Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, to be a police officer, it is not something we do; it is someone that we are. I was a military police officer in the Army and went on to serve for 12 years as a uniformed police officer, 12 years as a SWAT operator, and I buried far too many brothers. There is a time in every man's heart where we have to make a decision of what we are going to do with our life that day, that week, that month, with our families, with our career, with our life. As I reflect upon my career as a police officer prior to my congressional service, I think about the 8\1/2\ years of night shift and the exchange that my wife and I would have every evening as she returned from work and I was preparing to leave. She would have my little meal prepared, a brown bag, to take with me. And she would say: ``Be safe. Come home to me.'' And I would say: ``Don't worry about me. Worry about the other guy.'' Every police officer has a little exchange like that with their loved one before they begin their shift, because we don't know if we are coming home. We recognize that the life we have chosen to serve our fellow man is an effort somehow to become better men ourselves. It is an effort to serve a Lord that we are not quite worthy of. I have trained or helped train many officers through the years, and they would ask me sometimes about this section of the manual or that section of the manual, and I would always tell them the same: Your manual is 1,483 pages.…”