oh yeah, all the while, they’re pelting police officers there to keep the peace (in riot gear, because, alas this HAS happened before) with snowballs, large chunks of ice, and rocks. Some people get hurt, some people get arrested.

Flash forward to a day or two ago, and a video is released (see it here) that shows a drunk 21year old, skipping or running through a small crowd toward the mounted police. He doesn’t stop till he’s just a foot or so away from the horses. Then three police officers run up with batons drawn and hit him several times.

I won’t pretend to know their use of force, or what exactly was said, or done (it looks like maybe the the 21 year old did or said something to the horses, or the mounted police), but I wouldn’t just presume that the police did something wrong. I’m all for an investigation if something looks *off* but let’s do that before passing judgement, eh?

A LOT of people seem to have jumped to the conclusion that this guy’s rights have been violated, that the police officers beat him unprovoked, etc. They’ve gone so far as to call them thugs, jokes, whatever..

Maybe he should have considered the consequences before getting drunk and participating in a RIOT. Before acting a fool and running up to the mounted police officers.

For all those doing the name calling and what not, why not post your full names and addresses in every local police station? Why not stop hiding behind the internet, because when you need help, who are you going to call? That’s right. You’re going to call the police. And even if they know what you’ve said about them, they will still risk their lives to help you. Why? Because it’s their job, and what they’ve sworn to do.

How’s that for a thankless job?

SWAT raid gone wrong? or not?

Sheriff Says Deputies ‘Did Their Job’

Review Finds No Wrongdoing in SWAT Raid That Killed Dogs

By Aaron C. Davis

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 20, 2009

The Prince George’s County sheriff’s office has concluded that deputies did nothing wrong when they charged into the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights during a drug investigation last summer and fatally shot his family’s two dogs.

The findings of the internal review “are consistent with what I’ve felt all along: My deputies did their job to the fullest extent of their abilities,” Sheriff Michael Jackson said at a news conference.

The announcement drew immediate condemnation from Mayor Cheye Calvo.

“It’s outrageous,” he said. “Not only is he not admitting any wrongdoing, but he’s saying this went down the way it was supposed to and he’s actually commending his police officers for what they did.”

Members of the SWAT team killed Calvo’s black Labrador retrievers after deputies broke down his door and raided his home in search of a drug-filled package that had been addressed to Calvo’s wife.

Law enforcement officials have since acknowledged that Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, were victims of a smuggling scheme that used a FedEx driver to ship drugs. They said the couple knew nothing about the box. County police, who were leading the drug investigation, have said they were unaware it was the mayor’s house.

In an interview, Jackson reiterated his explanation that a scream by Calvo’s mother-in-law, Georgia Porter, who saw officers in SWAT gear running toward the house, justified the shooting.

Porter “corroborated that she did scream out ‘SWAT.’ She admitted to that, and [Calvo] admitted to hearing that upstairs in the house,” Jackson said. “That threw out the procedure of knocking and announcing, because now [officers were] compromised.”

One dog was shot four times by the front door. Calvo has said his younger dog was running away from officers when it was shot twice, including once in a hind leg. Jackson said deputies thought the dog was running toward another deputy in the home.

The botched raid led to a new state law that subjects SWAT teams in Maryland to increased scrutiny. Calvo has scheduled a news conference for Monday to announce “further actions.”

“I’m sorry for the loss of their family pets,” Jackson said. “But this is the unfortunate result of the scourge of drugs in our community. Lost in this whole incident was the criminal element. . . . In the sense that we kept these drugs from reaching our streets, this operation was a success.

_________________________

This is mostly in response to the comments to this article on washingtonpost.com

What concerns me is the fact that nobody is saying “damn the drug dealer that sent the package to an innocent citizen.” Instead it’s “damn the police” and “damn the sheriff’s department.” Why is it that nobody seems to be placing blame on the one who is truly at fault here–the drug smuggler?

The people that suggest Calvo and his wife were upstanding members of the community and therefore the drugs couldn’t be theirs are the same people who think OJ was innocent.. simply because he was famous. Does that REALLY make sense?? really???

And what about the people that are suggesting that if the police can’t “take a dog bite, then they’re in the wrong profession.” How much sense does that make? They put themselves in enough danger dealing with people and you want to add biting animals to that as well? So when an officer comes into the home of your drug-dealer neighbor to serve an arrest warrant and the drug dealer’s dog attacks him, he’s just supposed to stand there and let the dog bite him? and when the drug dealer escapes due to the officer’s injuries, will you then persecute the officer for “not doing his job?” Their job is to protect themselves so that they can continue to protect you, me, and all of those people around us. If they allow themselves to get injured, by a dog nonetheless, that’s one less officer on the streets to be able to keep that buffer between “them” (the criminals” and “us” (the law-abiding citizens).

