Written by: Matt Bunk
I’ve overseen the coverage of a few police funerals during the past 12 years. Unfortunately, in places such as Oakland and Phoenix, line-of-duty deaths are not as rare as in North Dakota.
But even for a battle-scarred reporter, it never gets any easier to watch brave public servants lose their lives senselessly. I realized that Thursday when I was standing on the sidewalk along Main Avenue waiting for Sgt. Steve Kenner’s procession to drive by.
I was holding everything together fairly well until I locked eyes with a deputy in the passenger seat of a Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department cruiser. After that, it was difficult to hold back the tears. Not sure why, but in that moment it hit me that all of these officers were thinking, “That could have been me.”
I didn’t know Kenner personally. He chased me away from a few bonfire parties when I was in high school, and he arrested some of my friends for petty crimes like skateboarding on public property.
He was notorious in some respects, and young miscreants routinely groaned immediately after hearing his name. Back then, we all knew that we had better watch our steps if Kenner was around.
But those young troublemakers grew up, and most of them came to respect the man whom they once dreaded as a sort of party-pooper.
In my brief interactions with him, he seemed like the kind of guy who believed strongly in the rule of law. He understood that he was part of a fragile barrier between order and chaos. And he performed his job with passion.
During his 32-year career, he probably saved dozens of lives directly, and perhaps hundreds indirectly. For that, he was most definitely a hero. We will all miss having him around to keep the peace, guard our roads and protect our families.
The fabled Thin Blue Line is now missing one of its strongest links. Our community has lost one of its staunchest defenders. And, perhaps worst of all, there is no way to make sense of what happened. There is no decent answer to the question “Why?”
I believe that if Kenner hadn’t done his job last Friday night, someone else would have been hurt or killed. There is no stopping crazy once it’s been set in motion. It would have taken an act of God to keep violence from erupting that night.
In some respects, Kenner took a bullet for all of us. And I think he would have done that even if he had forseen the outcome. Only heroes make sacrifices like that.
From all of us down here, thank you, 40. We are worse off without you.
-Matt Bunk is publisher of the Great Plains Examiner. He can be reached at .
This entry was posted in Matt Bunk's Column, OPINION. Bookmark the permalink.Well said. I recall a story from a person who once. Muttered the words f you Kennedy as he met h him driving in the opposite direction. Officer kenner flipped a u-turn to pull the driver over and let him know he could read lips as both his parents has some kind of ailment. He saws still nice enough to let the dummy off but let him now he was aware of his surroundings and he better be to!
Well said… Officer Kenner chased me out of a few parties also … My friends and I would talk about those days and how you had better watch for Kenner .. We all grew up and so did a respect for officer Kenner … Bismarck was a better place to live and grow up in because him ….