Say their names

Say their names –

Chris Ward.

Logan Fox.

Say their names.

Watauga County, North Carolina, sheriff’s deputies. Called out on April 28 to conduct a welfare check on an individual who hadn’t shown up for work.

Ambushed.

Shot.

Killed.

Say their names –

Chris Ward.

Logan Fox.

Then say the names of the other 19 police officers killed in the line of duty so far this year; and the names of the 306 killed the year before.

Ordinary folks whose workday ended in the morgue.

Ordinary folks we expect to do extraordinary jobs.

Somehow it seems too many of us are forgetting that cops are real people. People with families, friends. People who, when they leave for work, want to come home.

Off the job, ordinary folks.

To be a cop isn’t to be a superhero. Blue and a badge doesn’t equal blue and a red cape. They guy down the street behind the wheel of a black and white or on patrol for the county pulls his pants on one leg at a time and has no more claim to x-ray vision, super speed or precognition than the accountant living next door. It’s the job description that’s different.

We all heard it from Mom, “Stay out of trouble … don’t go looking for it … walk the other way!” Most of us listened to Mom. Folks who go into law enforcement, clearly, not so much. Looking for trouble – that quite literally is their job – and when they find it, to try to put a stop to it.

There’s no way around it, a lot of the folks police deal with in the course of a shift aren’t real happy to see them; and it’s equally true that a lot of these folks aren’t exactly the cream of the crop when it comes to the local citizenry. When the day’s work involves being called out to deal with somebody annoying somebody, threatening somebody, stealing something or doing any of the other things we’ve agreed upon as a matter of law that folks living among us ought not be doing – doing that day’s work is an experience profoundly different from selling insurance or doing a manicure. 

It’s an assignment that doesn’t always go well. Now the vast majority of last year’s  61,5 million official encounters between law enforcement and member of the public were, if not always particularly cordial, without untoward incident. But it can’t be ignored that a cop’s job expectation doesn’t rule out the possibility of getting into a physical confrontation with one or more individuals as part of the day’s work. It’s not every occupation where preparation for a knock down, drag out is part of the essential skill set. But law enforcement is a job where, in 2019, 56,034 officers were victims of serious assault and 17,188 suffered major injuries.

And others were killed.

Let’s never forget that we send our law enforcement officers out to work in what can only be described as a weapons-rich environment. It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that guns are everywhere – nearly 400 million in civilian hands across the country, enough to put a firearm in the hand, pocket, purse or automobile of every man, woman, and child in the country with tens-of-millions to spare. Cops dealt with civilians 61.5 million times last year – never certain that the person they were approaching didn’t have a gun, ready and willing to use it.

After all, if they weren’t willing to use it, why take it along to go shoplifting?

Of all the individuals shot and killed by police 94 percent – more than 9 of 10 – were armed, most often with a firearm.

The most common cause of death for an on-duty officer is a gunshot wound.

On April 28 deputies Chris Ward and Logan Fox were called out to conduct a welfare check on an individual who hadn’t shown up for work.

Say their names.