Word: atkinsons
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Several weeks have passed since Atkinson's murder, but you wouldn't know it to look around the room. Officers wear stickers on their belts or radios: IN MEMORY OF 5930. Atkinson's badge number. And now it hits you that these are kids. The age range is 24 to 34. At 28, Atkinson was the senior officer among 10. The one they looked up to. The one who couldn't die. When he did, they began wondering how they could be crazy enough to do this job. And then three weeks later, officer James Snedigar was shot dead...
This kind of work provides a vital, unseen ballast as Phoenix is rocked by Atkinson's murder and by the ugly reaction from some quarters that there should be a crackdown on "the Mexicans" who should be sent packing. What could be a breakdown in race relations is defused by a quiet, powerful counter-demonstration--a defining moment in city history...
...response to the racist outbursts on talk radio, Hispanic leaders called for a peace march and a prayer vigil for Tuesday evening, four days after Atkinson's murder, with such short notice that no one knew how many people might show up. At 6 p.m., they started to gather in a field not far from the bar where Atkinson's chase had begun: adults and children, first in a trickle and then in a swelling stream. Michael Hernandez Nowakowski, a radio-station general manager, had bought hundreds of candles, and people began lighting them...
...people had gathered, and now police officers were joining in, clearing a path for a twilight procession along the course of Atkinson's pursuit. Children carried photographs of Atkinson. A mariachi band played De Colores, a song about the rainbow after the storm...
...marchers approached the site where Atkinson died, some left flowers or novena candles; others left poems or notes of thanks, many in Spanish. And then Davila spoke, in Spanish, then in English, thanking the throng for turning the place of Atkinson's death into sacred ground. State senator Joe Eddie Lopez followed him, asking Davila to tell his officers "that we love the work that you do, that we are slow to express it as much as we should, but that the safety of our children and our families rests in your hands...