The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — The following letter was written in response to a column about the killing Wednesday of Officer Thor Soderberg on the South Side of Chicago:
I am a Chicago police officer about to hit 20 years next month and also a Vietnam veteran, which often times seemed to be the same thing while on the job.
All of those things you mentioned were more than true... but I wanted to add just a few things. When we get up in the morning and put the uniform on, we don’t plan to encounter trouble, we don’t plan to run for blocks through gangways and streets in the dark after offenders. We don’t plan on being told by a victim they don’t want an offender arrested while holding their hand over a swollen eye, and we don’t plan on having to stare down the barrel of our gun at someone who is staring down theirs.
We do what we did yesterday and today and will do tomorrow even in the light of another officer being murdered. We put on the uniform, go to roll call and into the street to serve and protect. We will think of Soderberg and other officers who have passed on but won’t lose our focus because we still have to serve and protect.
Some of us will think about getting home to take our little girls or boys to practice, pick up our wives or just sit in the yard and barbeque, but we won’t lose focus because we still have to serve and protect.
Our minds will be occupied with when, how and if we will ever get promoted, we will worry about working alone in a squad car at midnight, we will wonder if we will be able to pay a tuition by working overtime, but we won’t lose focus because we still have to serve and protect. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers will remain undaunted as we walk out the door in the morning, away from our families not knowing what we will face, but know this... there are those of us that will still go forward and serve and protect. We know the dangers, but we still go.
We are just men and women, with families like you, that only want to do what we do and be good at it. Sometimes it feels as if the city doesn’t really want us here, but until things change we are here for the duration. Sometimes with broken spirits, sometimes with broken limbs, sometimes with brothers or sisters that will go no further.
I love Chicago, I have loved this job though it has never loved me. To the brothers and sisters of CPD, God bless you all, walk tall and be safe.
Thank you, Michael Sneed.
Copyright 2010 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.