BROOKHAVEN, Miss. — Twenty-five-year OTR driver Donald Copeland, 54, has long had a warm place in his heart for the “boys [and girls] in blue.”
And like many others in his hometown of Brookhaven, Mississippi, located 60 miles south of Jackson, he was tired of law enforcement getting killed in the line of duty.
Brookhaven has lost three officers in the past 18 months: William Durr, with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office; Corp. Zach Moak, with the Brookhaven Police Department; and Brookhaven Patrol Officer James White.
Durr was a good friend of Copeland’s, and was a church youth worker and a fellow Mason, Copeland said. Like the other two men, Durr lost his life when he was shot while checking out a case of domestic violence.
So Copeland decided to do something to remember these three and other men and women like them who put their lives on the line daily.
Held the night of November 30, Brookhaven’s annual Christmas parade seemed the ideal time to Copeland to deck out his white 2019 Freightliner Cascadia in blue Christmas lights, blue and silver garlands and wreaths.
Copeland has been with Swift Transportation for about two years, and they readily agreed to his plan. “They gave the A-OK to do it,” he said. “They were very much on board.”
He also added stickers saying “We Back the Boys in Blue” and “Heroes Are Never Forgotton” on either side of his sleeper.
Law enforcement of this southern town were not told they were being honored in the parade, although Copeland had contacted some relatives of the fallen officers.
A cadre of law enforcement were to lead the parade and unknown to them, Copeland’s Freightliner was staged to follow right behind them.
Copeland said the parade was “pretty emotional” for him as “this is an issue near and dear to my heart.”
All three of the fallen officers’ names were also on his truck, along with a fallen officer’s flag draped across the hood.
Amid the tinsel and lights, it was a somber reminder but a heart-felt one.
Copeland has driven commercial trucks off and on since he graduated from high school, starting out driving for his uncle in the summer months until his father died some 25 years ago. It was then that Copeland decided he would devote himself full time to driving over-the-road and he hasn’t regretted it.
“I owe a lot to trucking,” he said. Besides offering him a profession he loves, trucking was also what brought Copeland and his wife Candie together in 2000 in Commerce City, Colorado, a northern suburb of Denver.
She was driving for another trucking company, but one thing led to another and after they married, he moved with her to her hometown of Brookhaven.
Candie was among Brookhaven citizens cheering on her husband during the parade.
“We wanted to honor these gentlemen and stop the violence,” Donald Copeland said.
According to the National Law Enforcement Memorial fund, preliminary figures as of December 3 show 129 law enforcement killed so far this year. That’s compared with 122 last year, a 6 percent increase.
The names of the fallen include members of the FBI, state troopers, police and sheriff’s offices, juvenile justice department officers, department of corrections officers, department of homeland security officers, and wildlife and fisheries officers. Eight of them were women.
A total of 25 canine officers have also been killed in the line of duty this year.
Dorothy Cox is former assistant editor – now retired – of The Trucker, and a 20-plus-year trucking journalism veteran. She holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and a master’s degree in divinity. Cox has been in journalism since 1972. She has won awards for her writing in both mainstream and trucking journalism.
