A war on cops? As I write this, MSNBC is reporting at least 11 shot in a 24-hour period, which certainly seems to point to something more than coincidence.
In just 24 hours, at least 11 officers were shot. The shootings included Sunday attacks at traffic stops in Indiana and Oregon, a Detroit police station shooting that wounded four officers, and a shootout at a Port Orchard, Wash., Wal-Mart that injured two deputies. On Monday morning, two officers were shot dead and a U.S. Marshal was wounded by a gunman in St. Petersburg, Fla.
On Thursday, two Miami-Dade, Fla., detectives were killed by a murder suspect they were trying to arrest.
"It's not a fluke," said Richard Roberts, spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations. "There's a perception among officers in the field that there’s a war on cops going on."
Last week, a LAUSD police officer was shot in Woodland Hills. The suspect is still at large.
One of the shootings that took place in the recent 24-hour swarm was in St. Petersburg, FL. According to witnesses, over 100 rounds were fired. I wonder how many were from the police and how many were from the shooter holed up in the attic?
Or the shootings in Detroit, where the bad guy was able to shoot four policemen in their precinct before a cop finally killed him? How did that guy manage to land bullets on four cops before they could shoot him?
I'd be willing to put money on high-capacity clips as one possible culprit.
When I hear the standard NRA drumbeat about how high-capacity clips are really a good thing because they bolster one's ability to shoot back at the bad guys, I wonder how they justify that statement when the ones with extended clips who are actually using them ARE the bad guys and they're shooting at good guys.
I don't know if this rash of shootings is mere coincidence or something bigger. What I do know is that the NRA logic is upside-down and nonsensical. The odds of a police officer or even ordinary citizen being on the receiving end of a high-capacity clip in the hands of a criminal are far higher than an ordinary citizen needing a high capacity clip to defend themselves.
Is there any room for some common sense measures here?
