Blue line honoured
THEY are the men and women in blue who often endure the dirty end of the stick.
But for a short moment yesterday Queenslanders paused to say thank you for doing the job no one else can nor wants to do.
Dozens of police personnel from across the Far North marched along the Cairns Esplanade to St John’s Anglican Church to commemorate Police Remembrance Day.
The annual occasion marks the Feast of the Archangel, St Michael, who was always fighting evil.
Yesterday was also an opportunity to pay tribute to the 140 fallen Queensland Police Service Officers, killed in the line of duty.
This includes the loss, 10 years on, of Constable Sally Urquhart, last stationed at Bamaga, who was killed in a plane crash near the Lockhart River en route to Townsville.
Among those remembered were Constable Urquhart, 28, who was killed with 14 others in the plane crash on May 7, 2005, and Cairns officer SenConstable Christopher Barwise, who died in a motorcycle crash in Cairns on July 19, 2005.
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Acting Supt Rolf Straatemeier said policing was a dangerous job but officers were well-trained to meet any service that the public asked of them.
“Sometimes our officers don’t know what they’re going to walk into, day in and day out,’’ he said.
“But our officers are well trained.
“They are prepared for anything and hopefully that stands in stead for the future.”
Barron River MP Craig Crawford, who worked previously as a paramedic, said yesterday was an opportunity for Queensland’s police to be paid the recognition they deserved.
“They put their lives on the line every day,’’ he said.
“When other emergency services can’t handle a situation, it’s police that have to handle that situation, whether it’s riots, whether it’s an individual, or whether it’s a domestic violence incident.
“Police often get the dirty end of the stick and the rest of us stand back and let them deal with it.
“That’s the impresses me.”
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