A Parade

  Friday was the last day of Police Week. This meant that instead of everyone being at the office, we were marching in the police parade. Anyone you could consider police-ish was in the parade; marshals, Cleveland and other local police departments, national guards, other military, DEA, FBI, and Secret Service agents.  There were some random but interesting things. The FBI brought a helicopter and a tank. The Cleveland Police Department rode horses. There was a band of different police men wearing kilts and playing bagpipes. I was wearing kakis and the uniform US Marshal shirt that everyone else from the office was wearing.

                We marched, in a four by five formation, about half a mile down West Lakeside Avenue to the Fort Huntington Park. On the way I gave little kids US Marshal pins and stickers. It probably looked ridiculous to outsiders. Everyone else with the Marshal was ex-military, six-foot tall, and extremely muscular. And then there was short me who hasn’t worked out in months. Oh well. When we got to the park a deputy pointed out that every police person in the city was in this park that you could see perfectly from the windows of the prison that’s across the street. At the park there was a somber memorial for all of the local police who were killed while on duty. Their family members were all there, and some of them gave speeches.

                What upset me were the Black Lives Matter protesters. Don’t get me wrong, I support the movement. I think the phrases, “police lives matter”, or, “all lives matter”, are ridiculous.  (Police because they agreed to a job where they know their lives are at risk. All lives because all lives aren’t at risk.) If this parade and memorial had just been celebrating police, I would support the BLM protesters. But that wasn’t what the event was. The event was a memorial service for dead police men. There were hundreds of family members there crying over their lost loved ones. Having protesters there honestly reminded me of the religious protesters who show up to LGBTQ funerals. There are times and places for protesting; memorial services are neither.