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The News Journal: Joe Biden honors late son Beau’s legacy

  • March 30, 2017

“There’s no group of women and men I admire more,” former Vice President Joe Biden told a group of local and federal law enforcement officers Wednesday night shortly before they received plaques emblazoned with shields named for his late son, Beau.

“If you find a cop in America that doesn’t support me, let me know,” Biden joked to the audience of nearly 300 people gathered at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington. Delaware’s longest-serving senator-turned-cancer crusader was the guest of honor at the Anti-Defamation League’s inaugural Beau Biden SHIELD Award ceremony.

The list of honorees included 11 Delaware state police officers, firefighters and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation who investigated arsons targeting three rural Felton churches in late 2014. Working together, they caught the two arsonists, Joseph T. Skochelak of Felton and Alex J. Harrington Jr. of Harrington, within a week. Investigators determined that the incidents weren’t hate crimes. Skochelak and Harrington were each sentenced to 10 months in prison.

Delaware State Police Col. Nathaniel McQueen Jr. said his officers were humbled to receive an award named for a “pioneer” in Delaware law enforcement.

“Beau Biden has a special significance to Delaware because he’s Delaware’s own,” McQueen said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said his son knew when government had to intervene in opposition to discrimination. He was speaking at the Anti-Defamation League’s awarding of the newly named “Beau Biden SHIELD Award” to regional law officers. William Bretzger/The News Journal

Among those in attendance were U.S. Sen. Tom Carper, Attorney General Matt Denn, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer. Joe Biden’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, was listed in the program as a speaker but did not deliver remarks.

Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie, was not among the guests due to a scheduling conflict, an ADL spokesman said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden is given a standing

Former Vice President Joe Biden is given a standing ovation as he is introduced at the the Anti-Defamation League Beau Biden Shield Awards, which honor law enforcement from the region, Wednesday at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington. (Photo: William Bretzger, The News Journal)

In an earlier statement, Hallie said: “Beau was honored to work side by side with law enforcement officers to protect those most in need of help.”

“My boy, Beau, is the finest man I’ve ever known, and I’ve met every world leader,” Joe Biden said at the ceremony. “Beau understood to his core the sacred obligation to use the power of the government to intervene.”

“Silence is complicity,” he roared.

Event moderator and 6ABC anchor Jim Gardner praised Joe Biden, who received two standing ovations, as a model public servant.

“I have not met anybody who was more devoted to doing good for Delaware and for the people of this country,” the veteran newsman said, instructing the audience to “keep it between us.”

Over the past decade, ADL has trained more than 100,000 federal, state, local and military law enforcement officers on terrorism, extremism and hate crimes. Top law enforcement professionals across the region selected Biden award recipients, each of whom received a glass triangular plaque.

Among the other honorees:

  • The Philadelphia Police Department for responding to a dozen home invasions targeting Asian business owners across the city last year. Victims were tied up at gunpoint and assaulted. In one case, a 9-year-old girl was thrown against a wall.
  • The Chester County District Attorney’s Office for its investigation and prosecution of the former superintendent and athletic director of the Coatesville Area School District in Pennsylvania. In August, former Athletic Director James Donato was sentenced to at least two months in prison for stealing $15,000 from the cash-strapped district. Donato also exchanged racist and sexist text messages about students and staff with the district’s then-Superintendent Richard Como. Como is accused of nepotism and conflict-of-interest practices, along with diverting summer school funds to pay for championship football rings for himself and others. His criminal trial was abruptly halted in January after his lead defense attorney could not proceed due to medical issues.
  •  The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI for investigating and prosecuting two Chester residents, Christian “Gucci Prada” Womack, and his paramour, Rashidah “Camille” Brice, for sex trafficking of women, including a 16-year-old. Womack violently coerced the women to participate in his prostitution business. Both Womack and Brice advertised the scantily clad women on the internet, noting that they were available for purchase. Womack was sentenced to life in prison in late 2014; Brice was sentenced to 185 months in prison.

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.