Common Sense: Devastating events

It is impossible for me to fathom how someone could set out to assassinate a police officer. Yet, somehow, an incredibly sick individual set out to do just that last week in Dallas. The result was devastating not only to the individuals and families of the fallen and wounded but also to the psyche of the nation.

So much of this seems to be an outgrowth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Frankly, all lives matter. And, yes, cops’ lives matter too. These men and women who put their lives on the line for us in what seems to have become a more dangerous America do not receive enough support from many elected officials in our biggest cities.

New York City is a prime example. Mayor de Blasio from his first days in office showed little interest in backing rank and file NYPD members. It bottomed out with the assassination of two members of the service. In fact, the PBA famously turned their backs on the mayor at a press conference.

Things are hardly better today with Ed Mullins, the head of the 5,000-member Sergeants Benevolent Association, calling for the resignation of the police commissioner and Patrick Lynch, the leader of the 21,000-member PBA, working diligently to find a candidate to run against de Blasio next year.

The police have my respect. It is the way I was brought up. It is the way children should be raised.

I do not claim to be naïve. I know that, in some places, at certain times, the police do not earn the respect of the community. But when you look closely at the incidents, you realize that legitimate criticism is warranted in very few cases. Yet, they are always the events that make the headlines and the news.

A case in point is the recent incident in East New York in which an off-duty police officer shot and killed with his service weapon an individual who during a traffic incident got out of his car and repeatedly hit the officer in the head. The perpetrator had 21 arrests, of which many were for violent incidents. The officer, based on witness accounts, was clearly in danger of losing his life.

Many members of the community protested, suggesting the police officer had no right to kill the perpetrator. They should consider themselves lucky that it was a police officer that was attacked and not one of them. Any one of them would have likely been killed.

As far as I am concerned, the officer did a great job in taking a very violent bully off the streets. And as far as I am concerned, when someone comes up to you and tries to bash your head in, you have every right to defend yourself.

The members of the community who protested this incident and so many police-involved interventions make me wonder if they think their lives would be better if the police patrolled other neighborhoods and simply left them alone.

The Brooklyn and Queens Conservative Parties will be honoring State Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan at a dinner on the evening of Thursday July 28 at El Caribe Caterers in Mill Basin beginning at 7 p.m. Anyone interested in attending this event can contact the Brooklyn Conservative Party at 718-921-2158 for further information.