Gooner at No Minister points out that the blogosphere has been rather too quiet about the latest cop shooting.
One can only agree with his sentiments.
Constable Snow, thank you for patrolling South Auckland at 4am in the morning. Thank you for getting out of your car to investigate suspicious behaviour. You didn’t know what was about to occur, yet in the dark, armed only with your notebook and a pen, you bravely did what 99% of New Zealanders wouldn’t dare do.
May you recover fully and return to frontline policing. And let’s hope your injuries aren’t so bad they prevent that.
While in Middlemoore last year (for two different things, seems that half the time someone’s in hospital someone else we know is in the same hospital!), I happened to find myself at the intensive care burns ward.
Actually, I worked out where I was after noticing all the firefighters waiting outside. This was weeks after the deadly coolstore fire, and it was long forgotten by the public.
It was a somber reminder of just how far reaching the decision can be to stand in the line of fire, keeping Joe Public safe.
We don’t thank them enough.
Update: See also, A Cop’s Christmas by Jack Dunphy at Patterico’s.
For reviving the spirit, there is little in life that can rival standing among a thousand people singing “Adeste Fidelis” in church on Christmas morning. And while I don’t presume to know the minds of my fellow worshipers, I feel safe in saying there was no one in church that morning whose spirit was more in need of reviving than my own, for few professions can rival mine for glimpses into the darkness that sometimes dwells in the souls of men. In the days and indeed the very hours leading up to Christmas, I waded through the anguished aftermaths of two murders, two suicides, an attempted suicide, and a variety of other lesser tragedies, the accumulated sadness of which left me reeling and in doubt as to the wisdom in my choice of careers.
Something should go here, maybe later. 