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Friday, July 22, 2016

Good For Them For Speaking Up

The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (the local police union) is protesting the Democrats' exclusion of the widows of slain police from their upcoming convention while at the same time giving prominent speaking slots to the mothers of people killed in confrontations with police.  Good for them.  They have it exactly right.

Let's be clear.  In each of the confrontations that resulted in the death of a suspect, there are different facts.  The guy whose death led to the Ferguson riots was at first supposed to have been unarmed and with his hands up to surrender.  Later, the forensics showed that to be untrue.  In fact, the guy was shown to have attacked the police prior to his death.  Freddie Gray who died in the back of a police van in Baltimore clearly died in police custody.  So far, however, there have been trials of four policemen who took part in that transport and NONE have been convicted.  It's rather obvious that there are no facts that point to police wrongdoing as the reason for Freddie Gray's death.

When it comes to dead police, however, we can tell that many of those deaths were nothing more than executions.  Five dead police shot by a sniper in Dallas had nothing to do with any wrongdoing or even alleged wrongdoing by police.  They were just targets of opportunity.

Obviously, we cannot know what happened in each of the many situations involved in this topic.  No one can know.  We do know, however, that the police killed in Dallas and Baton Rouge were innocent of any wrongdoing.  Their deaths are a tragedy.  Their loved ones who survive them deserve our support not our condemnation.  That is why the Philadelphia FOP is so right in what it is saying.  Snubbing the widows of the police while allowing the mothers of the people killed in confrontation with police shows a clear choice by the Democrats.  When it comes to any confrontation between police and other people, the Democrats always choose the side fighting the police.

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