Has WAR Been Declared on Police Officers?
The last few weeks have been very hard on police families. Several officers have been shot. Some were wounded, some were killed.
I have several very good friends that are in Law Enforcement. I am the father of an officer, and father-in-law of 2 other officers. I know the dangers they face, and I know that they deal with those dangers in their own way. The youngsters are 10 feet tall and bulletproof, the older guys are praying for retirement.
The dangers your friends and family face is not something you can dwell on, if you did it would drive you crazy…but it’s never far from your mind.
Here is a look at the police deaths and injuries of just the last week.
MIAMI (WSVN) — Two Miami-Dade Police officers have lost their lives while serving a warrant on a suspect wanted for murder, who would also die as a result of the shootout, according to police.
Full Story Here:
WSVN-TV – 3 dead, including 2 officers after shootingCorporal Chuck Nesbitt was killed in an automobile accident on Highway 521 near Rembert, South Carolina, at approximately 3:00 pm.
He and another officer were returning to Sumter after transporting a prisoner to the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice when their patrol car collided with another vehicle head-on. Both officers were transported to a local hospital where Corporal Nesbitt succumbed to his injuries.
Full Story Here:
Corporal Charles Richard (Chuck) Nesbitt Jr. Sumter Police Department, South Carolina
SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio Police Officer Mike Thornton 27, remains at Brooke Army Medical Center where Police Chief Bill McManus said surgeons were unable to save the young officer’s severed leg.At about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, Thornton had parked his police unit on the upper ramp of I-35 and South Laredo Street. He was assisting a stranded motorist when McManus said a blue extended cab pickup truck crushed the rear of the patrol car where the officer had been standing
Full Story Here:
Young Officer’s Leg Severed After Collision With Drunk Driver
PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) – Sheriff’s officers say a shootout Sunday afternoon at a Walmart in Washington state left two people dead and two sheriff’s deputies wounded.Kitsap County sheriff’s spokesman Scott Wilson says a man was shot to death by deputies outside the store in Port Orchard Sunday afternoon, while a young woman died after being taken to a Tacoma hospital.
Full Story Here:
Walmart shooting leaves 2 dead, 2 deputies hurtINDIANAPOLIS — Police have detained a person of interest in the shooting of Indianapolis police Officer David Moore.
Officers said they had been searching for Thomas Hardy, 60, just before 5:30 p.m. Sunday in the 2300 block of Indianapolis Avenue, near 23rd Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street. He was taken into custody without incident, Indianapolis police Sgt. Linda Jackson said.
Full Story Here:
IMPD Officer Shot – Indiana News Story – WRTV IndianapolisDETROIT (Reuters) – A gunman opened fire inside a Detroit police station on Sunday, wounding four police officers, including a commander, before the attacker was shot and killed, Police Chief Ralph Godbee said.
The precise circumstances of the attack remained sketchy, but the chief, speaking at a news conference, said the most seriously wounded of the officers was a commander who was shot in the lower back.
Full Story Here:
Gunman wounds officers in Detroit police stationTexas Highway Patrol Sgt. David Cramer and Trooper Germaine Gaspard were hurt about 2 a.m. Sunday when a car crashed into them while they were on a traffic stop on LBJ Freeway near the Oates Drive exit in Mesquite.
Mesquite police spokesman Lt. Bill Hedgpeth said in a press release that Cramer and Gaspard had stopped Abimael Valdez on the shoulder of the freeway when Malcolm Christopher veered off the road in his car and hit the officer’s SUV.
Full Story Here:
Two officers hurt during traffic stop in MesquiteST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – A man hiding in the attic of a home opened fire on law enforcement officers trying to arrest him Monday morning, sparking an intense firefight that left two police officers dead and a U.S. Marshal wounded, police said.
Full Story Here:
Police: Man kills 2 Fla. officers in shootout
From The TexasFred Blog and the staff of The Thin Blue Line to the friends, families and agencies of ALL these officers, our most sincere sympathies for the LODD officers, and we are hoping and praying for the quick recovery of the wounded and injured officers!
