Pray for Police officers

I happened across a news story about a woman suing a police department in Arkansas for wrongful death. I read the article and it turns out that last year her husband and son shot and killed two Arkansas police officers during a routine traffic stop. With a little more research, I found chilling video from the patrol cars dash cam that shows the fourteen-year-old son blasting away with an AK-47 toward the patrol car. Later, when cornered by more police, the pair would not surrender and were killed in a gun battle.

Now, the widow claims her husband and son were tortured and murdered unjustifiably and she wants monetary compensation.

A story like this really makes my blood boil. Of course, I am biased. When I was working we had an officer murdered in an ambush style shooting and it hurts, it’s like losing a member of your own family. And it is always so senseless. The Arkansas officers lost two brothers in an instant because the man driving the vehicle did not have a license. (He was part of a separatist group that does not recognize the states power to force people to get driver’s licenses and might have been taken to jail) And for this woman to even suggest the murdered officers were in the wrong is beyond the pale.

It’s always been dangerous to be a cop, and it’s not likely to get any safer any time soon. As I write this post there have already been 30 officers killed in the line of duty by gunfire this year in our nation. (*Another 33 have died in the line of duty because of other causes.) Tactics and equipment can be top notch, but if some lunatic wants to kill a cop, all he has to do is look for a marked vehicle. All the more reason law enforcement officers need your prayers. Pray for those men and women out there keeping your community and our nation safe. They need your prayers and deserve your support.

(*Statistics taken from Officer Down Memorial Page)