Family, Friends & Fellow Officers Remember...

There are the prerogatives of genius: to know without having learned; to draw just conclusions from unknown premises; to discern the soul of things. You were mature than most of your peers, Officer Cook and the level-headedness you showed only confirmed what we already knew and that was your true character and how you performed with dignity and integrity. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 18, 2013

The hymn they play at Inspector's Funerals one could say demonstrates a police officer's amazing grace and how officers such as yourself, Officer Cook, deal with every and any possible problem with courage, bravery and valor personified. The excellence you displayed was truly amazing and will not be replicated. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero. Amazing Grace strikes an emotional chord and it should evoke emotion after all, don't we want our officers who work under stress and in all conditions to show some compassion? They perform amazingly most of the time and like yourself, Officer Cook did not look for any accolades or glory. True respect and honor humbly comes to those when they least expect it.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 18, 2013

True friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. Friendship can take a whole life to develop, but it is the one who can maintain their friends and help others make them that is the sign of a true individual. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero. Officer Cook, you were the steady force and bond between all of your fellow officers never to be forgotten.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

There can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves a free air and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures. You helped maintain open dialogues, Officer Cook, which led to friendships and helped ward off evil in our society. You were there when called upon and now we call upon your soul to help us when needed. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend. Your accommodated many, Officer Cook. A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously and continues a friend without change. All of the above is true about you my neighbor, friend and hero. Rest in peace.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

I breathed a song into the air, it fell to earth, I knew not where....and the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend. The song they play at Inspector's Funerals, Officer Cook, seems to inspire us to remember your bravery, courage and wit in policing our community. We salute you at the start and at the finish when we place your very special soul back in God's keeping forever to fly the highest heights. For all your lofty aspirations, let us aspire to lead by your inspirations performed in dignity and integrity. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Friendship is both a treasure and a comfort. Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; but friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. You were a very sweet man, Officer Cook, too young to leave this world and the gaping hole left by your untimely departure. Your friend is the man who knows all about you and still likes you. You'll never stop being toasted for your bravery, Officer Cook. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. The only way to have a friend is to be one. How very true, Officer Cook, you endeared yourself to so many citizens and law enforcement personnel, it would be impossible to count the very many close friends that shared good times and attended your Inspector's Funeral to salute you one final time. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. before him I may think aloud. Your colleagues always enjoyed their moments with you, Officer Cook, if you were on a tennis court or at a table enjoying a fine meal with them. That is surely missed today, but they have never forgotten your engaging spirit. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Your friendship to me Officer Cook, would have been the greatest considering growing up in North Miami Beach, I did not for what ever reason have that many. I'm sorry we never got to meet each other, but I have revered you and the work and ideals that characterized your life and career. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero. As a very approachable person, friendships came rather easy to you and you were the type of student in school who would have excelled in any endeavor. You choose police work, I suspect because of its challenges and in being out in the open among different persons and their ideals and backgrounds. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero. Unifying rather than untying was your motto.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and the prudence never to practice either of them. We can do what we want so long a sit is proper and within the realms and bounds of the law. You were here, Officer Cook, to make sure we were obeying the laws you took an oath to enforce and you did so with clarity and without being obstructed. You were the go to officer who could be counted on when things got tough. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

What other liberty is there worth having, if we have not freedom and peace in our minds-if our inmost and most private man is but a sour and turbid pool? Officer Cook, you were the loyal and patient officer who delivered excellence daily to us and for this we must be forever grateful. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set- and this world where half our fellow men have less than enough to eat. Officer Cook, you were a giver to modern society in all your efforts as an officer and when off duty will always be noted. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

