I cannot believe that it is Police Week already! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was running in the snow… oh wait, that was like 2 weeks ago…
Anyway, Police Week 2020 is here and it is kind of a boring year, honestly. Ever since I went down to Washington DC last year for Police Week and Tent City, I’m not sure if a “stay at home” version is gonna top it. Granted the whole Police Week in DC was cancelled this year due to the Kung-Flu and the murder hornets, but it’s still very dissappointing!
I was really looking forward to making another trip down to the greater DC area and meeting a bunch of people again while I worked at the Barbells and Badges Booth! (You better believe that we will be there next year!)
I hadn’t sat down and just written for a while so I thought I would talk about my experience last year in DC!
For those of you that haven't been before, I suggest that you make the trip over, or down, or up to DC for Police Week, at least for a day! There are all KINDS of events going on like the Blue Light Ceremony, an Annual 5K run, and of course, Tent City! Tent City is where I spent most of my time working at the booth with Barbells and Badges.
It’s an outdoor event, 3 days long, and it's got everything you could ever want. You want a T-Shirt? No problem. How about a beer? Sure! There is a MASSIVE tent smack dab in the middle of the tarp-laden outdoor mall that serves as a bar. For the whole day. So for those of you that like to enjoy a nice brewski every once in a while, there is plenty there.
They also have live bands and musicians playing as well. That was where I first heard 1Time play, and he KILLED it out there! If you are unfamiliar with 1Time, he is a cop in Georgia I believe, and he is also a rapper. Dude has like 3 albums, and it's all police related music. Solid dude with some great tunes, so check him out. He is on iTunes, Spotify, you name it.
So amongst all the merchandise tables, t-shirts, tactical fanny packs and other implements of desire, there are also some food trucks to get some chow in between beers. You could literally spend all day there, just walking around, checking out the merchandise that vendors brought, and people watching. Now, keep in mind, like 90% of the people there walking around are cops. It is CRAZY! Makes you feel really good being around some of the finest people the nation has to offer. I met some great people while I was there. It was really fun to see folks from Indiana there, too.
I had a BUNCH of people that follow me on Instagram come and hang out with me, which was really cool. It was awesome being able to actually meet people in person and not just exchange fist bumps via Instagram. One follower in particular, who shall remain nameless @thesituasian, kept bringing me BEER instead of FOOD! Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful and they didn't go to waste, but when you are working a booth at Tent City, you don't have that much time to eat! I was also even able to meet some celebrities too, including Tony Sentmanat, or as most people know him @realworldtactical.
He was there with a group talking to folks which was really cool. I really wanted to meet him, but I could’t really leave the booth because I was “technically” working... Lucky for me, one of my brothers and one of my OG followers was able to persuade Tony over to the booth. Man, what a TANK of a guy. I mean the dude is an absolute UNIT. Not super tall, but wide and SOLID. Nice, dude, too. I chatted with him for a few minutes. I was really grateful that he was willing to step away from whatever he was doing just to come talk to me. #respect
I was also so grateful to Marc and Morgen from Barbells and Badges for giving me the opportunity to help them out because it helped ME out too. As most of you know, a friend of mine was murdered in 2018, Jake Pickett. We worked together at Boone County and he was murdered in the line of duty. So last year, they put his name on The Wall, which meant that they would read off his name at the Blue Light Ceremony. The Blue Light Ceremony is an event put on that honors the fallen and pays respect to those that went before. I would have never been able to make it to the ceremony to hear Jake’s name called if it wasn’t for Marc and Morgen. I am forever indebted to them for that opportunity. I also got to spend some time with my good friends from that department that I don’t get to see that often anymore. (My new department is hours away, so we don’t get together that often.) It was an incredible experience, and I am so blessed to have memories of it. Check out the gallery below!
I’ll be honest, I didn't really have a direction to go with this post, it was simply to get on here and write a little bit. Reminisce about the time I had at Police Week last year, and to express how grateful I am that I live in a nation that honors it’s police like the United States of America does.
I love my job, and I am so proud to say that I am a police officer. Most guys almost hide it, but let's face it: we are public servants. It’s the job you signed up for. It’s thankless, it’s hard, it’s even cruel sometimes. But, we signed up for it for a reason. Not everyone could do this job, and I believe that with everything in me. I believe that we do this job because we are the only people who can do this job. (And I’m speaking to the 99% of us, not the 1% that are just assholes, because those exist too…)
Now, I know what you might be thinking “Oh, well, he thinks he’s such a badass cop, blah, blah, blah…” If you are thinking that, you'd be wrong. When I say that we are the only ones who can do this job, I mean that it takes a special kind of person. You have to be able to be handing out candy to kids while they are Trick-or-Treating in one minute and the next you are in a foot pursuit with some guy (real story)
and then go RIGHT back to handing out candy like nothing happened. Sometimes you have to be the one that knocks on a parent’s door and tells them that their child won’t be coming home tonight because they were killed in a car accident. And other times you have to be the one that arrests an abusive husband. The wide array of things that a normal day to day cop sees is WAY beyond what people actually think we do. We have to be hard sometimes and soft others. We are constantly forced to change and adapt due to new laws, new policies, and different situations.
Long story short, whether you love us or hate us, whether you believe it or not, the police are here to protect and serve. Thats the job. We have this week to honor our fallen brothers and sisters and to celebrate what we do, because it is an integral and necessary part of this great nation.
Wow, kind of got off track there but ya know what, I’ll allow it.
Like I said before, I didn't really have a direction or anything for this post, just wanted to chat a little bit about Police Week. So there ya have it.
I hope y'all have a great week and don't forget to subscribe to my website so you get email notifications when I put up a new blog post!
As always, thanks for reading and watch your six.
-Logan
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