EDITORIAL: Shooting is a reminder about dangers of public safety work
Apr. 20—Details remain few and a place like Nyssa, Oregon, can seem like a long way away from La Grande and Union County, but the news a police officer in that small town was gunned down Saturday, April 15, resonates across the region and is a reminder just how dangerous law enforcement can be.
The policeman who was shot, Joseph Johnson, 43, was working as a reserve officer when he responded to a call about an individual threatening to damage property. As a reserve officer, at least in Nyssa, Johnson was unpaid. He was working because he cared about the community, not because he wanted to make money.
The call was in many ways routine, and to understand how it went horribly wrong will take a lot of time to decipher. The only good news is the alleged shooter, who was at large, was arrested April 17.
What this incident showcases is the seriousness of the job of a police officer. More times than not, calls for service do not go awry and are solved in a peaceful manner.
More often than not, a potentially violent episode is concluded with no serious harm to anyone.
Yet the job of our police is a dangerous one. There is no getting around that fact. We tend to funnel our tax dollars to our emergency services and then forget about them — until there is an emergency. When there is a crisis — a house burning or someone threatening to commit a violent act — we expect our police and fire agencies to be there.
And they always are. They respond to an emergency and do the best they can to help. That kind of selfless service is not only rare in today's America, but it is a commendable element to our Republic.
Yet we should not so easily forget these brave men and women when no emergency is evident. We should remember they stand ready and do so under the threat of a situation going wrong, as happened in Nyssa.
We owe our police, our firefighters, a debt we cannot repay. Sure, they draw a wage from taxpayers, but just how many of us would want to face down an individual with a gun in the night or run into a burning building?
The shooting in Nyssa is a reminder that our emergency service personnel put their lives on the line every day. For us.
