Another Cop Killer

I write frequently about things that are true versus what we are told. The media has been telling us for years that there are people whom they call cop killers. I know that there are a few, in fact, we had a fellow ram his car into a squad car,killing two officers right here in Green Bay. It was terrible, the story about it was not completely clear, but as tragic as it was, there have been far more police in our area that have taken up arms against innocent victims. Cops, that also happen to be killers. Disregarding the incidents where killer cops shot into crowds, discharged weapons "accidentally", or the occasional "domestic" killings that leave their "loved ones" dead, the two incidents that I will write about here are cold blooded killings, perpetrated by those who refer to themselves as the "thin blue line" between civilization and anarchy.

The first incident, I have written about before, but it affects me every day. In fact, just yesterday, I was struck dumb and nearly rendered stock still by the mere appearance of an Appleton city police car. Even without an officer present, the vehicle had the power to scare me. I had done nothing wrong or illegal, but felt the blood drain out of me because I realized that the officers who kill look just like those who obey and uphold the law. I know just a bit too much about one particular Appleton police officer and as humans often say, guilt by association is a very real thing. It does not matter if it makes little sense to paint all officers with the same brush. In reality, we conjoin information to try to make sense of the world around us. The officer that I know the most about is one who stalked, plotted and carried out the murder of the mother of a friend of mine's child. My friend's life has been changed irreparably, possibly forever. We hear in the news media about "suicide by cop" and frequently the idea is used as an excuse for police using deadly force against people with mental illness. When the police turn their weapons on innocent people, it needs to be called homicide by cop. It is for courts to decide about the mental competency of the killers. Psychopaths, whether in uniform or not, need to be taken care of by mental health professionals, shamen or others who can, hopefully, prevent this sort of attack on innocent victims.

Most recently, just this week, a jilted lover, who is (or, more properly, was) a police officer decided to shoot a happy family, perhaps by inference, I can say that his thought process was that if he couldn't be happy, he didn't want anyone else to be happy either. After shooting an innocent family, walking through the park, he shot himself, so the thoughts he had may never be known or understood. Not that this would protect anyone from the searing pain of losing their loved ones, it could never bring those children's parents back to wholeness and it certainly could not justify the actions of a murderer. The whole story about the current murder is not completely clear, but even after the trial that led to the conviction of the officer from my first story, the details were never made public. At this point, the word is that the officer involved in this weeks murder, had his service weapon taken for mental health reasons in the past. That did not stop him from gunning down five people. A father, a mother, their oldest daughter and their other two children will now bear the cost of this police officer's bad decisions.

Those who advocate for free and open access to weapons often use the phrase "Guns don't kill people." One third of the way through 2015, over 111 people have been killed by cops right here in America. Not all have been black but the numbers of victims of these killer cops have been disproportionately black. How we define our humanity must not include a free pass for law enforcement officers to behave as badly as criminals, nor should we overlook the growing problems that are taking center stage in our modern world. Perhaps everyone is more uneasy with the current state of affairs, perhaps people are feeling more frustrated, more alienated and less secure, but we must not let this undermine our ability to do what is right. I will try to make every effort to not judge police based on the actions of a few bad apples and the couple officers that I do know seem level headed enough to be trustworthy, but knowing that killers also put on the uniform every day will continue to be a source of concern. No population needs to be ruled by fear and my concern is that we are losing sight of that.

ALL LIVES MATTER is not undermining the black lives matter movement, it is a call for humanity. We are all one. It is high time we started acting like it.