"Ordinary people, doing an extraordinary job"

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

...One thing that I was told in my first few days of service, is that the police give you a bloody good funeral...

 

 If it is any comfort, the remembrance of all who serve the public trust is very regularly publically and gratefully acknowledged in those places where funeral services usually occur.

[pointstaken]

CPS ? Clown Prosecution Service ?

 

Dennis

[Baby Deltic]

My grandfather was on duty in Brent View Road, Hendon one February night in 1941 during an air raid when an enemy bomb landed nearby and blew him and his colleagues to bits. He's mentioned in the Metropolitan Police roll of honour.

[Ozexpatriate]

Had I suffered Constable Phillips fate during my service, I  hope that I would be remembered, and talked about in the future - and if that remembrance developed into stimulated debate on the subject of policing today, educating those outside the job and possibly leading to greater awareness (of the problems officers face today) and hopefully lead to change, I would be satisfied.

 

Not wishing to abrade the sensibilities of other subscribers to this forum, on that note, I shall withdraw.

In memory of Dave, and other fallen colleagues, I'll back away to, and leave this thread to those that chose to say whatever.

 

ps and I didn't think that Brian intended this as a commemorative thread..........

Better then to start a thread with a clear thesis in mind. This one was particularly vague*, and in deference to an assumed intent, seeing that the uncaptioned illustration was of the funeral of a police officer, I was reluctant to comment at all.

 

* So much so that I had to Google the name of the officer. While evidently this was big news in Britain, it did not register here in the US. There's been many such police funerals in the US in the last 12 months.

 

I know nothing of policing policy in the UK and so have nothing material to add to the topic save an observation that the reaction to the funeral reminds me of what is in danger of becoming a ritualized, pious 'support our troops (and first responders)' platitude in the US that somehow feels intended to absolve the collective responsibility we share for those people being in harm's way.

 

Notwithstanding the fact that the men and women who serve in the armed forces and as public safety first responders deserve our respect and gratitude, it feels to me like there may be a different response today (certainly in the US and based on this reaction perhaps in the UK too) compared with how such service was recognized in the past.  Perhaps this is right and good.

 

Part of me feels like it overlooks those who served and fell without similar public consciousness in years past and it troubles me when it becomes a platitude used by political office holders and seekers.

 

Having said all that I don't have any answers.