In thanks to those who serve and protect

There’s a quotation attributed to George Orwell that’s appropriate here.

“We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”

I would offer that we could add the word “women” to that

quotation without fear of contradiction.

On Jan. 29, Department of Corrections Officer Jayme Biendl, 34, was found strangled to death in the Monroe Correctional Complex Chapel. A prisoner at the complex, Byron Scherf, has been named the prime suspect.

I’m not sure how often we stop to think about the job of those who serve to protect us, but now would be a good time to do so. It’s been a tough year or so for them.

According to a report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, more than 160 officers died in the line of duty during 2010. That represented a significant increase from previous years.

The causes were many. Heart attacks, auto accidents, assaults, vehicular assaults, and gunfire were prominent categories. In 2011, the number has already reached 17.

These are the people who have stepped forward to help keep the veneer of civilization in place. The ones who, when things go south in a big way, begin heading toward the sounds of trouble — often alone — while the rest of us are looking for the exits.

They’re the ones who, daily, get to deal with the problems (major or minor) and the people (good, bad, and — sometimes — truly horrific) who cause the problems that the rest of us usually hear about in the news.

They’re the ones who try to prevent or, more often, get to see the results of the fights, accidents, robberies, break-ins, beatings, stabbings, shootings, rapes and murders.

Then, they get to go home and try to file all of it away somewhere in their heads in such a manner as to allow them to live a normal life with their families.

What happened at the Monroe Correctional Complex shows us that those who keep the individuals who have harmed society incarcerated also face danger every day and that such a job can be every bit as deadly as any other job in law enforcement.

There are two investigations going on just now.

The purpose of one investigation will be to find out what happened at the Monroe Correctional Complex. It will point out the measures needed and the tools required to ensure that such an incident doesn’t happen again. It will propose changes necessary to improve correctional officers’ safety. It will also help identify the costs of all of the above and report them to us.

Our job as those who sleep well because of the “rough” men and women who protect us is to let our legislators know that we want those changes made. That we want correctional officers to have the training and equipment necessary to keep them as safe as possible. That we want them to believe that they have the means necessary to ensure that, each day, they will go home safely when their watch is over.

The other investigation will be to determine if Byron Scherf was, in fact, the individual who killed Officer Biendl.

Mr. Scherf was already serving a life sentence with no possibility of release under our “three strikes” law. His long criminal history is nothing if not a litany of evil — kidnapping, rape, robbery, and assault. According to a story in this paper “A staff psychologist at Western State Hospital who examined Bryon Scherf more than 30 years ago predicted that no amount of treatment or incarceration would curb Scherf’s dangerousness.”

Should Scherf be found to have committed this crime, I’d offer that we’ve lost a vibrant, young, competent, productive individual who was serving her community. She’s now gone while Mr. Scherf is still using up valuable oxygen. Sorry, but, to me, the scales seem way out of balance.

That said, my thought if he’s found guilty, would be to put him on the express train to the hell he so richly deserves. Alternatively, if the law chooses not to bury him, stick him in the deepest cell available and, then, bury the key.

Either way, it’d let all of us sleep a lot better at night.

Larry Simoneaux lives in Edmonds. Send comments to larrysim@comcast.net.