Neary-Sighted

One can't even begin to describe what seemed like millions of meaningful moments inside the Tacoma Dome. One moment personal to me was spotting Ed Kane, a photographer who has been chronicling Lakewood news as a publisher, writer and photographer for several decades. He was busy snapping pictures. And then we just looked at each other. We had the same thought. Of the hundreds of thousands of words we ever wrote about Lakewood, it all paled to this event and the memorial.

For years, we'd been in the business of writing news headlines for Lakewood. I remember 11 days ago when if you'd asked, I'd have said the most significant headline I would ever write was "Cityhood Wins." That was back in 1995 when the community voted to incorporate. Yeah, right. Yesterday in the Dome, no other news ever seemed to have ever mattered. Ever.

Fate humbles you and your ability to predict the future.

I had an empty section corner seat next to me and I imagined all of Lakewood there, able to see those 20,000 officers and their looks in their eyes. You were there. The families know it.

This is all a long way of saying, we all are in unchartered territory on what we do next. It's been right to first feel pain, anger and more. We will feel about this event for the rest of our lives.

But we also of course have to think ahead. As we do so, we must feel like the look Ed and I exchanged: one of total humility and surrender to circumstances undreamed of. Now is not the time to dictate to fate.

Here's one circumstance undreamed of: Lakewood is called to produce a world-class work of art as memorial.

The Lakewood City Council met Monday and had a time of silence for the officers. Interestingly, though, it was not the first acknowledgment of the tragedy. Two and a half hours before that meeting, the Lakewood Arts Commission met and discussed the tragedy and how awful everyone felt.

Commissioners were asking: what should we do about a memorial to the slain? What role should the city and the commission play? What should be the scope of the memorial: four officers, or the entire community of people who risk lives for us, 20,000 of whom came to honor our four?

We didn't even touch where you might put it. There's the station where the people built the memorial. There's a park right across the street from the police station. And then there's the *rest* of the city. Nope, thankfully, we didn't even touch that subject.

As the council liaison to the arts commission, these were the points I offered them:

- We can expect the Arts Commission and the city will have some sort of role in a memorial. The memorial will be unprecedented to us in scope and importance.

- We should defer to the families of the slain officers on when and even how to start planning, in all the senses of the word planning, for any sort of memorial. They have other things to think about now. Some time must pass. Fundraising by others must focus on the nine children and their families.

- In the meantime, we can expect a vast quantity of great ideas from the community. Someone should log those so no idea gets misssed, and thank people profusely for sharing.

- Endorsing one idea now could set the stage for trouble if it happens before working with the families, even if the endorsement comes from one individual member of the committee or someone representing the city. The *last* thing Lakewood needs, or these officers deserve, is disunity. We don't want the cop killer to win in ANY other way.

- The arts commission *might* want to establish a small working group to meet with the liason officers assigned to each family member so as to make sure we are all on the same page. We wouldn't want the families to wonder why we're not planning a memorial when we might in fact be waiting for signs from the families. Ditto talking to the police guild.

And we need to be ready to back up. The families may want something very, very different than what anyone is talking about now, including anything in this blog post. Could they want no significant physical memorial, but something else? We must be open to all ideas.

The arts commission was in the same place: we need the families to be ready to work with us on this. So that's what I told the full council a few hours later. City Manager Andrew Neiditz mentioned that the architect and contractor who just built the station have offered their services. And he said that he and Chief Farrar had discussed how the memorial might serve to keep the families in contact.

But that's as far as anyone has gotten. And that's good.

When the families are ready, their humbled community is ready.

The Lakewood Four will be remembered.
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Maybe it goes without saying, but I wanted to share why Lakewood city government has been so ferocious about encouraging people who want to honor the Lakewood Four to donate to the police union' independent charity arm, the Lakewood Police Independent Guild Charitable Fund.

The millions of people following this story have no way of knowing it, but the Lakewood Police Independent Guild has a history of fundraising and benevolent activity from very early on. With a new department, it would have been very easy for the union members to simply focus on contract negotiations and the routine but laborious aspects of operating a police union.

However, the police union leadership - which includes Brian Wurts and included his good friend St. Mark Renninger until his death - was very focused from the outset on creating a nonprofit arm that would donate to the Lakewood community.

