May 31st 2008
The memorial tattoos on Gary police Officer Keith Richardson and Sgt. Brian Colbert represent their connection with their fellow Gary police, and their distance from everyone else. Colbert feels he only can talk to his co-workers about his job. When Richardson mentions a time a man shot at him, he does it casually, the way another person might recall a minor car accident or a dispute with the bank.
"Until you've walked in these boots," Richardson begins.
"You'll never know," Colbert finishes.
Richardson - a slim, efficient uniformed officer - bears a tattoo for Dorian Rorex, a Gary detective shot dead by a drug suspect in 1998. The big, jocular, talkative Colbert carries a forearm full of tattoos that memorialize all fallen officers. Colbert has one tattoo specifically for a close friend, Cpl. Louis "Boochie" Donald Jr., who died in a car wreck during a police chase in 2001.
They speak the cop dialect: weary and proud, protective of society and disturbed by society. Most of all, they feel linked to other police. Others can't understand, they say.
"The reason that I exist is my two daughters, and I don't have them tattooed on here," Richardson said.
Read the remainder of NWI Times News reporter DAN HINKEL's article here.
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