Thursday, November 12, 2009

A police encounter

There was a post at The One Minute Writer about an encounter with a police officer that made me think a lot. Here is what I answered:

As soon as I saw today's prompt, I jumped to answer it, because whenever someone mentions the word 'police' to me, I instantly think about Garrido.
He was a police officer down in my village, and he was in charge of the busiest street, the one I walk through every day. He was a very cheerful man, saying hi to everyone and always smiling. He knew everyone there!
But one day, a couple was robbing a store, a Kevingston to be more specific, and he came to help, and was shot and instantly killed. This happened last February, and was a major piece of news, appearing in every news channel.
As justice is slower than anything in this country, the thieves are still waiting to be tried, and nothing has been done on the subject. If you looked at the floor of that main street, you saw, in huge white letters “Justice for Garrido or for his murderers?”
However, not everything is bad news, for he got a piece of love from all the grateful people he had helped: when you walk in those streets you see a black bow in every window, and there is a small monument at Kevingston's door. They even named that part of the street after him!
People were raising keys to build a real monument, because the government complained that copper was way too expensive... And that is just because there had been a misunderstanding between the government of the city and Garrido, because it was corrupt and he was not.
And that's what our government teaches us to do: not to appreciate people who sacrifice their lives to protect us.

4 comments:

serene chaos said...

I feel your frustration. I live in South Africa, and sometimes it feels like the criminals have more rights than those who uphold the law... It is nice to read that your community do so much to honor Garrido. Thanks for sharing - in the end it was very uplifting and gives me hope.

Thanks for following my blog. I will definitely be back to visit yours! :) - S.C.

Anonymous said...

Wow...that's awful. But that's pretty neat that your community honored him like that. That's not something you see every day.

Rambles'N'Shambles said...

Its good to see the community give him such honor, goes to show that no good deed goes unnoticed.

I really hate how the government is sometimes.

Jody Hedlund said...

Fascinating post! I love hearing about what life is like in other parts of the world, particularly England. My first book is set in 1600's England, so I've studied a lot about that time period!