Wednesday night was the Candlelight Vigil, where the names of those slain in 2008 were read. And for each officer so memorialized, Honor Guard detachments from their departments escorted members of their family to their special reserved seats.
As it grew dark and the candles were lit, you got a real sense of how many people were there. The candles stretched out for two blocks in front of the memorial, and a block to either side. There were thousands and thousands of them, each one held by a police officer, family member or survivor.
Following the ceremony, many of us adjourned to the area set up by the Fraternal Order of Police to socialize. Again, it was wall-to-wall police officers. The streets of Washington DC have doubtfully ever been safer.
A Police bagpipe band played throughout the night.
And these three gals were observed behaving badly numerous times before they were finally "detained" by various police officers.
Yes, that's Poet Laureate, Bridget, and Nicki, the three bloggerettes from The Sniper blog. I have several more "interesting" pictures of them, but I've been warned that Lagniappe will get it should those photos surface.
I only got detained by one officer, thank you very much. :-p
ReplyDeleteOoooo......blackmail from the 3 girls! :)
ReplyDeleteI got all choked up seeing the pics of all the candles lit. I wish very much that I could have attended this year.
I emailed a note to Nicki thanking her for the pics she put on Liberty Zone and also asking her to thank you for the ones you posted. You had me in tears the first time I went through them but after going back through again I wanted to thank you here as well. As I told Nicki I have a friend's name on the Wall and hope one day to get there to find it.
ReplyDeleteWell Maggie, you just tell me who it is and I'll see if I can't get that picture for you the next time I'm down there.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures! Thanks for coming out with my friends and I, and honoring the memory of the fallen officers. Every year I go, I'm thankful that my friends are all their to join me and I never fail to tear up while taking a walk around the wall.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done my final posting about police week on The Sniper yet, but did get one up on Friday morning- and it has video of the bagpipers from Thursday night.
Again, thanks for coming. :)
I am an 18 year veteran Police Detective with the Evanston, IL. Police Department. On March 21st, 2009 4 Oakland California Police Officers were murdered by Lovell Mixon. Days later there were crowds in the streets of Oakland calling this murderer a hero of the community. That incredible sight prompted me to act. I put together a simple fundraiser to help raise money for the now 10 fatherless children of these fallen Officers. I am selling "Support Oakland" t-shirts on my website www.memorialshirts.org. 100% of the proceeds will be forwarded to the established trust funds for these children at the conclusion of this month. I have had great success up to this point however, I want a strong final push in these last few weeks. Could you please assist with mentioning this fundraising effort in some way? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your time,
Det.Larry Miller
Behaving badly before being detained. Now that's funny.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the stories, Missy. ;-)
ReplyDelete