Though not in great volume, the actions of a few people conducting regular business at the McCracken County Courthouse Monday warmed the hearts of law officers.
Those people stopped, some for just a minute or two, others for much longer, to see why so many officers were dressed to the nines for the annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service. The service honored all law officers who have given their lives in the line of duty, particularly 181 who died last year.
Three of those officers were from Kentucky.
“When you see people stop to listen like that, it makes you feel good. You feel that they are concerned with what you do,” said McCracken County Sheriff Jon Hayden, who was one of approximately 50 officers who attended Monday’s service. “At least they were stopping. That shows respect.”
Throughout the service, the prevailing theme was sacrifice, both in how officers sometimes have to miss family-related activities to do their jobs, as well as how their duties, dangerous on many occasions, can lead to their deaths.
Livingston County Deputy Sheriff Roger Lynch died in 2005 after a domestic violence suspect shot him. Hardin County (Ill.) Deputy Sheriff Elizabeth Edwards died in a wreck as she responded to a call in 2007.
“It is always important to remember the sacrifices that are involved with this job, because we all know that it could be one of us having our names read at a service like this,” Paducah Police Chief Randy Bratton said. “Sometimes, the public forgets about the things we do, because we do our jobs, so well so it is extremely humbling to see the community turn out for something like this.”
Bratton and Hayden said such services are good for officers’ morale in that they are able to hear that their works are not ignored. Such ideas were delivered by the day’s keynote speaker, Rev. John Offutt, pastor of Reidland’s Gospel Mission Worship Center.
“There is a verse in the Bible, John 15:13, that says, ‘There is no greater love than the love one has that he lay down his life for his friends.’ Friends, with what you do every day, you are spending your life in a worthy cause,” said Offutt, brother of McCracken County Deputy Coroner Charles Offutt.
“And yes, there is criticism, and believe me, I know you have felt its sting. But I am reminded of the words of Teddy Roosevelt who said, ‘It’s not the critic who counts, not the man who points how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.’
“Today seems to be a time of people thinking, ‘What’s in it for me?’ or ‘What can I get out of it?’ But I believe there are those that see what you do and see that you represent what is good.”