Respecting the #BlueLivesMatter WITH Accountability

Across the country, 50 officers were killed by guns in 2014 compared to 32 in 2013, according to the website of the non-profit fund, which aims to increase safety for law enforcement officers.  The most deadly states were California, Texas, New York, Florida and Georgia, the group said. "Fifteen officers were shot and killed in ambush, more than any other circumstance of fatal shootings in 2014," the website said.

This is taken from an article: Gun deaths for U.S. officers rose by 56 percent in 2014: report

I have a friend who is a police officer who feels quite discouraged by what has happened in 2014.  I don't blame him.  Good police officers have been treated as if they were bad police officers.  Laws are passed that put police on the defensive.

Myths and Misconceptions About Indiana's New Self-Defense Law 

I can't imagine what it is to put on a badge (and gun), knowing that your duty to serve and protect, may put you in harms way.

http://www.abqjournal.com/520552/news/flagstaff-officer-killed-on-duty-laid-to-rest.html

That is what we ask of our police officers.  And we should pray for them:

O gracious God, watch over all police and law enforcement officers everywhere. Protect them from harm in the performance of their duty to serve and protect all citizens. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Even as we pray for them, police officers must be held accountable.  For too long, deaths at the hands of police officers were ignored or excused as being in our self interest. And yet, as the chart shows, police officers kill at least once a day in our nation.

Smug television broadcasts in Russia and China have wildly exaggerated the sickness of which Ferguson is a symptom. But it is real enough. The police in and around Ferguson have shot and killed twice as many people in the past two weeks (Mr Brown plus one other) as the police in Japan, a nation of 127m, have shot and killed in the past six years. Nationwide, America’s police kill roughly one person a day (see chart). This is not because they are trigger-happy but because they are nervous. The citizens they encounter have perhaps 300m guns between them, so a cop never knows whether the hand in a suspect’s pocket is gripping a Glock. This will not change soon. Even mild gun-control laws tend to fail. And many Americans will look at the havoc in Ferguson and conclude that it’s time to buy a gun, just in case.

This is from the Economist:

The Ferguson riots: Overkill Police in a Missouri suburb demonstrate how not to quell a riot

Not every person shot is a bad shoot.  But the old adage, "shoot first, ask questions later," seems to be the modus oprendi for many police forces. To use your gun should be the last resort not the first. In a country that seems gun crazy, it is up to our police officers to lead the way in responsible use of a weapon.   

I pray the numbers of death from guns goes down, way down, and we have some common sense brought into this very violent nation.

---