As the coronavirus crisis is keeping nearly everyone at home, some people are still finding ways to get out in the community and act like thugs. Seven people are the victims of gun violence in the last 24 hours, and in addition to that we saw two NOPD officers shot while stopping two alleged auto burglars. These burglars were trying to make their escape and shot at the officers, who returned fire, striking one perpetrator who they ultimately captured.
These perpetrators are commonly referred to as “non-violent offenders.” Really? I guess you could call them non-violent, until the moment they’re confronted, wherein the rules of engagement change and then the non-violent perpetrators will kill you in a New York second. What is it about that we don’t understand?Wake up! Who are we kidding? Folks, I am growing extremely weary of activists wordsmithing the characterization of thugs and perpetrators! They’re going to get innocent people killed, sitting there advocating for all of these folks to be released from jail. They should stay in jail! They are in the business of stealing other people’s property, plain and simple. What is it that we don’t get about that scenario?
How many more police officers need to be shot? How many other innocent bystanders need to be put at risk? Luckily, the two officers will physically recover from their injuries, but they may never recover from the psychological trauma of that moment, that split second, the fleeting instant where they don’t know whether or not they would live or die, whether or not they’d ever see their families again. Do we even think about that anymore?
We rightly pray for their speedy recovery. The officers and their families are in our thoughts and prayers, but mostly what we should be doing is thanking them. We should be thanking them for their selfless dedication to keeping our communities safe. And with that, there is a bilateral relationship.
We should be putting pressure on the activists that are constantly trying to release these criminals back on to our streets and putting everyone at risk. Even in the midst of this pandemic and this rolling economic chaos, I will continue to talk about this. I don’t want to go to another officer’s funeral. I don’t want to see any more communities grieving because an innocent person got caught in the crossfire.
We’re stuck on stuck with this business of referring to auto burglars as non-violent, low-impact offenders. They are not. The sooner we all get on the same page about that, the safer we will all be.
