Due to abysmal leadership fanning flames of hatred resulting in unprecedented violence against our nation’s law enforcement officers, daily duty briefings sometimes include prayers for protection over men and women doing dangerous public safety work on behalf of citizens.
The state of our nation in terms of a faltering economy, while federal purse-holders dole out billions to other countries to alleviate their hardships and sanctity, happens as our safety and security seem wholesaled by police defunders lording over and mismanaging our capital (tax revenue), in effect throwing the baby out with the bath water.
FBI statistics highlight the defund-the-police push is an abysmal failure culminating in uber-perils to public safety in America. We the People principles seem to refer to only the elected representatives, not the people who helped them get seated—an abomination and utter betrayal to all, especially cops picking up the pieces despite being told vanish. A cop’s oath is not for markdown.
America’s lot of cops see citizens concerned and needlessly made vulnerable. Citizens see cops up against the ropes also, and render prayerful gestures:
(Note handed to Sgt. Jim Mott by a grateful citizen. Photo courtesy of the Chisago County Sheriff’s Office.)
As the crime-fighting wages on, residents and merchants reach out with supportive praises and prayer.
Commenting in response to Lee County Sheriff’s Office police divers checking for bodies in vehicles cast into seawater by Hurricane Ian, a police supporter posted the following:
“Dear Heavenly Father please watch over our rescuers please guard their hearts against the traumas they face. In Jesus’ name and all glory is given unto You, Amen.”
(Photo courtesy of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.)
And here is another law enforcement supporter, praying over cops, after seeing the same eerie imagery and realizing the hardcore task at hand:
“Oh my gosh! These photos are a stark reality of what it takes to check everywhere for survivors! My gosh, I hope everyone sees what first responders go through to make every person count! Continue to pray for all of your safety! My heart goes out to you all!!!”
As mentioned above, law enforcement officers also see the pangs of desperation fomenting poor decisions of the criminal kind…and its rampant malignancy.
Take a look at any of the NYPD’s social media sites and you will likely be aghast at how people so carelessly go up against cops nowadays—physically, police officers are being brazenly targeted; virtually, healthy police public relations endeavors are impeded by activists who purport peace and harmony and acceptance and equality…all while hypocritically exhibiting none of these things.
“The crime and violence can happen on any of our doorsteps. It’s been brought there by pro-criminal politicians who need to be voted out. In NYC, Detectives have been working tirelessly for victims while many elected officials have tossed them aside,” wrote a representative with the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association.
A Black-owned business in Portland, Oregon was vandalized after publicizing preparations for a “Coffee with a Cop” event. In Detroit, two police officers were trying to effect the arrest of a man swinging wildly at two cops after which a large crowd started physically interfering and obstructing police duties. Outnumbered cops found themselves in a ground fight, surrounded by yet another mob swearing the suspect was a saint. Amid the mix, a policewoman’s uniform shirt was ripped right wide open, revealing her body-protecting ballistic vest.
Here is a testimony of the callous nature of armed crazies confronted by our brave first responders containing frontline battles…
Our friends at Rural County Deputy honored the salvation of Seguin, Texas police Sergeant Bradlee Flippin who survived a few shotgun blasts at a domestic disturbance call. Calling it an AliveDay story, Rural County Deputy posted the following synopsis:
“Around 0230 hours on October 10, 2021, officers from Seguin PD responded to a residence in the 600 block of Rosemary Street for a domestic disturbance. Reports indicated a female and a 9-year-old boy had been shot.
“Officers approached the residence and noticed a male outside hiding in the shadows. When officers got closer to the male, he leveled a shotgun at Sergeant Flippin and fired a blast of birdshot at him, hitting him in the vest and duty weapon. Sergeant Flippin stumbled back and other officers went for cover. He instinctively looked down at his duty weapon to see it had been disabled as a second shotgun blast hit him in the top of the head, peppering his head, face, and neck with birdshot.
“His instinct to get this duty weapon operational again likely prevented him from taking that second shotgun blast square in the face. Sergeant Flippin was now in the middle of the road and broadcast he had been shot in the head. Without concern for their own safety, members of Seguin Fire Department, who were staged nearby, broke protocol and entered the ‘hot zone’ and drove straight into the line of fire, getting Sergeant Flippin out of there and on the way to the hospital.”
Sounds like prayers were answered that day, and I’m sure Sergeant Flippin remains enormously grateful to the angels in the wing (Seguin Fire/Rescue personnel) who risked their lives to salvage his.
You’d think all of this violence against first responders is avoidable. It is. But pandering politicos sold out public safety for Likes (votes), in effect wittingly endangering America’s law enforcement officers and resulting in law-abiding citizens maimed or killed by ruthless roamers freed by idiotic reforms.
(Photo courtesy of the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association.)
Like Sgt. Flippin’s close call, life goes on…and so does the battle between good and evil.
Having endured a career in policing, self-preservation by exercising officer-safety skills is crucial. However, things can go wrong, no matter how versed any cop is in the realm of hypervigilance and staying steps ahead of evildoers. With that, prayer is paramount before, during, and after the tour of duty gives way to the next batch of bravados with badges. We all have our rituals…
The same pockets containing Kevlar plates in my ballistic vest also held a tiny cross throughout the entirety of my time as a policeman. Between calls for service, car-to-car with a zone partner, we sat in church parking lots typing police reports, the glow of spiritual statues overseeing peacekeepers performing the mission.
Prayers Up When the Ante is Upped
Indeed, police personnel train vigorously. Among specialized units such as SWAT and the like, even these uber-drilled and super-skilled cops come under fire and take casualties.
