Letter - Thin Blue Line

R.I.P.

Sergeant Craig Johnson

End of watch 6/30/2020

 Officer Aurash Zarkeshan

Critical condition, please pray. 

 From the Tulsa County Sheriff' office:

On June 29th, Tulsa Police Sgt. Craig Johnson and Officer Aurash Zarkeshan were each shot multiple times during an early morning traffic stop.  Sgt. Craig Johnson was pronounced dead on June 30, 2020 and Officer Zarkeshan continues to fight for his life.

The tragedy of all this is plain to see, as Sgt. Johnson leaves behind a beloved family, friends, and his law enforcement family.

I want all who read this to look even deeper into this tragedy, because there will be no protests. Law enforcement will not paint all of our citizens with a broad brush and call them “all killers”. The media will not continue to carry the stories of these two law enforcement officers, or others like them until the court process begins… and even then it will be a paragraph at best.

No, their heroism and sacrifice will be memorialized in the most honored and cherished of ways. It will be chiseled in the hearts and minds of those with whom they worked and served, as well as the members of this community who value their sacrifice. 

What I can tell you with great certainty, is that law enforcement will go back to work, serving and protecting, despite broken hearts and the continuous negative rhetoric carried on by those who will never truly understand what sacrifice means.

These two men were human beings like the rest of us. They had families, they had friends, they had hobbies, they had human emotions of love, anger, fright and sadness, and just like the rest of us, they were flawed. But what made them special is they chose to serve their community by taking a sacred oath that ends with “with my life if need be”.

Policing is seeing the best and worst of humanity. Policing is seeing human tragedy on a daily basis;  whether its murder scenes, speaking with a battered woman, taking an abused child out of the only home they have ever known, or listening to a citizen berate you simply because we wear a badge. But then those same citizens will call you hours later because they need your help. 

By the way, this is just an example of the day in the life of a cop.

After all of this, a cop must go home and be a father, mother, husband or wife.

I write this post with a heavy heart, void of anger. Law enforcement is fully aware the majority of citizens support us and see the need for police.  I truly believe the “police are the public and public are the police”, and that you cannot have one without the other.  I write this as a stark reminder that we as citizens of Tulsa and of the United States of America can no longer afford to be the “silent majority”.

Please hold Sgt. Johnson’s family in your thoughts and prayers, so they may have the strength to endure the loss of their husband, father and son. Pray for God to grant the strength to Officer Zarkeshan to recover from his wounds.

To my fellow law enforcement officers, I ask you to remember this:

You are an elite class of humanity. You are the guardians of public safety, the line between chaos and peace. You are in the unique position to save lives and change them for the better, for which there is no greater honor. 

May God bless each and every one of you!

Sheriff Vic Regalado