It should be of GREAT concern to all of us to read or hear about FOURTEEN police killings this month. There have been ELEVEN officers shot in the last three days across fourteen states.
These men are our first line of defense from criminals of all sorts. When violence is directed toward them at will it becomes frightening. So often, as is the case in Florida, a thug with a record as long as your arm was the perpetrator. What was a man who had been sentenced for armed robbery doing running free? A U.S. Deputy Marshal was also shot.
When I was growing up policemen were respected AND feared. When they said, "Stop or I'll shoot",
they meant it! Now days it is: "Stop or I will try to catch you. Don't worry, I won't shoot at you until you try to shoot me." That doesn't work very well. The one firing first has all the advantage. These multiple-round automatic weapons are deadly. One doesn't have to be a good marksman to spray over an area. They hark back to the twenties and thirties when the Al Capone types had "tommy guns".
The media fills up with scenes when some police treat a person violently in arrest. They aren't around as much to take pictures of a bloodbath for policemen. We are living in a violent and dangerous time. Our police and law people need all the help we can give them.
A maniac in Tucson pleaded "not guilty" to his mass murder actions. He should be tried next week and sentenced the next. Instead, we will be hearing about it for years, and millions of dollars will be spent in the process. Not right.
Mexico is a perfect example of what can happen without strong law enforcement. Last weekend gunmen sprayed a park in Juarez (across the river from El Paso) . Two had been playing soccer there. They died with five others. That brings the deaths in that city to more than 3,000 in the last year. One can SEE Juarez from the United States!
