Bike Ride for Slain Officers

A pall was cast over the whole event by Sunday's tragedy:

• A normally somber event here was even more so Sunday as police officers gathered for an annual bikeathon to raise funds for families of slain officers following news the third Chicago police officer this year had been gunned down that morning.

  “We really lost an absolutely terrific man, not just a great police officer, but a great man,” said Chicago Police Sgt. Darren Easterday, who worked with Bailey at the First District for about three years. “It’s crime without fear,” he said after hearing that he was in uniform when he was killed.

  Police officers and families of slain officers took part in the ride.

  “It’s like a real bad nightmare, but it’s real,” said Donna Marquez, whose brother, officer Donald Marquez was shot and killed in the line of duty in 2002. “The department is in shock. We don’t know what to say.”

  “It’s really hard to get over the trauma. It seems like the trauma is continuous,” said Chicago police officer Yolanda Nowells.

  Angel Mendez, who has been a Chicago cop for 10 years, lamented what he labeled the emergence of a new type of criminal over the years.

  “Unfortunately in this day and age right now, criminals that are out there, they don’t have any respect for life, let alone for police officers,” he said.

Respect? We'd settle for a healthy dose of fear and 2,000 more cops so we weren't running 33% empty beat cars on midnights.