The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia held a post-roll call send-off in the police headquarters parking lot, praying over a squad embarking on yet another perilous mission in the dark of night, mindful of malevolence and geared to confront it all.
(Photo courtesy of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.)
“Bibb County Sheriff’s Office Captain Shelly Rutherford snapped this photo of the sky after a prayer of protection over a special operation that began earlier this week,” the agency’s website explained.
They didn’t point out any details in particular, perhaps because it seems rather obvious. I see a group of cops who have just been prayed over, above whom appears to be a dove-shaped figure punctuating the night sky.
These prayerful moments among America’s law enforcement entities have been popping up more lately. Reading the comments below police posts amounts to hardy helpings of pro-police citizens supporting their courageous cops daring to do what many humans can’t fathom (respectfully). Conversely, the positive comments are typically defaced by the antithetically inclined who voluntarily swallowed anti-cop falsities hook, line, and sinker.
This last element gives rise to the very purpose to pray over our society’s protectors. Not only for LEOs but also for those who harbor hate, readily believe the devil’s lies, and may start on the wrong foot when interacting with cops delivering truth and resolutions to anyone’s dire circumstances.
(Photo courtesy of the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office.)
While somber pandemic lockdowns were nevertheless disturbed by online anti-police barkers, police organizations formed circles in parking lots and prayed over one another—the last line of defense and the Higher power overseeing it, assembled to do humanitarian deeds.
Public Servants
Lately, the Los Angeles Police Department has been holding roll calls in parking lots, in plain view of the people they serve, held in circular gatherings whereby each cop has an eye on the environment’s movements, while squad leaders facilitate exchanges of information usable to police practitioners providing public safety resolutions.
(Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Police Department 77th Division.)
This, in a city and state whose cops have been bombarded with hate and devalued by “reforms” that seem to counter tried-and-true justice applications, forfeiting proven modalities to satiate the demands of those who clearly knew right from wrong but victimized anyway…
Mainstream media and nefarious networks operating as conglomerates of censorship, skirting ethics in journalism on behalf of the party in charge blatantly defiling public safety, deserve prayers as well. Lord knows many have derailed truth in exchange for greed and other self-serving misdeeds.
Increasingly, many police sources conveying integral information regarding law enforcement agencies continue to deal with the salmon effect —uphill climbs laden with chronic pushback and minefields of in-wait mayhem— noticeably throttled back by the dirty hands joy-sticking the flow of fact-based information.
Look at any police-oriented forum reporting phenomenal work performed by cops; the poignant displays of such bona fide news heralding law enforcement officers are head-locked and suppressed by Big Tech and media moguls operating from propagandist wheelhouses.
Much of the great stuff cops do daily was closeted from public view. So much for social media bringing people together, huh? These info-collecting conduits essentially bonded woke folks but only if/when viewers invested in their brazen philosophies dripping with propaganda. Lord help us! Lord help them!
He answers…
Perhaps because there is no plausible denial for media engines to somehow pull off zero coverage of the multitude of phenomenal police work unfolding down in SW Florida, stories out of the Sunshine State’s natural disaster predicament nonetheless wound up with pokes from the woke.
A pointed Opinion piece titled “A desperate press go down swinging,” authored by Washington Examiner reporter Becket Adams, cited the usual suspects pushing ugly narratives they know to be false, all to garner clicks via sensationalized titles and slanderous material flung at the faces of the police trying to fulfill everyone’s needs after total ruination.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno had to address circulating falsities that claimed residents and merchants were being ignored and deprived, and a local newspaper pushed out the propaganda.
That was days ago, leading to a rebuttal from the county’s top cop. “Today, our Community Response Unit handed out hot meals, water, food, and additional items to residents of Fort Myers Beach; contrary to what The News-Press (Fort Myers and Cape Coral) reports,” Sheriff Marceno clarified.
Hurricane Ian carved through, leaving rubble in its wake and residents numbed by most if not all their belongings being swept away by surreal tides of seawater…
But first responders rolled in to dry the tears of saturated souls by providing much-needed sustenance, equipment to rebuild, muscles to get it done, and good-hearted cops leaving behind their loved ones to tend to someone else’s…until restoration is tangible.
The prayer sessions in the SW quadrant of Florida provide cement for helping hands to withstand the rigors while hearts hurt tremendously, rebuilding what once was… even stronger and better than before tragedy struck.
Look at the following image of a bunch of brave public safety officials from New Jersey, particularly the blue-uniformed officer in the bottom-left corner. He is either quietly praying or re-examining his duty gear before laying boots on the ground in hurricane-pummeled SW Florida. I believe he is doing both…
(Photo courtesy of the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management.)
For all first responders from the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management’s Task Force 1, many prayers are sent up. Thus far, the safety of all has been preserved while they try to institute safety for citizens beleaguered by Hurricane Ian. This type of picture conveys the tremendous human potential and growth from deeply painful instances—things that are no strangers to cops.
I can tell you each of the police officials will come away even stronger and more determined than ever. And that is the brand of reform I believe is most applicable, instead of the kind the anti-police sorts plunge down our throats while hugging thuggery.
Those metropolis dens of uproarious criminality are being swiftly vacated by law-abiding residents who value their lives more than the elected officials do. Yet the municipal cops employed there continue to honor their oath despite the chronic onslaught of barbarians targeting them…
Hence a dwindling aggregate of cops in America, making the job that much more arduous and dangerous and the lives of citizens increasingly vulnerable. So yeah, there’s plenty to pray about.