Mayor Strickland,
As the daughter of a Memphis city police Officer, I would like to express how sad, scared, and disappointed I am that you have been elected mayor. I did not vote for you. I voted for Mike Williams because I wanted a mayor who would stand behind our police officers and make decisions that would keep them safe, allowing them to return to their families when their watch ends.
Unfortunately, we are stuck with you. I don’t trust your decision-making skills for the police department. The city council? mayor’s office, and local news organizations are notorious for treating police officers like junkyard dogs – but instead of starving them from food, you starve them and their families from peace of mind.
It is painfully obvious you have no idea what it is like to be a police officer or the family member of a police officer.
Let me help you out.
When was the last time you ran into a home to pull an adult man off of a 2 year old baby whose head is being stomped on? Have you ever been called to the scene of an 85 year old woman who was just robbed, beaten, and raped? When was the last time you tried to get a 16 year old to put down the shotgun he has in his mouth. Just as you think you’ve diffused the situation, the kid changes his mind and blows his head off while you stand less than 6 feet away. And you’re the one that has to tell his family they just lost their son. When you get home from that shift you still find bits of brain matter and skull fragments stuck in your hair and on your uniform.
As a child, did your ears ache for the sound of Velcro getting pulled from a Kevlar vest letting you know your dad made it home safe? Mine did.
Do you know what it’s like to watch someone make decisions for someone you love that could get them killed? I do.
I’ve been living with cancer for the last 15 years of my life, never once worrying about dying from it, but every single day since 1983 when my dad put his badge on I have been worried.
How do you not understand that by taking away benefits its making an already hard job even harder because there is no long-term incentive for new recruits to come work in the 2nd most violent city in the U.S. Police officers face more than public safety concerns – they also face stress, which can negatively impact their physical and mental health.
The University of Buffalo did a study called the Buffalo Cardio Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS). It was conducted over a 5 year period to examine the effects of stress on 464 police officers. The findings revealed that police officers experience daily psychological stress that puts them at an increased risk of various long-term health effects.
These include:
• 25% of officers had metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
• Officers experiencing the highest level of self-reported stress were four and six times more likely to have poor sleep quality.
• Suicide rates are more than eight times higher in working officers than in officers who had retired or had left the force. 250-300 police officers commit suicide every year although it’s believed to be closer to 500 (only 250-300 are documented).
• Officers were at an increased risk of developing Hodgkin’s lymphoma and brain cancer after 30 years of service.
• The average life expectancy in the United States in 76 years old. The average life expectancy for a police officer is 66 or 10.6 years after retirement.
By eliminating health insurance for retirees you are pretty much saying they are not worth it and you do not care about their well-being.
I want you to help me understand how, as Christians, you and the city council can essentially place a monetary value on the lives of the men and women who have sacrificed so much to protect this city.
If our officers cant count on you how can the citizens?
-Shannon Hannah
