Opinion

OUR OPINION: LAW ENFORCERS

January 25, 2011

Officers deserve respect, protection

THE PALM-SIZED shield worn on a police officer’s chest should be viewed as a badge of honor, not a bull’s-eye.

Sadly, recent deadly shootings around the nation and alleged threats directed at Luzerne County law enforcers reveal a troubling lack of respect for officers’ authority and responsibilities, as well as their lives. Although these incidents are unrelated, they serve as a stark reminder that the women and men performing police work have chosen a perilous profession – one deserving of the public’s appreciation and unceasing support.

• In Florida a criminal suspect hiding in an attic opened fire Monday morning on the officials trying to arrest him, killing two police officers and wounding a U.S. marshal, The Associated Press reported.

• In Oregon a police officer was critically wounded Sunday night. Oregon State Police said the officer was shot during a traffic stop along a coastal highway.

• In Detroit a gunman entered a Detroit police precinct late Sunday afternoon and started shooting, wounding four officers including a commander.

• In Port Orchard, Wash., two sheriff’s deputies were shot Sunday after responding to a report of a suspicious person outside a retail store. The men, who are expected to survive, reportedly located the individual, who then ran from them and sparked a shootout.

• Closer to this region, a 45-year-old Scranton man was jailed Friday and charged with making terroristic threats toward public officials, including area police. The suspect supposedly posted on a social networking site several ominous messages, including one that read: “Pittston police officers, your lives are in danger. Trust me.”

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that tracks police deaths, recently reported that 59 officers were killed by gunfire in 2010, while 73 died in traffic incidents. Those figures, while up from the previous year, fall within the historical norm.

Keep those sober statistics in mind while considering the many ways in which you can bolster this area’s “thin blue line.”

Granted, police make mistakes. And there have been instances in the United States of police abusing power. Those are exceptions and shouldn’t diminish the desire to maintain robust forces whose members’ foremost goal is to honorably serve and protect.

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