Police Memorial: ‘Thank You for Putting Your Lives Ahead of Ours’

Before burgers and dogs were served to hundreds of residents, before children were hoisted to a climbing wall by soldiers, before they received free bicycle helmets and before the bounced in the inflatable Disney house, they received a somber reminder of why they were gathered Thursday on the lawn of the West Des Moines Police Department:

Another 138 names were added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, a monument in Washington, DC, honoring peace officers who have died in the line of duty, bringing to toll to 19,981 men and women.

Fortunately, Police Chief Shaun LaDue said in breif remarks to the crowd, the name of only one West Des Moines police officer is carved on the  two curving, 304-foot-long blue-gray marble walls of the monument. Night Marshal M. Anthony Swatta was shot and killed by a man who had just shot his son on March 1, 1933.

He was among 159 Iowans who have died in the line of duty since the first known line-of-duty death occurred in 1791.

The daily realities of police life are “underscored by the names on the memorial,” LaDue said, reading an excerpt from a letter received by a citizen who had praised city police officers, who “do a thankless job that is often not appreciated until they are needed” and who  “wake up not knowing what will happen.”

To those officers who have died, the individual wrote: “Thank you for putting your lives ahead of ours. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten.”

“No one asks to be a hero,” LaDue said in conclusion. “It just sometimes turns out that way.”