Police Work

National Law Enforcement Memorial, Washington DC.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a fight where you weren’t sure you were going to live through it. I hope not.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had a gun pointed at your head. I hope not.

I don’t know if you’ve ever held a stranger as they’ve died, or been the first person running into a burning building, or slept outside pretending to be homeless on a winter night because your boss needed something very antisocial documented. Perhaps yes, perhaps no.

It does not make me a hero because I’ve experienced all those things. I did (most) of these things because it was my job. But it does mean that I understand the lives of U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan Police officers Aquilino Gonell, Daniel Hodges, Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn, Kyle DeFreytag, Howard Liebengood, Gunther Hashida, and others, not forgetting the late Brian Sicknick.

There are names I know carved here as well.

I understand because, unlike Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and U.S. Supreme…