As a charity dedicated to supporting police officers and their families, the members of Brothers Before Others have had the honor of meeting some amazing people. We’ve seen strength beyond measure. We’ve witnessed benevolence for the sake of benevolence. We watched families healing other families by simply standing with them at some of life’s most trying times. However, just when you’d think we’ve seen it all, let me introduce you Carol Stenquist. Since 2000, Carol […]

Sacrifice is defined in part as suffering a loss of, giving up of, renouncing, injuring , or destroying one’s self, especially for an ideal or belief. Over the individual course of our members’ careers as sworn/retired police officers, but especially since the formation of Brothers Before Others in 2014, we have all borne witness to the selflessness of those who protect this country, both home and abroad. Originally set up as a National Flower Fund, ensuring […]

A lot has been made lately over the image of law enforcement. Departments are spending more time and money ensuring that their police officers are approachable and friendly than they are on ensuring that they are well trained. If you are a citizen, legal or otherwise, anywhere in America, rest assured that your local police department is very concerned about your emotions. Police administration would love to hear all your feelings about their cops; wasting […]

The American police officer is no stranger to delusional accusations and biased mischaracterizations. They’re also no stranger to the pandering that almost always accompanies them. Welcome to the new norm; where being the first to the top of the moral hypocrisy mountain is more important than one’s own morality. The last few weeks have seen some concerning trends in regards to this. Law enforcement has always been a ‘soft target’ in this arena. Police officers […]

Founded in 2014, Brothers Before Others had the goal of sending a floral arrangement to the services for every line of duty death in the country, no matter where in the country they occurred. Not only have we met that goal, but since that time we’ve grown into so much more. We’ve been able to make connections with so many families and hear face to face stories of our fallen that could humble anyone. From […]

The minute you put anything out onto the interwebs, especially personal information, opinions or stories, inevitably you run into keyboard warriors. Commonly, these proudly self-proclaimed ‘trolls’ are underaged, under-skilled, under-informed teenagers. Most times they are using mommy and daddy’s computer; often from the confines of a secret corner because, quite frankly, they are probably not even supposed to be ON the computer. Smart phones made that parental control a complete losing battle. A troll’s sole […]

Police officers are designed to be suspicious. They are trained to be cynical. Often times, the devil is in what you DON’T see as opposed to what you’re looking at. This is because criminals and those who support them are opportunists. America’s political division has become a virtual buffet for the self serving criminal. The anti-government anarchists who have long lingered in the background, are busy pitting one side against the other. All these politicians […]

On February 12th, 2019, NYPD Detective Brian Simonsen was killed in the line of duty while attempting to apprehend a robbery suspect. As evidenced by the amount of people who have personal stories to share about the man known as “Smiles”, you get a very real sense of how profound his loss is to his family, his department and his union, where he served as a delegate. In response to his passing, BBO Founder/President Michael Burke, along […]

If you attend enough law enforcement sponsored events, you begin to realize that there is a recurring theme: honoring the heroes we’ve lost and recognizing the ones still walking amongst us. Having done my share of event planning, I can testify first hand that, regardless of what the event is, where it is, or what it is intended to celebrate, one of the first things checked off the list is, “Who can we honor?”. The […]

Unless you’ve lived under a rock, it’s hard to not notice how disenfranchised police officers have become. For those that wear a shield, it’s becoming impossible to tell whether the enemy is advancing from the front or the rear. It’s always been cool to ‘f*** the police’, long before NWA was singing it. However, with how political this profession has become, the enemy who wears the uniform is the threat you never see coming. This […]