Thin Blue Line Fishing Company has designed a shirt you can purchase to help the family of fallen Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officer Lance Whitaker.
Officer Lance Whitaker died in a traffic accident on May 15 while responding to a call on a rainy roadway.
“[A line of duty death is] the worst day you can have in a law enforcement family," Jeff Lentz, owner of Thin Blue Line Fishing Company said. "Everybody feels it, everybody suffers from it, everybody feels terrible over it.”
Before becoming a charter fishing captain, Lentz spent nearly three decades with JSO. His son is currently on the police force.
“You hope and pray it’s never you," Lentz said. "You train hard to be able to meet every situation and hopefully we’ll never have another one of these in my lifetime. But the reality is that possibility exists.”
When he learned of Officer Whitaker's death, Lentz felt compelled to help. Thin Blue Line Fishing already has a sportswear line, so he contacted their supplier, Heritage Casual Wear, and printer, Expert T's. Both agreed to provide services for a special t-shirt at-cost. 100 percent of would-be profit for Thin Blue Line will be donated to Officer Whitaker's family.
"The thin blue line is the barrier between anarchy and law-abiding citizens," Lentz said. “We [police officer] walk the line, we keep the line and hopefully law abiding citizens never have to deal with anything that’s on the other side of it.”
Officer Whitaker leaves behind one son and many family members and loved ones.
Rest in peace, Officer Whitaker.
