Memorial Service

[prosodic]

The 4 flag-draped caskets just entered the Tacoma Dome.

Cars are still leaving the front gates of McChord AFB, which marked the beginning of the procession. The procession started at 10AM. It is now 12:21PM. Think about that for a minute. McChord is 10 miles from the Tacoma Dome.

1,982 police cars and emergency vehicles in the procession, not including the 4 cruisers that belonged to the slain officers, which joined the procession at the police department (they were each draped with a black ribbon on the doors, imprinted with the name of the officer who drove that car). One hundred police officers came from Boston. Nearly 100 came from New York City. There is a sea of red outside the Tacoma Dome - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A thousand of them.

Bagpipers. Honor guards from various places. The horse without a rider (one horse signifying all four officers).

The Tacoma Dome will be filled to capacity - 20,000 people, mostly officers. The general public is being kept mostly to overflow locations, or like me, are watching this live on TV at home.

I am in awe.

I have never seen anything like this. I hope I never have to see anything like this again. It's heartbreaking.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Lakewood-officers-memorial-latest-update-78719877.html

Memorial program: http://images.bimedia.net/documents/FallenHeroesProgram.pdf

ETA: The procession just finished filing out of McChord. More than 1,982 cars, because there were additional police cars lined up on a nearby side street that filed in behind the ambulance that marked the end of the McChord procession. The procession started at 10. It is now 1:23 PM.

Comments

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

That's a major reason why I've felt so depressed and hopeless lately. Random acts of violence - senseless acts of violence - upset me so much. And it seems like they are occurring more frequently than before.

It's a very dark time.