Law enforcement officers' calling demands our attention

They say time heals all, but perhaps it shouldn't.

During the Manatee County Law Enforcement Memorial Service May 14 in front of the Manatee County Courthouse, Sheriff Rick Wells told the assembled crowd that these aren't "just names" on the 10 plaques that grace the Law Enforcement Memorial.

Anyone who could see Karen Clark, the husband of Deputy Douglas Clark, who died Aug. 25, 2021 in the line of duty, understood Wells' comment. Clark quietly sobbed as various officers from different law enforcement agencies that serve the county carried a single rose to each plaque.

Karen Clark tried to hold her emotions as she was escorted by an officer to her husband's plaque. You can be sure that everyone in attendance was sharing in her pain. If we only could take some of it away ...

And in that moment, you could understand not only Karen Clark's anguish, but the anguish felt by every family of every law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in the last 10 years, or the last 100, whether here or anywhere else in this nation.

It is a pain we should carry with us, or at least visit from time to time. These aren't just names.

Palmetto Mayor Dan West addressed the crowd, saying "Law enforcement officers leave home each day not knowing if they will see their loved ones at the end of the day."

The fallen are testament to this fact. They paid what is called the ultimate sacrifice.

Photo by Jay Heater

"Our responsibility is to keep their memory alive," West said. "These are great American heroes. We are here to honor the brave men and women of law enforcement."

Hopefully, feeling some of that pain ourselves will prompt us to support our law enforcement officers, and will lead us to supply them with the needed support that helps them do their job.

It can be a thankless, dangerous, and infinitely frustrating job. And, myself, I never have understood how we get so many men and women to do it.

Douglas Clark was one who did, and who loved it. Karen Clark said she knew her husband was a hero, long before he died.

"These guys give up a lot," Karen Clark said of law enforcement officers. "But it's not a job ... It's a calling."

Thank goodness for that calling.

The May 14 service was a solemn reminder that the calling doesn't always end well. It is something the officers themselves accept.

"This is very important," Clark said of the ceremony, even though it subjects her to more emotional torment. "Perhaps it's more important for the officers themselves. This is a brotherhood."'

Clark admitted the ceremony can tear open emotional wounds. And yet, there is a comfort for her to know that all these law enforcement officers come to honor her husband.

She also hopes the public realizes the value in each and every officer.

Photo by Jay Heater

"The public needs them," she said of the law enforcement officers. "And I think the public shows respect for them, for the most part."

The public also should know that danger doesn't always come in the form of some Hollywood movie shootout, or during a high-speed pursuit, or from trying to save a child who has swam out into a rip current.

Douglas Clark, who served with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office for 13 years and had previously served with the Hardee Correctional Institution, died from complications as a result of contracting COVID-19 in the line of duty.

Thousands of law enforcement officers throughout the country put themselves in danger because they continued to work, which meant interacting with members of the community who didn't believe in being self-quarantined, even after they had the illness. 

Douglas Clark didn't survive that interaction.

After her husband died, Karen Clark continued to receive support from members of local law enforcement, not for weeks or months, but for years.

"They are right there," she said. "I see them. They have been very close."

After the memorial ceremony, you could see how close. It was hugs all around from members of the different agencies.

"It's very tender," she said of her emotions.

Those ragged emotions of the day, however, had been stored away, and it was all smiles. She continued the visits long after the ceremony, which was presented by the Fraternal Order of Police, was over.

A release by the Fraternal Order of Police said the tribute works because "every law enforcement officer in the county gives a piece of his or her heart to this particular ceremony."

Don't you think they deserve a piece of our heart as well?