Be careful out there folks. It’s a job filled with many dangers, and you ALL face those dangers of your own free will, but we have lost far too many fine young officers lately.
To my readers that are on Facebook, if you care about our officers, if you want to show them some support and love, join us at The Thin Blue Line.
Yes, there is a war on cops out there, and the blacks and the illegal aliens are a significant part of it.
Why? It is their lifestyle, and how they were brought up without parental controls similar to the white population. And that is the reason many countries in the world who will not allow them to settle and live there.
Is this racist? Absolutely. So what?
Why are there different neighborhoods, towns, etc.
All have police departments. The police all conform to their own styles of living. Black cops do a better job of policing their own race, as long as they don’t convert into the likes of what area they are responsible for.
Yes, the war is on, and it is our police department’s responsibility to keep from going to Martial Law, which I know something about.
In a sense, it has. The statistics don’t prove that the past two years or so are the worst in the recorded history of officer deaths, but LEO deaths HAVE been increasing in the past two years. No surprise, but the worst years for LEO deaths were the late 60s and early 70s.
There is a confluence that is responsible for the trend: despite the fact that the nation is getting much older — the youth involved in crime are, comparatively speaking, MUCH more violent in general than the youth in those 60s and 70s.
There is also a promulgated lack of respect for authority overall, assisted by mass media, movies, games, films. Social networks, culture and acceptance/tolerance remove people from themselves and take people away from relationships and those surrounding them.
Consequently, at a time when cops are told they must restrain themselves and, further, at a time when their every movement is scrutinized and recorded in video and audio on most every call, when every movement and decision is questioned and second-guessed by the public and by administration — these time are, again, comparatively speaking, EVERY BIT as dangerous as the times I worked in the 70s, if not more so.
Cops are purposely targeted for literal assassinations just as they were by various anarchist groups, only this time by gangbangers and nuts.
Finally, the current trend is that cops are not being shot and/or killed alone, but in groups.
You and I and your other LEO readers know this trend isn’t going to get better because of the economy.
Finally, I was planning to do a similar post. Ya beat me.
The trend is quite disturbing.
Fewer and fewer people are going to want to be cops, what with the demand for sacrifice, shift work, odd hours, no holidays and — also a trend — diminishing pay, number of cover officers available and diminishing retirement coverage.
Fewer and less capable cops + government gun removal trends = the further inability of the average TAXPAYER to even protect themselves.
Any more, if you think cops can actually be PRO-active and protect you — you’re truly daft.
BZ
The St. Petersburg shooter is DEAD… D.E.A.D. SHOOTER IS DEAD
I hope it freaking HURT too… Burn in hell you bastard.
BZ, I agree with every single word of your post (except “Finally, I was planning to do a similar post. Ya beat me”), as I’m not a blogger
We (LE) have got to be MORE VIGILANT THAN EVER-PROTECT YOU AND YOURS FIRST AND FOREMOST!!!
Thanks, Fred for reminding people (and for your constant verbal support) of law enforcement!
STAY SAFE OFFICERS!!!
I was thinking this when I saw the news this morning.
I do believe it is open season on America’s Police Officers for quite awhile now.
Cops have been targeted for years around here. They have a defacto contract on them in LA. WHY? well because it’s a status symbol.
I find it very FKED up that the media will push an agenda of rhetoric caused the Tuscon shooting and go ape shit. But they gloss over the COPS being murdered on the street and never mention possible reasons.
What needs to happen is a murderer of a cop gets special circumstances attached that does a lot more than the current laws. In the law there are special circ’s attached but they are toothless. It’s obviously not having the desired effect.
I *scooped* MSNBC on this one…
Police fear ‘war on cops’ after 11 shootings
Fred, you’re absolutely right on your post. Our police officers are being hamstrung by “ROE’s” just like our troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan. That thin blue line is all that stands between us and anarchy and we tie their hands behind their backs and then tell them to Protect and Serve.
Here’s an article I blogged on last month of a Chicago Police Officer who was killed execution style in broad daylight by a gangbanger. The gangs in Chicago and other cities have absolutely no respect of fear of law enforcement.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101204/ap_on_re_us/us_chicago_police_shootings