WASHINGTON — First one phone sounded. Then another. Then, all of them went off.
Spaghetti and lasagna plates were pushed aside at a restaurant table — a familiar scene to law enforcement families who often have meals and events interrupted with news of emergencies.
Cpl. Shawn Kelly had been shot in a Denham Springs parking lot on May 11, just as Baton Rouge area police officers and sheriff’s deputies were gathering for the first meal of their trip to the annual National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
Most knew Kelly and wanted details about his condition, how his wife was faring, and how the incident went down. Most of all, they hoped his name would stay off of the list of fallen officers they were there to commemorate.
The Baton Rouge contingent of officers, along with thousands of uniformed officers from across the nation, had come to attend an annual ceremony during which new names are added to a roll of 23,000 officers killed in the line of duty since 1786.
Two Louisiana names were added this year. They are Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Nick Pepper, who was killed April 2 when his vehicle was intentionally rammed by a suspect near Thibodaux, and East Baton Rouge Parish Sgt. Nick Tullier, who was ambushed in 2016 on Airline Highway in Baton Rouge. Tullier was shot three times but lingered before dying in May 2022.
Deputy Sheriff Brad Garafola, Baton Rouge Police Department Cpl. Montrell Jackson and Officer Matthew Gerald, all shot and killed in the same ambush, already have their names engraved on the monument.
While firearm killings of officers remained high nationally, line-of-duty deaths overall fell 61% to 226 last year, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Sixty-four officers have died from gunshots in each of the past two years. The average death toll for the decade between 2010 and 2020 was 53. And of 135 officers attacked so far this year, 15 were killed.
The memorial services kicked off National Police Week, which was established in 1962 by a joint resolution of Congress. Congress marked the occasion with several bills.
“They have our backs every single day,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson. “It’s important that we have their backs every single day.”
This being Washington, legislative efforts come with accusations of nefarious motives of partisans on the other side of the aisle. Cynics could say that lawmakers might benefit from the anger management and de-escalation instruction that is now a standard part of police training.
One bill, H.R. 2494, linked crime and the border — two issues Republicans want to hang on Democrats despite each having lingered for decades without resolution regardless of the party in charge.
“Biden’s border crisis continues to see a massive influx of illegal immigrants crossing our border, and law enforcement agents on the front lines are paying the price,” the Republican majority argued. The GOP cited an assault in March and a border patrol agent being punched in November as reasons to rush a law to deport undocumented immigrants who strike law enforcement.
A second, House Concurrent Resolution 40, expressed support for local law enforcement and condemned efforts to dismantle local police agencies.
Democrats weren’t particularly opposed to the resolution. But House Republicans wanted to add provisions that Democrats argued would chill complaints people made about police behavior.
Rep. Anthony D’Espositio, R-New York, who sponsored the amendment, said that anyone who didn’t vote for the bill was a coward. “They want to see drugs and violence reign on our streets,” he said. Sixty-two Democratic members and 10 Republicans voted against his amendment.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-New York, pointed out that the bill did little more than make partisan points.
The resolution passed 301-119, with 87 Democrats voting in favor.
Both measures now head to the Senate for consideration.
Over in the Senate, the upper chamber approved a resolution designating this year’s National Police Week as May 14 to May 20.
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, the Lafayette Republican, has worked in law enforcement on municipal, parish and military levels. He wasn’t publicly involved in the Police Week bills.
But Higgins did set the scene for his colleagues: “This week when we honor my brothers and sisters of the thin blue line as a nation, I ask you all to just reflect upon that simple fact these men and women are American human beings with families and they are serving their community.”
Kelly, who had been helping a motorist change a tire when was he called to intervene in the angry confrontation that led to his shooting, remained in critical condition as of Friday.
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