A Legacy of Honor – National Police Week 2017
In 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15 falls, as National Police Week.
National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the lines of duty for the safety and protection of others. Law enforcement officers respond to duties not knowing if they will return home to their family afterward. These officers are people who may be a father, mother, son, daughter, sister, or brother.
One of our very own Sam C. Mitchell is very passionate about law enforcement and protecting this country we live in. After serving in the active duty Army and then the Army reserve, he attended SIU for undergraduate degrees and then received his Juris Doctorate in Law from Loyola University. Sam is an expert in his police work as he has put his body on the line when he served in Illinois without pay as a part time or auxiliary police officer for more than two decades. Sam also is a certified Law Enforcement Firearm Instructor and lecturer.
Sam C. Mitchell has written numerous articles about law enforcement and here is a few quotes from them:
“The average post-Columbine active shooter/murder episode lasts just eight minutes from its inception to the final act of violence. This presents a circumstance to the Law Enforcement First Responders wherein they must assume the terrible burden of acting in the light of the knowledge that additional minutes or even seconds can possible mean lives. Present Law Enforcement policy and training directs the officers to respond aggressively, save the innocents, and confront the violence with speed in the certain knowledge that they are in a race with death with time as their relentless enemy. These officers did just that – without hesitation – knowing that there is never a fallback position in such a contest. May God bless them every one.”
“We should do absolutely everything that we can to support and assist our law enforcement personnel wherever and whenever we can. It amounts to very little from us for what they face and what they voluntarily do on our behalf. Ask your local department what you can do to be of assistance and commit to volunteer when appropriate as well as donating some funds to support their acquisition of additional equipment or to suppose a reward fund to assist in crime fighting. We should see this as a part of our responsibility to ourselves as well as to our country.”
Sam C. Mitchell & Associates would like to thank all of the men and women who risk their lives every day or every week to keep the rest of safe.