Page 34 - FOP June 2019 Magazine

United We Stand
Chicago Police Officers inspired to create mass appeal at National Police Week
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Chicago Police Officers formed a re- splendently thick blue line that extend- ed almost as long as Lake Shore Drive in front of the U.S. Capitol on May 15. In three hours or so, the 38th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Ser- vice – the culmination of National Po- lice Week in Washington, D.C. – would begin, but Chicago had been mustering among agencies throughout the country for at least an hour already. Maybe two.
This many Chicago Police Officers had not come together since perhaps NATO’s 2012 Chicago Summit or in Wrigleyville after Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. How many? One report counted 300. Another had 500. At least. When they gathered for a photo on the Capitol steps after the service, rows of Chicago Police Officers stacked more than 10 and wider than one of those pic- tures from an eighth-grade trip to D.C.
As the service approached, Gold Star families began their walk into the ser- vice in front of the Chicago Police con- tingent. The sight of hundreds of offi-
34 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2019
Officers from the Chicago Police Department who attended National Police Week gather with family members of fallen Chicago Police Officers to take a photo on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.