Police and politicians join family in honoring fallen officer

Several hundred police officers from across the country paid their last respects in Sochocin near Plonsk to police officer Dariusz Marciniak who was killed during an assault on a house in Magdalenka last week. Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik, police chief Antoni Kowalczyk and head of the Warsaw police, Ryszard Siewierski, were among the mourners present at the funeral. The ceremony included armed salutes and sirens while a police helicopter circled the cemetery. Traffic in the city was suspended for the duration of the ceremony. Janik said that, "Dariusz Marciniak gave his life for his country and for the law which defends its citizens. This does not mean that those rules and values died with him." The officer was posth umously promoted and honored with one of the country's most prestigious orders of merit. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A6; www.polskieradio.pl) M.M.