[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/main.asp?Sectio...amp;TM=45954.58

Police Show Solidarity

Jason Miller
The News-Dispatch

They drove up Michigan Boulevard shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday, emergency lights flashing and sirens blaring, in a slow-moving processional meant to honor a dead brother.

When they reached Willard Avenue in front of the Indiana State Prison, they got out of their police vehicles - some unmarked, many bearing the colors of departments from Gary to Mishawaka to Muncie - and slipped on brightly colored T-shirts with a picture of a badge and the words "In Loving Memory of Gregg Wm. Winters, Never Forgotten" emblazoned on the front.

As they exited their police vehicles, the officers joined friends and family members in front of the high walls of the prison, numbering more than 50 by the end of the night.

Not since the execution of another convicted cop-killer - Gregory Resnover in 1994 - has the parking lot in front of the prison been as full of supporters at a state execution as it was Thursday for the execution of Michael Lambert, who killed Winters inside his cruiser in Muncie in December 1990.

"We're here not to support the death penalty so much as we're here to support the family and remember Gregg," said Muncie Police Detective Brad Wiemer as he stood outside the prison. "Just the sight of all these people and the cruisers is very impressive. In such a horrible tragedy, it's nice to see support come out like this."

Among the more than 50 people supporting the Winters family Thursday were members of an organization whose Indiana chapter was started by Winters' widow, Molly.

The group - Indiana Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) - supplied the T-shirts being worn, as well as the blue glow sticks supporters cracked and held aloft at midnight, the hour in which the execution took place.

COPS is a support group for the survivors of officers who have died in the line of duty. Molly Winters recently served as the national organization's president.

Assistant Jasper, Ind., Police Chief Jeff Carie, who came to Michigan City to join the Winters supporters Thursday, lauded Molly Winters for her work with the COPS program and the way she's handled the death of her husband.

"Molly went from losing a husband and raising her kids alone to being the rock for hundreds of other families that have lost family members," Carie said. "The department was devastated. The family was devastated. But Molly became part of the team. She's so valuable because she can tell people who've lost someone 'I've been there. I've walked in your shoes.'"

Contact reporter Jason Miller at jmiller@thenewsdispatch.com.

[Max Main]

In these situations, a false dichotomy is often presented that I would like to rebut. The false dichotomy is that one is either against the execution of the prisoner or supportive of the victim's family. As in all false dichotomies, there are positions other than those two.

I am supportive of the family and wish them well, especially is light of the pain they have suffered.

I am against the killing of the prisoner, as has been said elsewhere, because it is no longer a case of self-defense.

And by the way, here is another false dichotomy: One either supports the President or is against the troops. That one is just absurd!