Officer Down Memorial Page

I am back in school at UNM and studying Peace & Social Justice. The other day in class a fellow student chose to write and speak about how horrible police are. What they did not know was that I worked with and was a friend of John Chase. I asked my professor to speak to the class, which he agreed, and I recounted that horrible morning. You see, I was only a few miles away from John, we were both working alone in separate squad cars that day. I remember as the call for help came over the radio and arriving too late, John laying dead and the suspect having just been shot by my sergeant. I remember how hard it was to go to work every night, how hard at detail it was for each of us to get through our briefing. You could tell most of us were holding back tears. I really cared about John. He was a bright light to all of us. Young and full of life. I often wish to this day I had only been a few blocks closer, but I was not. Only a few seconds and maybe me or one of my fellow officers might have saved him.

I told this story in class barely able to hold back my tears and managed to get through the story. I made sure they all knew about how the citizens of Dallas that morning chanted and encouraged the suspect to shoot and kill John.

I hardly looked up when I told this story, but when I did I could see everyone's head down, in shame. You could see some were close to tears. The class was quiet and no one said a word, except a few of my classmates came over to me and hugged me.

John, your death was so senseless and painful to us all, but if there is any good that came from loosing you, it was my being able to share this story. For 16 young people at the University New Mexico, I believe it changed forever how they think of police. Love you John.

Jack G. Harris, Sr. Corporal
Dallas Police Deparetment, Retired
April 1, 2012

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