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“ They already knew Matthew Tarentino,” the attorney general celebrated in his funeral remarks and continued,“ 35,000 is the number of law enforcement officers across the state. One is the number who stood out from the rest that day. There was one whose star shined brighter than any of the other stars that morning.”
Porrino wants that star to keep shining. So three weeks after the awards and less than a week after Matt was lost, he announced a new $ 121,000 community policing grant the state will be awarding.
Matthew Tarentino’ s badge number is 121.
32 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JUNE 2017
Tributes to Detective Tarentino came in fast and fervent from the moment word passed that he was lost. They will extend well beyond these pages. But some, more than others, remind: That was Matt.
On the day of the wake, a procession brought Matt through his Somerville neighborhood where blue line flags lined the street. One of those flags flew from Melonie Fabiano’ s front lawn. She lives across the street from the Tarentino family and shared Matt’ s passion for running. Melonie and her three daughters ran a 5K on June 11 in which they wore shirts they had made up with“ SPD”( for the Summit Police Department) on one sleeve and“ 121” on the other.“ There were some tears, but we did very well in the race because we know he was with us,” Fabiano recognized.
Certainly, the defining tribute came from Vicki. Local 55 State Delegate Freeman shared that he has never known anybody as devoted to his family as Matt. Call it devotion, faith, love, honor, community pride or probably a combination of all of that, but it has built a strength in Vicki that enabled her to greet the masses for eight hours at the wake and offer everybody a consoling hug.
Faith, love, honor and strength brought Vicki to the pulpit at the Church of the Immaculate Conception where she conveyed with passion, humor and just a little bit of sorrow that,“ Matt had faith and understanding of faith more than anyone I ever encountered. His faith has made me stand here today and will let me stand here tomorrow.”
What made her want to stand up and speak no doubt was her opportunity to offer a farewell from Matt that his Local, his department, his community, his profession and his state so much cherished. And Vicki did so with a message to her boys and that baby on the way that probably resonated for every law enforcement officer who knew, or knew of, Matt.
“ They get to say he is their father, and that’ s something that cannot be taken away,” Vicki assured.“ And that’ s the best gift they can be given.”
Attorney General Porrino expressed the gratitude for that gift the entire state seemed to feel by remarking to Vicki,“ Thank you for sharing him so that we could all see the light of his shining star.”
Porrino captured the power of Matt’ s star when he referenced a passage from Lincoln’ s Gettysburg address that reinforced the message Chief Weck, Lieutenant Proctor, Freeman, Amerman, Franks and Monsignor Brennan wanted to convey about his legacy.
“ It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us … we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion.”
The first, last and next measure of devotion should be to represent that uniform, make it look as good as it can be, make law enforcement look as good as it can and serve as respectfully and responsibly as the community needs. That was Matt. d