I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on this.

remembering something

I recently came across an old neighbor on facebook. Turns out we have a lot in common now (their son is only a few years younger than me). But he’s in the military now, and I still can’t get over that fact, considering the last time I saw him he was just a little boy. But talking to them reminded me of something I saw a few months ago at national airport..

I was just coming home from a business trip, headed to baggage claim. There was a man walking about 20 feet in front of me. He walked past another man, who quite honestly I would’ve thought twice about talking to.. he was dressed questionably.. kinda thuggish I guess you could say. But he called to the man walking in front of me. “excuse me sir, are you still active duty air force?” The man stopped and said yes he was, and walked over to the guy that was sitting on the side. The guy then said “thank you.. for all that you’ve done” and shook his hand and gave him a hug. That was all that he wanted. was just to thank him.. and I don’t know that I’ll ever–ever forget that. Too often we forget to thank those that have sacrificed so much.. just so that WE might be safe..

So thank you–all of you.

the job hunt

Most of my friends know that I was laid off about a month ago. Still looking for a job, but I’m strangely optimistic. I have a couple of promising leads that are in the works. But one sticks out in my mind as particularly interesting. It’s no secret that I’m married to a cop. My guess is it’s part of the reason I have such a respect for people in that type of work.. our “local heroes,” if you will.

Any way, I work in the web field. At least I have for the past 10 years or so, and I had a screening interview today with a media company. The position I was interviewing for was Web Site manager for a fairly high-profile public safety website. I’m always looking for ways to help out where/when I can, and it seems this would be an IDEAL fit..

Cross your fingers for me!!

National Police Week 5k

So a few years ago I was listening to Elliot in the Morning when he had a guest. The guy was helping organize a new 5k during police week in DC–the National Police Week 5k. Since my husband was a brand-spankin’-new police officer I really wanted to do it. I’m NOT a runner, so I figured walking would be okay. I signed up. A few of my friends signed up and the weather was GORGEOUS that day.. maybe 75 degrees or so. It was totally worth it.

Last year, the one person that was going to walk with me backed out at the last minute.. I decided to go anyway. it was 50-something degrees and raining.. it was miserable. but I did it darnit. And I’m proud of myself for it. I’m not normally the type to go off and do something completely on my own, but I figured.. this time, it wasn’t for ME, but for those families of officers that have been killed in the line of duty.

Okay, so fast forward to this year. I just checked and they’ve set the date and opened up registration.The race route is pretty cool–you go past the supreme court, the capitol, the mall.. it makes things interesting to see interesting things I think. It’s scheduled for Saturday May 16, 2009 at 9am. It’s normally the saturday of the weekend that the police week activities really get kicking. Proceeds of the race go to COPS (concerns of police survivors). This is a suport group that helps the families of those officers killed in the line of duty. I don’t do a whole lot in the way of causes.. but this is something I feel i almost need to do every year. Not only that, but I’d like to make as many people aware of it as possible, so this is my plea..

Come with me and join the race! I’m walking, so if you are looking for someone to walk with, I’m it. If you’re looking to run it.. have at it!! and best of luck!

My team name is “too slow to ticket” and all are welcome to join.. I don’t even need to know you personally. This year I’m walking in memory of Richard Findley, who was killed in June of last year. So please, come join me if you can!

register here!!

Date:

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Time:

09:00 AM

Venue:

National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

Address:

601 4th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001

Brief Description:

The 3rd Annual National Police Week 5K is an event that supports Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS).

Fees:

25.00

Online Registration Closes:

05/14/09 01:59 PM

Website:

http://www.nationalpoliceweek5k.com

Mission

To honor and to tribute National Police Week, the mission of this annual event is to raise awareness and funding for Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), a not-for-profit organization. NPW honors law enforcement officers who have given their lives while serving in the line of duty. Proceeds from this annual event are gifted to COPS, an organization dedicated to supporting the lives of family members of those fallen officers.

Location

The race will begin on 3rd and E Street, NW – one block east of the Judiciary Square Metro Stop. The course will finish on 4th Street, NW, near the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Please visit our web site at www.nationalpoliceweek5k.com for the full course map.

Each Registrant Receives

A Dry Wicking T Shirt and ???