I did end up sending a nice, professionally written, letter to the Mayors office with my story. I'll let you guys know how I'm politely blown off on Mon. or Tue. (Sorry, as I've grown older I have less and less faith in elected officials.)
I only wish the decision makers realized the truth...
A lot of us in this "community" are public servants. (PD/FD/Etc.)
Even more of us have, or had, relatives who worked for one of those agencies.
Of the rest of us, NO group of people have a higher regard for members of those agencies.
99.9% of us aren't stupid enough to get in their way, even if we heard some "cool" call.
We have a much lower percentage of members with a criminal history than the general public.
I could keep going, but that would just be overkill.
I do know if I didn't have this hobby, I wouldn't have donated (let's just say a lot of money) to the families of fallen officers.