possibly an exaggeration ?
Not an exageration.
250 are feloniously killed per annum. Then you have straight up traffic collisions and training mishaps.
For every cop that gets murdered, 4-10 take their own life (accurate numbers are hard to come by but I've read both, with 4 being the most commonly used figure.)
possibly an exaggeration ?
Most likely.
From the article:
""We don't like to go to police funerals either. But we go to them hundreds of times a year, because our police officers die so this man has the right to say whatever he chooses," said Susie Sawyer, executive director of the Concerns of Police Survivors, a national support group for the families of slain officers.
There was only one, count 'em ONE, NYPD officer killed in the line of duty this year. So these "hundreds" a year she's talking about must be funerals for 70-year-old retired officers who died of heart attacks, old age? Serving officers who fell in the bathtub?
My opinion is that this number is low. My father was a City of Pittsburgh Police Officer, and when he died this summer, the funeral director knew him, and did a surprise arrangement for our family. They had a F.O.P. Honor night (Faternal Order of Police).
12 officers came and said prayers and sang songs, and stayed for 3 hours and told stories about my dad and about the police station where he worked. 3 of the woman who came and 2 of the older men told us they do that kind of thing at least 2-3 nights a week! That's over 150 a year, and I would think N.Y. has more police officers than Pittsburgh. (Remember, they go to every funeral - for retired guys also.) Karen
I doubt it's an exaggeration. I believe they send officers from most States to participate in other police funeral.
I know that when we had an officer killed last year there was a procession with police from alot of towns and other States. We had traffic at a stop on one side of the road for about 10+ miles,while people on the other side came out of their cars to stand in respect all along the route to the burial site. From one side of town to the other.