After first reading and then seeing on TV about the families of the four slain Lakewood officers, bringing a lawsuit against Pierce County, I could understand the pain they must be going through. But then the feedback was brutal, and unnecessary, because it was their attorney who put the price tag on it, not the families. All they were asking for was stronger reform in the jails, and not greed, like the people writing into the papers and calling into the radio stations were saying.

The families of Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Ronald Owens, Gregory Richards and Tina Griswold are still in a lot of pain over their losses, while the rest of us have continued on with our lives. These families are trying to put their lives back together, without their loved ones there to help. The pain they feel will not go away, in a few short months. It can and will take years.

Although we have suffered a loss of a loved one, who wasn’t in law enforcement, in 1980, the pain still remains. Less now, but it is still there. Those who are so critical can go on with their lives and see and talk to their loved ones every day, but these families don’t have that privilege. They have to face the unknown in their daily lives. The children who were old enough to know their parent, who was taken from them, will have a very hard time realizing and wondering, why? The little ones will be looking for that parent who played with them, laughed with them and put them to bed. The little ones will never see the parent walk through that front door again. This is what these families are going through.

Pat Gee, Federal Way