By Curt Hendel, Review Staff Writer
On the morning of November 2nd, 2016 I awoke to the news; two police officers in Des Moines, Iowa were killed by gunfire while sitting in their police cars. Two Peace Officers, civil servants, assassinated. Check that, two more police officers had been assassinated.
This seemed to be a pinpoint and very efficient attack. The suspect was taken into custody later in the day when he turned himself in. The victims were Urbandale Police Officer Justin Martin, 24, and Des Moines Police Sergeant Anthony Beminio, 38. They were killed in separate attacks about two miles apart. The assailant was 46-year-old Scott Michael Greene, a man that had several run-ins with police in the past.
There have now been 16 officers killed in ambush style attacks this year alone. In the month of July alone, five officers were killed in Dallas and three more were killed in Baton Rouge. This is not a trend; this is an actual part of the War on Law Enforcement.
Our Law Enforcement Officers are the thin blue line between the citizens of this country and those that would do them harm. It takes a special person to dedicate their lives to the safety of people that they will never meet and many that hate them just for wearing a badge. Law Enforcement Officers see the worst of humanity and run to the sound of gunfire and danger, not away from it. They also cover horrible shifts, terrible weather, and protectants that are rarely appreciative to them.
The LEO community has been under fire for decades, and the danger inevitably leads to the death of officers in the line of duty every year. It is a dangerous profession. But in the last several years the relationship between officers and communities has been taking major damage from many sides. It really started to get out of hand in Ferguson, Missouri. The death of Michael Brown was reported as an African American boy (who was legally a man at 18 and huge in stature) who was oppressed by Officer Wilson (for walking down the middle of a street with a handful of stolen cigars) and subsequently shot in the
torso going for the officers gun, after beating the officer pretty good). Michael Brown tried to steal an officer’s weapon while punching him in the face, which is a crime, among other things he was doing….
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