Thursday, July 12, 2007

Just Doing His Job...

A few days ago a horrible thing occurred. A law enforcement officer was murdered. He was doing his job. His name was Robert Kozminski and he left behind a daughter.

I'm saddened for this family. For his parents, siblings, daughter, and I'm sure the mother of his daughter is also grieving. I hope I never am in this situation myself. Still it always reminds you when it hits closer than normal to home that it is a possiblity.

I don't generally worry about D and what he does. The same can be said about D's concern about me and my job. We both know the risks that are associated with our chosen professions. I had greater risks when I worked as a paramedic and when I contemplated flight nursing one of the questions that was asked was - what does your family think of you choosing to do this? My response was the same... D feels as if he has no room to judge. His job does carry an amount of risk to his life and limb. I have never said to him "why don't you become an accountant, it's safer." Being in law enforcement is a part of who D is. I wouldn't trade him for the world. It's the same for him. I'm a nurse. I'm a paramedic. If I chose to be a flight nurse he would have supported me 100%. The only question he would have asked was what is the helicopters safety record. It's as simple as that. We recognize that both of us love our professions. Even on the bad days and since we love each other we would never dream of asking the other to quit what they loved. Pretty simple huh... tell that to D's family. They don't understand his love of law enforcment. I think they would be happier if he was a firefighter. D likes firefighting, but he loves law enforcement.

D hates domestic violence calls... I used to too when I worked as a paramedic. For the same reasons that D hates them... people in those situations are usually volatile and unpredictable. Nine times out of ten things will go fine, but there's always that one in ten that don't. You always hope when you receive that call that today is not the one out of ten.

So please - say a prayer for this gentleman as well as his coworkers and fellow officers. Remember cops are not out to get you. If you follow the law they leave you alone... it's when you don't that they have to do their job.

2 comments:

Brandy said...

What a horrible thing to have happen. I will definitely remember this officer's family and fellow officers in my prayers. There was actually a recent officer death in the large city not too far from us and I thought of your D. I hope he continues to be safe doing what he loves.

OHN said...

I too am the wife of an officer. He has been doing this job 28 years and was already a cop when we met so it has been a way of life for us. The one thing that I find that most people don't get is that our life is different from the M-F 9-5 routine. Though now that he has rank he isn't subjected to the swing and/or night shift, he does work weekends in the summer. People always feel so sorry for us that we can't always attend events but for us it is entirely normal. I only worried when we were first married, Over time I have learned that it doesn't do any good to worry and he loves what he does and is very good at it. On the other hand son #2 is talking about following in dads footsteps and that DOES terrify me.