05/03/2023
My husband was once on a small squad named "Charlie." There were 3-4 guys on this squad, and that day was just like any other. He took me to lunch because he was leaving town, but before he did, he told me that he had to stop at the PD for a bit. A few hours later, I saw on Facebook that someone from Charlie squad was murdered while responding to a DV. I frantically called/texted with no response. As I was processing this I thought about how my husband and the other guy on the squad were taking all of the calls for Darrin because he was days away from retirement, so in my mind it probably wasn't Darrin... I thought about how my husband was the youngest one on that squad and he was a state champion runner, so if there was some type of pursuit, Justin was likely the one who would go after him...The conversations I had with my honey just hours prior replayed in my head and I wasn't sure if he checked on or if he was just finishing up a report when he"stopped at the PD for a bit." Waiting to find out more information was an absolute nightmare and when I finally heard his voice, I felt a flood of relief and a flood of guilt for praying it was one of them and not my Justin.Havent we given enough? Let me just share my perspective.
I'm the wife of a police officer who has had to quietly sit back as the world hates my husband.The media does a wonderful job at portraying all cops as villains, which is extremely uneducated.ONE school shooter DOES NOT speak for the entire student body. ONE male s*x offender DOES NOT speak for all men and so on, but I digress. When I see these articles, I try to remember the people who actually see my husband.The ones who see him run towards the danger while everyone is running away.The ones who are deceitful while he is being honest.The ones who see him show compassion/mercy to those who do not deserve it.The ones who see him do the right thing when no one is watching and the one whose life is depending on him to respond to that call. As a wife, it's hard to send him out to a world that hates him for the job that he does. So, for the sanity of every cop wife, can we please normalize loving law enforcement?