I'm a policeman's daughter.
Dad died in 1999, but it's not a heritage you escape. Sometimes one may feel deeply ashamed of what the police are or were - Orgreave, Hillsborough, the Birmingham 6. More often one is proud of our unarmed police who still manage to keep the streets safe, as they did when they took down the murderer of Jo Cox last year.
Today I am very proud, though I admit I wiped away a tear as I watched the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer today. Thousands of police from all over the country lined the streets of London from Westminster Abbey to Southwark Cathedral. Elsewhere police left their offices, police stations and HQ buildings to stand, silent, as PC Palmer's cortege reached the cathedral. Significant numbers of people - ordinary locals, retired police, people who had made the journey specially - all stood in silence too.
The vast majority of our police carry no guns. Most of us prefer it that way. This is the first death of a police officer on duty for about eighteen months, since a Liverpool officer was run over by a criminal driving a stolen van. A couple of American students at the Shakespeare Institute happened to be in Liverpool on the day of his funeral and were blown away by the solemnity and sense of the whole community being involved. This funeral in Southwark was Liverpool amped up to 11.
I grieve for Mrs Palmer and her five-year-old daughter who will barely remember her father. I know the police "family" will look after them - I well recall my father, as senior officer of his subdivision, going to great lengths to help the widows of two officers who died off-duty, of natural causes, under his command. It can never be enough, but they will look after their own.
There's a Wikipedia page listing all the British police officers killed in the line of duty, and it looks like a long list, until you realise it covers over a century. We respect our police. Most of the time. That's why we are horrified when they let us down.
Rest in peace, PC Palmer. Your passing has affected many of us and does not go unremarked.
Today I am very proud, though I admit I wiped away a tear as I watched the funeral procession of PC Keith Palmer today. Thousands of police from all over the country lined the streets of London from Westminster Abbey to Southwark Cathedral. Elsewhere police left their offices, police stations and HQ buildings to stand, silent, as PC Palmer's cortege reached the cathedral. Significant numbers of people - ordinary locals, retired police, people who had made the journey specially - all stood in silence too.
The vast majority of our police carry no guns. Most of us prefer it that way. This is the first death of a police officer on duty for about eighteen months, since a Liverpool officer was run over by a criminal driving a stolen van. A couple of American students at the Shakespeare Institute happened to be in Liverpool on the day of his funeral and were blown away by the solemnity and sense of the whole community being involved. This funeral in Southwark was Liverpool amped up to 11.
I grieve for Mrs Palmer and her five-year-old daughter who will barely remember her father. I know the police "family" will look after them - I well recall my father, as senior officer of his subdivision, going to great lengths to help the widows of two officers who died off-duty, of natural causes, under his command. It can never be enough, but they will look after their own.
There's a Wikipedia page listing all the British police officers killed in the line of duty, and it looks like a long list, until you realise it covers over a century. We respect our police. Most of the time. That's why we are horrified when they let us down.
Rest in peace, PC Palmer. Your passing has affected many of us and does not go unremarked.