Lt Col Marc Ishlove... 'died in war against crime'

JHB reservist 'died in war against crime'
Alex Eliseev | EWN 702
Friends and family of Johannesburg police reservist Marc Ishlove on Monday described him as a brave soldier who died in the war against criminals.

Ishlove was killed in a shootout in Northcliff earlier this month. He served as a reservist for more than 30 years.

He received a full state funeral in Fairland, where National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele spoke.

Ishlove’s daughters Marcia and Juliette said their father went where angels feared to tread and that they would carry his spirit with them forever.

Colleague and close friend Clifford Bond said Ishlove was like a father to him.

“We go in together and we leave together. We were not trained to leave men behind. But on that day I left a man; I left a great man,” he said.

Cele delivered a fiery speech, calling on officers to hunt down those who kill policemen.

“Anybody who kills a member of the South African police must have a sleepless night,” he said. “You (criminals) go and brush your teeth in the morning, your toothbrush must say police, police, police.”

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Cele speaks at Ishlove funeral
Police are fighting a war they did not declare, National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele said during the funeral of police reservist Mark Ishlove, in Johannesburg, on Monday.

27 June 2011 | Sapa

JOHANNESBURG - Police are fighting a war they did not declare, National Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele said during the funeral of police reservist Mark Ishlove, in Johannesburg, on Monday.

"We shall win this war. We shall not allow the country to be ruled by criminals," Cele told mourners during the service which was held at the Mosaiek church in Fairlands.

Cele assured the church filled with police that they were doing a "wonderful job" and reiterated no officer should die with a gun in their hand.

"Anybody who kills a member of the police is inviting trouble and courting sleepless nights," Cele said.

Sixty-year-old Ishlove, a lieutenant-colonel, died in a shootout between the police and a five-man gang near a primary school in Northcliff on June 15. Two of the gunmen also died.

Police were chasing the gang's white Mercedes-Benz when it crashed.

The five men inside jumped out and ran away.

One of them dropped his pistol and was arrested near the accident scene. Another man was arrested further down the road and a third was caught in the school grounds.

Ishlove chased one of the other men to a house where a shootout ensued in which both he and the gunman died.

The fifth man tried to hide in a Wendy house. He shot himself in the head and died on the way to hospital.
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Marco George Ishlove Lt-Col
8 February 1951 ......Rip......15 June 2011



And now, the end is near,
And so I face the final curtain.
My friends, I'll say it clear;
I'll state my case of which I'm certain.

I've lived a life that's full -
I've travelled each and every highway.
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Regrets? I've had a few,
But then again, too few to mention.
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.

I planned each charted course -
Each careful step along the byway,
And more, much more than this,
I did it my way.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew,
When I bit off more than I could chew,
But through it all, when there was doubt,
I ate it up and spit it out.
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way.

I've loved, I've laughed and cried,
I've had my fill - my share of losing.
But now, as tears subside,
I find it all so amusing.

To think I did all that,
And may I say, not in a shy way -
Oh no. Oh no, not me.
I did it my way.

For what is a man? What has he got?
If not himself - Then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way.

Yes, it was my way.