Trooper remembered during police memorial program

The sacrifices of all law enforcement officerwas remembered during the Greater Milwaukee Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony May 6, but one name was mentioned several times: Trevor Casper.

Casper was a Wisconsin State Patrol Trooper who was shot and killed in Fond du Lac March 24 while trying to apprehend a bank robbery and murder suspect. The Milwaukee program was one of several police memorial programs that will be occurring over the next few weeks. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn asked for a moment of silence for Casper. Gov. Scott Walker noted that Casper, 21, was the youngest member of his graduating class at the State Patrol Academy.

“He was literally, on that night, on his first solo patrol,” Walker said. “It goes to show it doesn’t matter if it’s on the first call or the last day or the day before tomorrow, all men and women in uniform are constantly in harm’s way.” Walker added the program is a moment “to remember not just the death of those we honor today in Milwaukee and Wisconsin and across this country, we remember the lives — the lives of service, to show what is means to protect and serve, to eliminate the threat to others, to do what each of these men and women were ultimately born to do.”

Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said he is thankful to join law enforcement to honor those for whom the phrase “protect and serve” defines their legacy and inspires those of us who remember them.

“We respect the jobs they did, we grieve with their families, we remember the sacrifices they made, and we think about what might have been,” Schimel said. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett noted that law enforcement officers make a sacrifice as far as missing family events so others can celebrate with their families. “We never dream there would be an instance when they would make the ultimate sacrifice, that they could no longer spend any time with their families on birthdays or family events,” Barrett said.

He said the program was a time to thank the families of officers for their sacrifices. “I can’t imagine how it is for those of you who have lost a loved one what you went through,” Barrett said.





Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke offered more pointed comments about what has been said about law enforcement within the past year. Clarke described law enforcement officers as “beacons of the virtue of leadership, of civic-mindedness. Of the willingness to sacrifice personal gain and, above all, the bravery that swells within the few.”

He then referenced those in law enforcement who were killed in the line of duty and asked “what must they be thinking now?” “As their profession is denigrated, as their brotherhood is slandered, they lie in eternal sleep unable to rise to defend their reputations and the reputations of those who work in their stead, and unable to reassure those they love and left that this continues to be an honorable profession in need of no transformation as some with hidden agendas would suggest,” Clarke said.

He then added that “people who truly support the police just don’t show up today to flaunt their sensitivity, they have our backs every day.”

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