Jack Dunphy on the Randy Simmons Funeral
At Pajamas Media. Excerpt:
It was a funeral befitting a great man: 10,000 mourners packed into the biggest church they could find, poignant eulogies, glorious music, a grand procession through a grateful city to a final resting place amid rolling hills and a view to the sea, all of it carried live on television. Sadly, it was only after Randy Simmons was killed that most of us came to learn just how great he was.
. . . .
Before leaving home, Simmons gathered his family for a prayer, not only for his safety and that of his fellow officers, but also for the man he would seek to arrest. It was a familiar ritual for all of them. Simmons had been a cop for 27 years and a member of the SWAT team for 20. His children had grown to be teenagers without ever having seen him do anything else. Dad’s cell phone rings, he goes out and gets the bad guy, he comes home. Though a SWAT officer had died in a training accident in 2000, none had ever been killed on a call-up in the unit’s 40-year history.
So off Simmons went on a code-three run from his home in Palos Verdes to the incident command post in the San Fernando Valley. This time he did not come home.
As one who was born and grew up in LA, and later worked many cases with LAPD when I was a DEA agent, I have always known that they have long been the best major city police dept in the country.
In recent years, they have taken a lot of flack from the liberals who run LA, even after the heroic actions of the North Hollywood bank robbery a few years back, within days the left was on their case again.
I have wondered in recent years why anyone would want to be a police officer for a city that clearly does not appreciate what they do, day in a day out.
I am gratified that Officer Randall Simmons received the funeral and praise he deserved for being not only a great officer, but a great person. Sadly, however, it wil soon be business as usual, as the city, it’s press and the left go back after the department again.
God rest your soul, Officer Simmons.
Gary Fouse
fouse, gary c (5a08be) — 2/23/2008 @ 8:07 pmDEA retired
fousesquawk
I have wondered in recent years why anyone would want to be a police officer for a city that clearly does not appreciate what they do, day in a day out.
To allude to a comic book….X-man syndrome?
They defend those who hate and fear them because it’s right?
Foxfier (74f1c8) — 2/23/2008 @ 11:06 pm