President Biden began his Sunday afternoon doing precisely what Norwood Police Chief William Brooks hopes most individuals do annually with the approaching of Nationwide Peace Officers Memorial Day.

“I believe folks, who suppose politically about no matter position the police might play, on a day like at the moment I hope they a minimum of have an appreciation or understanding that the people who took the job did so as a result of every one in every of them needed to be useful,” Brooks mentioned.

That’s exactly what Biden requested the nation to do from the West Entrance of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., the place he was joined by the households of 563 officers who died within the line of responsibility to mark the annual occasion commemorating legislation enforcement officers killed on the job.

Biden mentioned that he didn’t know the fallen, however everyone knows the type of folks they have been.

“Though I didn’t personally know your husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, I knew them,” Biden mentioned.

“They have been the primary ones to run in to assist when everybody else ran away … even in grade college, they’d leap in when another person was being threatened or being bullied, whatever the odds. Give it some thought, it was a part of their DNA.”

In accordance with Jim Machado, government director of the Massachusetts Police Affiliation, that’s precisely who law enforcement officials are.

“Irrespective of the obstacles, the women and men of legislation enforcement swimsuit up every day to guard the residents they took an oath to guard,” he mentioned by way of e mail.

Machado was in D.C. for actions surrounding Nationwide Police Week, which happens annually within the week of Might across the fifteenth, which is Nationwide Peace Officers Memorial Day, following its passage into legislation in 1962.

Machado mentioned he attended a candlelight vigil on Friday for the households of over 600 officers whose names have been added to the Nationwide Regulation Enforcement Officers Memorial.

“It is necessary annually to pause, replicate and honor these which can be not with us and let their family members know we mourn with them and salute their sacrifice,” he mentioned.

Brooks mentioned law enforcement officials are the sort of people that run in when others run away, a phrase he acknowledged was cliche.

“All of them took the job as a result of they have been keen to hurry to an emergency. I hope folks pause for a minute and simply take into consideration that,” he mentioned.

Brooks identified the officers responding to a mass capturing this weekend in Buffalo, N.Y., have been on scene in lower than two minutes.

“How many individuals would rush to go there and interact,” he requested.

Biden additionally referenced the capturing in Buffalo, expressing his condolences to the households of the victims. He mentioned he didn’t have to clarify that kind of loss to any of the households gathered Sunday.

“Nobody understands this greater than folks sitting in entrance of me … about how these of us in Buffalo really feel at the moment, after they bought the decision,” he mentioned.

Final 12 months, 617 officers have been killed, in keeping with the Officer Down Memorial Web page. Of these killed, 440 have been misplaced to COVID-19.