Page 49 - March 2018 FOP Newsletter

Commander Bauer
Honoring
“Our goal is what I was told 40 years ago,” he explained. “Get your partner home and get yourself home at the end of the watch.”
NYPD Officer Tim Kraft echoed Petty’s sentiments that you can always count on Chicago, that Chicago always comes through when there is a police trage- dy. He came to Chicago in 2010 when CPD Officer Michael Flisk was shot and killed while responding to a burglary. He attended this funeral representing the Brotherhood of the Fallen, the organiza- tion that started in Chicago to make sure that officers from around the country re- spond to every police funeral. The Broth- erhood has grown to chapters throughout the U.S.
“It’s exactly what it says: brotherhood,” Kraft articulated as what he saw filling the church social hall. “It doesn’t matter if you are from the largest police department in the country or the smallest. We’re all one family.”
All in the family no doubt fueled the 15-hour drive Officers Stephanie Castel- lani and Charles Emory made from Wilm- ington, Delaware to Chicago. They came to celebrate a man whom they revered as
having it in his DNA to protect and serve. For Emory, coming all this way to stand with other police was all in the line of
duty.
“It’s our privilege,” he detailed. “It’s
what we’re supposed to do for each other every day.”
As Castellani looked around the room, another thought occurred to her about why the police family stood so strong.
“I think it’s important to represent all police officers throughout the nation who have been killed in the line of duty,” she said.
Denise Barnes also sensed the need to represent. As she fought back a few tears prior to the start of the funeral Mass, Barnes seemed caught up in the loss for Commander Bauer’s family, the De- partment and perhaps even the nearly 800,000 sworn officers in the U.S.
“You take it personal,” she explained. “Because we are brothers and sisters, when it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
As much as they came from all corners of the country and beyond to pay their respects to the Bauer family and the CPD family, as well as pay tribute to Com-
mander Bauer and Chicago Police Offi- cers, they also came to begin the healing. Constable Michael Redmond, stationed with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Sarnia, Ontario, surmised how to rally around Bauer and how Chicago Police Of- ficers could begin to move forward.
“It’s important that we as police get to- gether and remember the goodwill and service that individual provided,” Red- mond submitted. “I’ve always said that it only takes one moment of gratitude or sense of appreciation at the right time and right place that makes all the bad stuff go away.”
It wasn’t all bad stuff. As the officers in the social hall waited for the funeral ser- vice to begin, many ran the gamut of feel- ings like Officer Vicki Karnik, a 30-year veteran from the Minneapolis PD who at once smiled and shed tears.
“It’s sadness, it’s hurt, it’s anger, it’s love,” she said.
It’s the presence of a hero and what he accomplished that moved Karnik to such emotion.
“This outpouring of support shows that we are much stronger people,” she ex- pressed. “And that evil will never win.” d
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2018 49