24TH ANNUAL LITURGY BLUE MASS
They turned out en mass, as they always
do, for the 24th Annual Liturgy of the Blue
Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred
Heart in Newark, but this year’s memorial
seemed to take on an even more monumental
impact.
In addition to the Pipes and Drums and
Honor Guards, which came from, among
other agencies, the Port Authority of New York
and New Jersey, the NJ State Police and Union
County Corrections Local 199, law enforcement officers filled the church to capacity on
Nov. 10 as a moment of tribute to those lost
in the line of duty and a moment of strength.
A thick blue line formed that might have
even stretched all the way to New York where
NJ State PBA members accompanied their
support trailer and stood at the funeral for
NYPD Sergeant Paul Tuozzolo, who was shot
and killed in the line of duty on Nov. 4.
The Blue Mass offered one of its biggest
memorials ever to remember the 15th
anniversary of 9/11 and the 37 Port Authority
officers lost in that tragedy, the officers lost in
the attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge in
August, Senior Corrections Officer Nick Semmon and New Jersey State Troopers Eli
McCarson and Sean Cullen.
And the emotion culminated with remembering beloved Brother Joe Franklin, the
Retired Roxbury Lieutenant who was lost in an
accident when riding in the 2016 Police Unity
Tour. d
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NEW JERSEY COPS
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NOVEMBER 2016