PHOTOS & VIDEO: This past Sunday, several officer from the LPD as well as family members of the fallen Lakewood officers took part in this year’s National Police Week in Washington, DC to honor the fallen officers from around the nation. Next year, the name of Lakewood Police Officer Chris Matlosz will be added to the growing list of engraved names on the memorial.
Among those who attended, was Kelly Walsifer, the fiancee of Chris Matlosz.
What is the National Police Week?
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. Currently, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world converge on Washington, DC to participate in a number of planned events which honor those that have paid the ultimate sacrifice.
The Memorial Service began in 1982 as a gathering in Senate Park of approximately 120 survivors and supporters of law enforcement. Decades later, the event, more commonly known as National Police Week, has grown to a series of events which attracts thousands of survivors and law enforcement officers to our Nation’s Capital each year.
The National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service, which is sponsored by the Grand Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, is one in a series of events which includes the Candlelight Vigil, which is sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and seminars sponsored by Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.)
National Police Week draws in between 25,000 to 40,000 attendees. The attendees come from departments throughout the United States as well as from agencies throughout the world. This provides a unique opportunity to meet others that share a common brotherhood. In that spirit, the Fraternal Order of Police DC Lodge #1 sponsors receptions each afternoon and evening during Police Week. TLS.
Click here for video by Hillel Engel.
Too bad Obama was too busy practising his golf swing to show up at this important event. I think it says alot about his priorities when thousand of officers can travel from across the country to Lakewood for Officer Matlosz’s funeral but our Commander in Chief doesnt feel it is important enough to attend a memorial and show some respect even when it is in his own backyard!
Obama only has time for something if it will boost HIS ratings. Apparently this doesn’t fall into that category. He had plenty of time to fly around the world hugging,bowing to and kissing Arab leaders hands to “reconcile’ with the Muslim world. He didn’t miss the opportunity to run to Ground Zero to cash in on Bin Laden’s killling when it wasn’t even due to him. It was due to a decade of work mostly under his predecessor-a real president. George W. Bush. Mr. Osama;anyone with half a brain sees right through you and would never re-elect you. Unfortunately too many Americans vote with their emotions not theri brains. There’s nothing else that can explain a president’s rating flying sky high just because Bin Laden was killed when he has barely done a good thing for this country otherwise.