Endorsements and editorials are made solely by the ownership of this newspaper. As is the case at most newspapers across the nation, The Spokesman-Review newsroom and its editors are not a part of this endorsement process. (Learn more.)
Editorial: Death of Moore, ‘good cop’ shows magnitude of risks
If you follow the news, you may have forgotten there are police officers like Greg Moore.
The sergeant with the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, whose life will be celebrated at Lake City High School today, embodied the expression “good cop” in everything he did.
Moore did the hard things, like firing his weapon when a suspect in a domestic violence call started shooting. If only he could have done as much when attacked Tuesday.
But Moore did the soft things, too.
In 2002, early in his 16-year tenure with the department, Moore and another officer invited students who cruised Sherman Avenue to test their ear-splitting car stereos against a decibel meter.
When one student’s Beastie Boys blast topped out at 77, Moore’s comment: “That all you got?”
To help lower the din, he also introduced students to the merchants suffering from the wall of sound. It’s easier to talk when you can hear each other.
Those are the connections you make as a school resource officer at Lake City, and as a patrol officer.
Moore was also a training officer and, one time anyway, a fireman. In 2007, he used a fire extinguisher to knock down an arson fire until fire crews rolled to the scene.
He protected his community, and he served his community.
And yet officers like Moore go largely unnoticed until the magnitude of their commitment, and the dreadful consequences, become so awfully apparent. He is, remarkably, the first Coeur d’Alene police officer to die in the line of duty.
His death has shaken not just his city, but the larger regional community of fellow officers and firefighters.
A photograph of the procession that returned his body to Coeur d’Alene from Spokane shows something remarkable.
The escort occupies the outside lane for hundreds of yards. Not a single vehicle is visible in the other lane. Oncoming traffic has pulled over in deference. The highway is empty.
And then there are the makeshift memorials, where flowers and flags have multiplied in memoriam, and the contributions for Moore’s family, and the embrace Coeur d’Alene has wrapped around grieving officers overwhelmed by the support.
Those outpourings will likely crest today, with standing-room-crowds expected at Lake City High and satellite sites for the overflow. Sunday, cruelly, will be a mournful Mother’s Day for his wife, Lindy; and their son Dylon and daughter Gemma.
And Monday, and beyond?
We are confident members of the Coeur d’Alene community and those sworn to protect them will return to their daily routines with a new appreciation for each other.
The magnitude of the risks officers take, overlooked over decades when none made the ultimate sacrifice, have terribly come home. If there was any division between citizens and police, it is gone now.
May the good sergeant rest in peace.