A Police Chief From Ohio Reflects On Death Of Murdered Jersey City Patrolman

Courtesy of the Ocean County Police, Fire and EMS Facebook page:

Wise words from Chief Oliver of the Brimfield Police Dept. Remember Brother Santiago...not the savage that took him from us. Rest easy brother we've got it from here.

Chief’s Weekend Babble….on Perspective.

The picture this post is attached to makes my stomach upset. Seriously. When I saw the picture for the first time, my gut did some kind of flip.

I have been in and around police cars for most of two decades now. They are not supposed to have bullet holes through the windshield. This vehicle was occupied by Officer Melvin Santiago of the Jersey City Police Department. He chose to work the west side of Jersey City. He wanted to be there. He also wanted to be a police officer. He died being one, at 23 years old.

Officer Santiago responded to a call for an armed robbery. So did other officers from JCPD. Officer Santiago didn’t make it out of his police vehicle. He was gunned down by a person who had told others he was going to be "famous." Here is where my usually nice and frilly babble may become a rant…

We have lost some perspective as a society. All of us. In northeast Ohio, we all spent the last four days being bombarded with stories about an NBA player choosing Cleveland over Miami. The big homecoming. While I won’t argue that the player who is “coming home” may have an economic impact on a city which really needs to be impacted economically….it is just a game. All of the professional sports are just that…games. Even my beloved Browns players are just entertainment.

While we are all being entertained, bad things are happening. I am NOT faulting the media for all of the coverage; if we were not demanding it, there would be no supply. Sounds sort of like drugs. Escaping reality.

Invariably there will be people who jump on the page and argue with my opinion that an NBA player switching teams should not get more coverage and interest than a police officer being killed. We will hear the tired old adages like “that’s what they get paid for,” “police kill dogs!” and the best ever….”police kill far more citizens than citizens kill cops.” If you truly believe any of those, send me your address- you need more tinfoil.

Folks, the reality is, police are the line of defense between a bad life we see every day… and you. People believe the “thin blue line” has some derogatory meaning. It does not. It is the line that separates the bad people, who want to kill, rob, rape and otherwise victimize, from the good people like all of you. There have been about 62 line of duty deaths of police officers this year, which is up 13%. Officer’s deaths by being shot are up 26 percent. We, as a society, have to reject this with all of our being.

I am encouraging all of you not to post anything to do with the killer of this Jersey City hero. I am also requesting that all of the media stop using his name and stop giving him any notoriety. Lastly, we need to further our relationships between police and the communities they serve. Police are not bad. They are husbands, wives, fathers and mothers who choose to serve and protect citizens.

We have to stop killing our police officers….Chief Oliver.