It’s well deserved.

It’s all deserved.

It was great to celebrate with the award winners at the Phoenix Police Departments “Pride in Our Heroes” Awards Ceremony this last week.  The stories that were shared showed unbelievable courage and honor and sacrifice.

One story was of police officers grabbing the firemen’s hose to make a path into a burning house where there was a shooter holding a family hostage.  True story.

Another story was of a unit which took on the challenge of tracking down and identifying a serial killer in Phoenix.  It took almost a year of commitment and teamwork and extra effort to put this man in jail.  He’s off the streets!  A huge high five to the Thin Blue Line!

The officers who were on the scene of my son, David Glasser’s shooting were given the Medal of Valor.  The fire fighters who were on the scene along with the dispatcher who handled the call were also recognized.  Because of their courage and quick action, Davey’s wish to be an organ donor was made possible.  The heart of my hero is still beating.

We weren’t told all of the stories.   There are thousands more we’ll never hear.  We know that officers do their jobs with courage, honor and sacrifice every day and they don’t all get a medal on a ribbon.

But we all win when our Thin Blue Line is recognized and celebrated.  We all win when their stories of courage, honor and sacrifice are highlighted and rewarded.

These are our brothers and sisters in Blue.  They will say “It’s just my job” and then amaze us with the super hero things they do.  We are very proud of our Thin Blue Line heroes!

Their courage cannot be taken lightly.  Our law enforcement officers put themselves in danger to help keep our community safe every day.  Another story we heard was of an officer who noticed a car moving through a red light into an intersection with no driver.  She put on her lights and drove next to the car to get it safely through the intersection and then pulled in front of it – letting it ram the back of her vehicle to stop it.  The driver was found unconscious in the front seat, was brought the hospital and made a full recovery.  No one was hurt.

Their honor cannot be taken lightly.  Our law enforcement officers care and they face all kinds of dangers to keep evil off of our streets.  We heard a story about an officer who had a gun pointed at his face and the criminal pressed the trigger.  Miraculously, the gun malfunctioned and didn’t fire.  That criminal is in jail.   Our Thin Blue Line does these things for us all the time to keep us safe and get the bad guys off the streets.

Their sacrifice cannot be taken lightly.  There was a long list of officers who received an award because of the pain and issues they have dealt with from being seriously injured on the job.  The evening ended with the good news that the Phoenix Police Department had no deaths in the line of duty last year.  Amen!  And we all remembered our fallen officers by watching a video of the historical markers around Phoenix depicting their place of death.

Tears rolled down my face as I thought of the families and friends of all of these officers who have been killed in the line of duty here in Phoenix.  We have personal knowledge of the huge sacrifice our Thin Blue Line faces each day.

Davey’s was the last historical marker on the video.  Almost two years ago.

Miss you, Davey.

#8144loveyou.