If our freedom means ease alone, if it means shirking the hard disciplines of learning, if it means evading the rigors and rewards of creative activity, if it means more expenditure on advertising than education, if it means in the schools the steady cult of the trivial and the mediocre, if it means-worst of all-indifference, or even contempt for all athletic excellence, we may keep for a time the forms of free society, but its spirit will be dead. Your spirit and good nature, Officer Cook continues to abound because you did not shirk, evade or look for glory as the work you performed was only done with the best of intentions. You kept a pulse on the community you watched with reverence and passion. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Freedom-effective freedom-does not exist as a formula which can be written out by some and then used by others. The freedom that counts is simply what is in the minds and hearts of millions of free people. It is nothing more than the total of the feelings of people as they are expressed in the way we, the people, deal with our own families, neighbors and associates. Your message for freedom, Officer Cook was to bring parties together in a calm and fair manner, hashing out any differences to lead to a fair and unbiased conclusion. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in their own way everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want...everywhere in the world. the fourth is freedom from fear...anywhere in the world. This is why we have men and women like yourself, Officer Cook, who are serving and risking your freedoms for us to have these same rights. You achieved success in your endeavors and now God has called you home to watch over your fellow sisters and brothers who pursue the same ideals in our midst as you so loyally did for six years with Dade County. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Freedom needs all her poets: it is they who give her aspiration's wings and to the wiser law of music sway her wild imaginings. Freedom requires group participation from an entire community if it is going to function in a rational manner. That is why, Officer Cook, you were with us at the crossroads to make certain we would have our securities in place. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

And I honor the man who is willing to sink half his present repute for the freedom to think, and when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak, will risk the other half for the freedom to speak. You spoke when spoken to, Officer Cook and always addressed people in a calm and mild fashion and that was your way of serving with grace under fire. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

We cannot choose freedom established on a hierarchy of degrees of freedom, on a caste system of equality like military rank. We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. You always practiced what you and Karen preached, Officer cook and because of this reasoning you became the person, the officer who loved his work and served honorably and with great distinction. You gave your life to make men and women holy, let us die to make both men and women free, while God is marching on as does your giving spirit as it travels up above in God's fruited plains for eternity. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Freedom all winged expands, nor perches in a narrow place; her broad van seeks unplanted lands; she loves a poor and virtuous race. Freedom does come at all costs, mostly because of our dedicated men and women in law enforcement who are not afraid to tackle situations most would not touch. Heroes such as you my neighbor, friend and hero, Officer Cook, have gone beyond your positions in order to offer us the quality service we so desire. We always would desire more positive outcomes for our police officers and that cannot always occur, but nevertheless we keep their spirits and memories alive by living our lives as they so faithfully did. Rest in peace.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and women and so it must be earned daily and refreshed-or else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. Our freedoms at the ultimate sacrifice of your life, Officer Cook, did come about because you were fearless in your daily pursuits of evil and in serving us to protect the good that exists in this community. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Freedom of expression is the matrix, the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom. It is because of heroic men and women like you, Officer Cook, that we can be allowed to do as we please. Your effort to revitalize a community where racial unrest was starting to take shape was one of the things you most excelled besides the stellar work you did to maintain law and order and you'll not be forgotten for this. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

All men and women are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights. And as a police officer and citizen, you too, Officer Cook had these same rights. These rights were taken from you on May 16, 1979 and because of your supreme sacrifice, citizens in Dade County can continue to live their dreams and aspirations as they see fit because of men and women so game as yourself. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

Oh, Lord, I want to be free, want to be free; rainbow round my shoulder, wings on my feet. God surely has wrapped Himself totally around your loving soul, Officer Cook. We never wanted you to lose your life, you very much still had a lot to offer this world and were a commanding presence in your department who will never be forgotten. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 17, 2013

You use whatever force is necessary to achieve the purpose and i would like to feel that there wouldn't be a need for using armed force if we made it apparent that we have the will, if necessary, to do that. You did whatever you had to do that day, Officer Cook. The skill and judgment you exercised was well within the confines of the law to try and resolve this domestic dispute of which you excelled in handling. You tried being reasonable, unfortunately this young man had terrible problems that he thought could be served by doing harm to police officers like yourself, who must lookout for the public interest first and foremost. You saved your fellow officers, placing yourself in harm's way and those three civilians. Back then your two comrades who nearly lost their lives had bad experiences within the department that hopefully as the years have sadly passed so quickly will too be honored for their own bravery as they were the original officers dispatched to that awful scene. All officers who put themselves in harm's way do so for a very noble reason. One most of us may not fully comprehend and these are the true heroes and heroines to be saluted as you were for being dedicated to perform above and beyond the call of duty with honor and distinction. Rest in peace my neighbor, friend and hero.

Rabbi Lewis S. Davis

June 16, 2013