The killing of a police officer is a deep wound to a city. It is a strike at each of us, at our safety, our sense of public order, our hope for peaceful lives.
It is also a reminder. There are men and women whose job is to face danger each day so that the rest of us can enjoy the order and peace we need to go about our days and to go to sleep at night without fear.
Their courage is our protection. Until Thursday, it had been six years since Dallas lost a police officer to gunfire in the line of duty.
The news that broke late last night hit with a painful shock and a recollection that we live in a dangerous world of violent people who are willing to inflict the worst harm on others.
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One officer is dead. His name is Darron Burks. He was 46 years old. Two others are hospitalized, one critically wounded. All of the facts of what happened and why are not known to us at this writing. All that we know is that someone whose job it was to protect us is dead.
Police Chief Eddie García posted a note to social media, an image of a badge striped with a black band hovering over our city. The only words he offered were these: “no words.”
We understand his feelings. We don’t have many words either, but we feel that something must be said even if, in a moment like this, it’s hard to know what to say or how to say it.
We can say this. Police work has come in for rough treatment in the culture in recent years. Police officers were once afforded broad respect in society for the sacrifices they make each day. They were given some deference and regard in exchange for the long hours, the low pay and the danger always lurking at the next call. They were the heroes of TV shows and the people kids dressed up as for Halloween.
Bad policing gets a lot of attention, and it deserves it. But policing writ large is lately looked on by too many with a kind of cynicism that can overshadow the genuine commitment to public service that marks the vast majority of men and women who put on a badge and strap on a gun.
Every city knows the pain of losing officers, but few cities know it like Dallas. Every time an officer is in danger, we are swept back to that awful evening in 2016 when a man bent on terror murdered five of our officers doing their duty at a protest.
We are called back to the memory of how a badge isn’t just a badge. It too often is a target.
So maybe we can take this moment and see that a badge is really something else. It is a mark of a social promise, a pledge of protection and service, a symbol that deserves a city’s respect and regard.
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