Officer Down

Over this past weekend, a Seattle police officer was assassinated in his car.  His partner, a young trainee fresh out of the academy, was wounded, but was able to return fire.  She'd been on the job for about a month.  The dead officer, Timothy Brenton, was a nine year veteran with a wife and two kids.  The shooting is apparently random in nature and given the location, it's entirely possible.  There is a lot of gang activity in that particular neighborhood.

As I was listening to the local talk radio station (KVI) on my way in to work this morning, the host was talking about some people might be upset that the police might throw more resources into finding the killer than they might if it was your next door neighbor who is an accountant. 

It doesn't upset me.  There are two reasons that they will use more resources than the usual homicide and they make perfect sense.

The first is simply because it was one of their own.  Human nature is at work here.  Cops often have an "us against them" mentality because it is in fact, the cops against the bad guys.  They are in a profession almost as dangerous as a soldier in combat and their daily routine brings them into contact with society's dregs.  They build a camaraderie similar to that of a combat unit.  At times, it has come under justifiable scrutiny.  They will close ranks when a brother (or sister) officer dies or is in trouble.

The second reason is simply that an attack on the police is an attack on the very institution we rely on to keep the bad guys from taking over.  When the police are attacked, it threatens our own security in a different way than if an ordinary civilian is attacked.

I hope they do find this killer or killers and I hope he/they try something stupid.  It'll save us taxpayers a lot of money.

VW

Comments

[Bloviating Zeppelin]

First, my sympathies to the family and relatives. Second, people fear to state the obvious. YES, the cops WILL apply EXTRA assets to that task. ANY area will apply extra work to its own, plain and simple. Doctors, lawyers, bricklayers, mechanics, pilots. And further, if the suspect(s) would simply walk up and kill and cop, you think they'd give a FRACTION of a thought to doing the same thing to a civilian?

Not in the slightest.

BZ

[Scott]

BZ is totally right…and right on the money. Hey, I've watched "Death Wish" enough times to get the idea that sometimes revenge really IS what it's all about. Legal? No…but I'm also a comic book guy, so I've grown up around the (fictional) notion that what is "legal" is often different from what is "the right thing to do."

So, yeah: find the killer, and let him be try to be all "Rambo." See how far that gets him against someone TRAINED to use a gun. That way, the only victims are the surviving family members of the poor gunned-down officer.

[Scott]

Well, we got part of our wish: I heard on the radio last night that he in fact DID try something stupid…but, he was only wounded when the officers shot him. Pity.