Page 39 - May 2017 Newsletter

typically make it into mainstream media outlets.
“When you think about it, police officers, not just in Chicago, but across this great country every day put on this uniform and get in the squad car, and we really never know if we’re going to get back home at the end of that day,” Johnson declared. “We never know that, yet we do that every day. When those partners get in that squad car, they are saying to each other, ‘If it comes down to it to- day, I will sacrifice my life for you today and for this City.’ And I think people tend to minimize that. When you think about it, that’s an awesome, awesome thing for individu-
als to do.”
Nobody seems to speak to the heart of individual Chica-
go Police Officers and their families like FOP Family Aux- iliary President Angie Haynes, who never rests in leading her group’s mission to “never let them walk alone.” Once again, she shared a few, brief words, but none might have resonated more deeply on this day.
“It’s an honor to honor all these officers who go above the call of duty,” Haynes remarked.
Words to fully describe why the Lodge 7 Memorial is so important to so many came from Phil Cline, Executive Director of the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation and former CPD Superintendent. In his endearing, story-tell- ing voice, Cline referenced that deaths of police officers in the U.S. are up 23 percent this year over 2016 and even sent up a little fury over a copper lost in Iowa the day be-
fore the memorial and the recent “anarchist” attacks on officers in Washington.
Apparently, he wanted to demonstrate the danger that police officers face every day to bring you this important message:
“The entire nation owes a debt of gratitude to the po- lice,” Cline preached. “But what inspires me, and what should inspire every Chicagoan, is the fact that the men
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