I have several thoughts on this subject; here goes:
- The police and firemen who serve our communities provide a valuable and necessary service in protecting us and making our lives better. For this they are to be commended.
- Other public service employees, including
(1) Water department workers who fix broken water mains in freezing weather,
(2) Child welfare workers who protect some of the most vulnerable people,
(3) Snow plow drivers who keep our roads clear in icy conditions also provide services that keep us safe and better off.
(4) Road maintenance crews who repair roads and occasionally are struck by traffic.
Their jobs and others can also lead to death and injury but they are not given massive public funerals.
About 30 years ago, there was a well-liked police officer who was killed in an auto accident while chasing a speeder in the Washington DC area. There was the usual very large funeral procession with many officers and probably in excess of 300 patrol cars from hundreds of miles around (I saw one that was from Massachusetts - 400 miles away). I do not know who paid for the automobile expenses, but they were considerable.
Traffic was tied up on the Washington Beltway and its' feeder ramps for about an hour (the beltway is 4-6 lanes wide in each direction and carries heavy traffic - sometimes as many as 250,000 vehicles per day (mostly during rush hours). I was stuck in this traffic jam for 2 hours while the procession passed and the congestion gradually returned to normal.
I don�t know what to conclude from this, but a police officer�s death (tragic as it is) should not be a reason to cause massive inconvenience to the general population.
Whenever any public service employee or anyone else is killed on the job, it is sad and regrettable, but I do not think that causing major inconvenience to the area is justified.
