May 6, 2010 State of Illinois Police Memorial

[Bruce Biancalana]

I attended the State of Illinois police memorial ceremony. The ceremony was held in Springfield IL at an area church. Police departments from many cities, towns and villages attended. Hundreds of police vehicles in procession proceeded to the state capitol for further memorial. Gold star families and friends of fallen fellow officers were also in attendance. My heart goes out to all the families and friends across the country that have suffered these extreme losses. More importantly my prayers go out to my fellow officers that have given the ultimate sacrifice. My special thanks goes out to all of my comrades who walk towards danger and often time put there life on the line in order to make our country a better place to live.

During the ceremony, a cool picture was taken of my car parked on the closed downtown Springfield streets, adjacent the state capitol. and I thought I would share it here even though it is in no way pro car related.

 

[Rick Franklin]

My father who will turn 90 in August, is a retired NYPD detective. He retired in 1974 with 30 years on the job. I have a deep respect for any law enforcement officer. Here in Washington State, we had 6 officers killed in 2 months last fall. Their names were added to the Washington State Law Enforcement Memorial yesterday too. In this state, there is a special licence plate you can buy for your car that supports the Law enforcement memorial; I have these plates on both my daily driver and my Lincoln Hearse. To all the men and women in blue, as the Sgt in Hill Street Blues would say: "Lets be carefull out there!"

 

[John Burchfield]

I'm sure that was an impressive ceremony, Bruce. I love the '74-'77 big-body Mopar police cars! My '75 ex-SCHP Gran Fury got me through 7 plus years of school. When I was in college one of my fraternity brother's dads was admissions director of Randolph-Macon Womens' College and they got surplus Va. State Police Gran Furys for department travel. He said his dad loved them. Another student from Va. a class or two behind me was also a fan of them as his dad had several. I recall him showing up in two or three former unmarked cars, one black and another green.