Annual police memorial service held in Holmen

Several law officers in Wisconsin and Minnesota have been killed while on duty in the past month. They were among the officers remembered Monday at a yearly law enforcement memorial service hosted in Holmen.

The village administrator of Holmen, Scott Heinig, said America has changed in recent years, and has become more violent, referring to the recent shooting attack on a young girl and her parents in North Carolina, after a basketball rolled into a neighbor’s yard.

Heinig said that communities need heroes, like law officers, to stand in the face of evil but, he argued, that police openings get fewer responses than in the past.

“Twenty-five years ago, we used to get between 50 and 100 applications for every position, ” Heinig told a small audience at the Halfway Creek bandshell. “Today, we’re lucky if we get two, or even one.”

Retired Vernon County Sheriff John Spears spoke at the event, recalling the public support he saw while attending a recent funeral for an officer, who was killed.

“The people that lined up along the way, the people that came out of the community, of all makes and models of each community, to represent them and their communities to show their respect for a fallen officer,” Spears said. “That’s why we do what we do.”

The brief morning ceremony included a salute on gunfire by La Crosse police officers and the playing of “Taps” and “Amazing Grace.”