Union members gave cash, and they gave time both as volunteers and in fund-raising.
Bear in mind, they didn't have to do any of this. Police work is hard enough. Lord, do we know that now. Forming a nonprofit to help Lakewood was certainly no condition of us starting a department or recognizing their union.

They did all this from their hearts. The conversation I can most clearly remember with Sgt. Renninger was about the importance of giving back to the community. How incredibly ... I dunno, is the word 'ironic'? ... his comments seem now as he is the one who all he had for us.

Here's just a partial list of guild nonprofit activity I was able to track down this afternoon from various reports by the city manager over the last several months. Given more time, one could find many more:

December 2008. Meals delivered to 60 families at Tillicum Elementary: Police Officers Moody, Catlett, Borchardt, Porche, Hector, Herritt, Figueroa and Carrell along with DOC's Matt Goebel delivered 103 meals to 60 families involved in the Head Start program at Tillicum Elementary on December 15th. The LPIG Charity Fund coordinated the effort and donated $400.

December 2008: Santa arrives in Springbrook, Tillicum, Woodbrook and Northeast Neighborhoods: Members of the LPD Community Policing Unit, the Public Safety Advisory Committee, Lakewood Volunteer Observation Patrol, and Lakewood Police Independent Guild Charity Fund will be helping bring Santa and his sleigh to some neighborhoods in Lakewood this Saturday, December 20th, from 3PM until 7PM. Santa will be riding in his sleigh, with full police escort, through the Springbrook, Tillicum, Woodbrook, and Northeast neighborhoods. According to confidential police sources, Santa and his elves will be handing out candy canes and Santa will be available to hear kids' last minute gift wishes.

February 2009. LPIG Charity Fund Obtain Items for Assault Victim: The Lakewood Police Guild Charity Fund obtained a donated, brand new mattress and box spring set for a 6-year old sexual assault victim at the Sage Terrace apartments. Ideal Home Furnishings generously donated the mattress set, valued at close to $200. A large chunk of the child's mattress had been cut out for evidence and she had no replacement as the family has very limited resources. The Charity Fund bought an entire bedding/window valance set for her as well. The Charity Fund will be hosting a party for her 6th birthday, complete with presents, balloons, cake, and visits from some of our police officers.

June 2009. Police versus Fire Basketball: The LPD vs. LFD Charity Game was a close game (with Fire winning in overtime), and an overall success with $5,000+ raised for the LPIG Charity Fund and LFD Life Safety Charity Fund.

That's a very short writeup of a major fundraising effort. You can see pictures from the game at the union website.

October 2009: Police Hand Out Halloween Candy: LPD Neighborhood Patrol Officers along with swing shift officers passed out over 600 candy bars to children in every patrol district on Halloween. The children and their parents were excited and great contacts were made between the police department and the community. The Lakewood Police Independent Guild Charity donated all of the candy and will double the amount next year as this was such a success.

Just this Nov. 20: 100 Thanksgiving meals to be provided by Police partnering with Great American Casino: CSO Dawn McGinnis, on behalf of the LPIG Charity as the Procurement Director, is partnering with the Great American Casino to provide 100 Thanksgiving meals to Lakewood families in need. LPD Command Staff supplied four turkeys toward the effort and Great American Casino is providing all the side dishes and doing all the cooking. The NPO/CSO unit identified the families who will receive the meals and they will also be delivering them on November 25th. 100 families in Lakewood will be able to enjoy a wonderful meal that otherwise would not have been possible.

And this is just a partial list. Somewhere in the files are stories about how they helped assemble care packages for returning troops at Fort Lewis. And there are more stories. You get the point. You can clearly see how the Lakewood Police Independent Guild is organized to lead the care for these families. They're familiar with responsible fundraising and allocation. That said, when they want something else besides these contributions, it's clear your council and of course the entire community is ready to help.

So speaking of that: Hopefully you've seen it before, but you can find the link to where and how to donate by check or using a credit card online here: http://www.lpig.us/

The site is also worth looking at because this horrible crime has transformed the police union leadership into bloggers. Their passionate, heartfelt comments move all of us. You'll see those comments at that site too. You might even want to leave your own comments at the LPIG Facebook page.
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