Over the weekend, two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies were shot point blank while sitting in their squad car. The horrendous act still sparked controversy and there are two sides that obviously oppose and the other somehow supports the attempted assassination.
Both officers are relatively young, one being a 31-year-old mother and wife, and the other a 24-year-old man. Fighting for their lives, the female deputy who was shot through the jaw, still managed to radio for help and apply a tourniquet to the young man’s wounds. Both officers are expected to make a slow but miraculous recovery, according to Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
Both President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden swiftly condemned the attack but with their own twists. At his weekend rally in Nevada, Trump held back no punches by calling the shooter an animal and that he must face justice. He went further by stating that cop killers should receive the death penalty. With thunderous applause from his supporters, who have overwhelmingly been supportive of the police in the last several months and made it known where they stood.
Joe Biden, who has called for cutting police funding, condemned the attack on twitter by saying that acts of lawlessness and violence to the police is counterproductive to the pursuit of justice and the actions of those who cheer the attacks on. He used the opportunity, however, to push his gun control policy forward by tweeting that we need to ban assault weapons and high
capacity magazines. The irony in that Is that from the security footage, which captured the ambush, the gun used appeared to be a handgun, not an assault rifle.
However, credit must be attributed to where it is deserved, and both presidential candidates did condemn it, which is a lot different than what some others have been saying. The officers, who were both sworn in just 14 months ago, now face an uphill battle for recovery for just sitting in their patrol vehicles.
OPINION: How did we get here?
It would have been hard to believe that there would be supporters of the attempted assassination several years ago, but now that is the reality we live in today. In route to the hospital, protesters attempted to block the ambulance transporting the officers with many derogatory slurs and insults hurled at them. One of the chants included “We hope they die!”
Just a few days ago, we had the 19-year anniversary of 9/11 which has always been a day of respect to the lives lost and the lives saved by first responders who run into the burning buildings for us, no matter what political party we associate ourselves in. Where has that respect gone and how did it turn into wishing death on innocent police officers? The answer is when you collectively group all police officers into one category by claiming they are all one big system of oppression, it justifies violence and even murder. Black, Hispanic and other minority officers are called traitors and their life experiences mean nothing if they have an officer’s uniform on. To the radicals, wearing the badge is enough to be part of the system, which is enough for deadly action. In World War II, it felt justified to take down the Nazis because of their actual oppression and targeted genocide of a group of people. That same narrative is being used towards the police now, which can lead some to believe their murder is justified. It is not. What are the facts? A Washington Post database shows that 14 black and 25 white “unarmed” Americans were shot dead by police in 2019. Participants in a Washington State University study of deadly force found that they were more hesitant to pull the trigger on black suspects rather than white or Hispanic suspects. That does not equate to the narrative being pushed that police officers are out to kill black people in the streets — this is the result of feeding a false narrative. Police brutality is an issue that does need to be addressed, however. There needs to be more police training for officers to be better prepared in tense situations, and police unions must be abolished as they protect bad cops. There are bad cops, and for those who commit acts of unwarranted violence or murder, they must face justice. They are bound by the law as well, and we must keep them accountable. But keeping accountability does not mean violence and putting ourselves above the law as well.
