Executive Calendar
Floor Speech
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I am honored to join with my colleagues in honoring the men and women of law enforcement during National Police Week.
This year, it was our colleague Mr. Blunt, the Senator from Missouri and the leader of our Senate Law Enforcement Caucus, who arranged an opportunity for us to speak on the floor, and I thank him for that.
I wish to commend my colleagues Senators Grassley and Feinstein for putting together the National Police Week Resolution. As of yesterday afternoon, there were 75 cosponsors to this resolution, which is more than we have had previously.
In 2017, the law enforcement community lost 199 of its bravest to line-of-duty incidents. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reports that 53 officers have given their lives in 2018; 28 of those killed by firearms. This is a 56-percent increase over the same period in 2017.
I am very grateful that in Alaska we have not lost an officer in 2018. We are praying that continues and that we don't see any moving forward, but we know, like every other State out there, we are living on borrowed time.
Law enforcement families live on borrowed time. The job is inherently dangerous, and we pray and wish and hope that loved ones return home at the end of his or her shift. Really, we know there are no guarantees, and there never will be.
The last Alaska officer to give his life to protect ours was Sergeant Allen Brandt. He was with the Fairbanks Police Department. His end of watch was October 28, 2016. Sergeant Brandt was shot multiple times just a couple of weeks before his death. Everyone thought he would survive his injuries. I had an opportunity to speak with him while he was in the hospital with his wife and his best friend. He was released from the hospital. Eight days after the shooting, Allen felt strong enough to actually appear before the Fairbanks City Council in person to thank the community for their outpouring of love and support and the unconditional love they had offered him and his family in the wake of this tragedy. He was very thankful to the community, most certainly, but he also went on to admonish the community. He said:
We need your support, not just when bad things happen. The officers do a hard job and most of the time it's thankless.
Those were truly his famous last words. He went to Anchorage for a second surgery a few days later, and he died on the operating table.
Officer Allen is clearly not forgotten in the Fairbanks community. He lived a hero's life, and his words before the Fairbanks City Council will be long remembered: ``We need your support, not just when bad things happen.'' That has to be the reminder to all of us all of the time--to be there for those who are serving us, to be there to support them.
In an editorial published this morning, the Fairbanks Daily News- Miner offers the following:
With police receiving much negative media attention on the national level, sometimes people forget the vast majority of police officers are good men and women who put their lives on the line. . . . Take time to remember the . . . fallen officers who have given their lives up for their communities. And be sure to thank the police officers you do see for the hard job they do, even if nothing bad has happened lately.
Those were words taken from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner this morning.
This week, thousands of members of the law enforcement family have come to Washington, DC, for public ceremonies on the Mall and here at the Capitol. There have been private moments visiting lost colleagues at the memorial site. The surviving relatives of the fallen are grieving and recovering at events sponsored by Concerns of Police Survivors. This is a great organization, a vital organization, whose existence is barely known outside of the law enforcement community. I have had several--several--opportunities over the years to work with this extraordinary organization as they have been there for the families who have lost their heroes.
There are ample opportunities this week to thank members of our law enforcement family for their sacrifices in public and, certainly, ample opportunities every day of the year to thank our officers in private, starting with our own U.S. Capitol Police who greet us at the door every morning. They remain on post when we leave at the end of very long days. They are here for us day in and day out.
I would just end with an observation. I think the editorial this morning in the Fairbanks paper offers up words of wisdom. As the memories of National Police Week 2018 fade, I hope we will not wait until next May to thank the men and women of law enforcement for their selfless and at times thankless service to our communities.
With that, I thank you.
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