This time, the tragedy happened in Las Vegas in June. Officers Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck were gunned down by a man and his wife who officials said “thought police were the oppressors.”
Jerad Miller and his wife, Amanda, killed themselves shortly after they shot the officers and a nearby bystander. The couple had recently visited and supported Cliven Bundy, a western rancher whose supporters — who thought he was a darling of the “patriot” movement — were locked in an armed standoff with federal officials.
Again, no outcry from police organizations about the perpetrators or their politics. No mentions of blood on the hands of public officials. This, even with the charged rhetoric of 2012 Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle who called for “Second Amendment remedies” to political standoffs, including with Obama.
The Second Amendment is a favorite of gun enthusiasts. It details the right of Americans to own guns.
The only common denominator the perpetrators of these heinous crimes seem to share is some level of mental illness and the availability of a firearm. That includes the most recent sicko, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who gunned down two New York City police officers earlier this month. He fatally shot himself moments later.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, who heads a national panel on policing practices, was right when he said the comments of New York police union leader Patrick Lynch about blood on Mayor de Blasio’s hands were “not helpful.”
Too true.
Not helpful and not accurate.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)
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