A big difference with construction workers is that they usually don't die after being attacked by another person. If policing was as lethal as construction work though, Sargent Russells' funeral would not have been so special, and you probably wouldn't want to live in Toronto. That it is special is a credit to the work of police in our mostly civil society, and they keep most of us safe, really quite safe, so we give them both respect for it and a bit of slack. But I can't imagine what the public-sector cost of the funeral will be in terms of lost staff-time, OT and reimburseables. Across the GTA, probably $millions. Given the state of the public finances, it sure would have been a more effective use of public dollars if our leadership had encouraged those civil servants who did not know Sargeant Russell to take a private moment to think about him and his family, what he died for, think about what they are doing, talk with colleagues about it, and then go back to work.