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Patrick Farrell / POOL via Getty Images
Officer Roger Castillo's widow Debbie, right, grieves as her sons Anthony, Michael and Bryan sit at her side during the memorial service for Miami-Dade police detectives Roger Castillo and Amanda Haworth at the American Airlines Arena Jan. 24, 2011 in Miami, Florida. Castillo and Haworth were killed last Thursday when they were serving an arrest warrant. Today in St Petersburg, Florida two of that city's police officers were gunned down.
Pool / Getty Images
Sgt. Kim Halburian (right) cries along with other officers during the memorial service for Miami-Dade police officers Roger Castillo and Amanda Haworth at the American Airlines Arena Jan. 24 in Miami, Florida. Miami-Dade Police officers Roger Castillo and Amanda Haworth were killed last Thursday when they were serving an arrest warrant. Today in St Petersburg, Florida two of the city's police officers were gunned down.
Jonathan Woods blogged on this story earlier today. Click here for the Full story.
In a brutal month for law enforcement officials, two more police officers were killed in the line of duty in Florida on Monday--it was the latest in a stretch of five similar incidents in as many days. NBC's Mark Potter reports.
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I think it is time that we stopped giving career criminals a break. That includes members of murderous gangs.
The bleeding heart liberals are allowing these killers to slip through the hands of the Criminal Justice System.
It's time that the Law fought back and stopped giving appeals.
It is time to bring back the Electric Chair and the Gallows and instill FEAR back in the hearts of the Lawless.
ghoster you are an idiot. you can give up your liberty but i for one will not. It is hard for me to feel sympathy when in my town last month the police killed 5 people unnecessarily. One was a pastor in his 70's protecting his property and was gunned down by an officer in plain clothes in an unmarked car. They also shot an unarmed pregnant woman 1 week before her due date. So you tell me who are the carreer criminals, the people, or the cops. The cops are the largest and most dangerous gang in america. A threat to our liberty and to our lives. Spokane washington is has been pushed and im sure is about to push back.
Spokane is full of illegals, the police are only doing theyre jobs. These people you say were shot for no reason? Right, obviously they were not where they should have been or they wouldnt have gotten hurt.
Hah, not quite. The bleeding heart liberals have created a socioeconomic imbalance with wasteful, counterproductive bureaucracies and apathy-inducing handouts. The natural result of that imbalance is violence toward authority.
The bureaucracies and handouts need to be downsized and phased out, only then will responsibility and civility be able to return to the lowest rungs of society. Fear itself will only create a bigger bloodbath.
Also, advocating the suspension of basic constitutional freedoms and due process makes you no better than the liberals whose unconstitutional programs got us here in the first place. And continued support for a costly, unequal, and unsustainable war on drugs, which has solved none of our problems but created many, makes you worse.
i think gang members and criminals should be open game for cops. if a cop sees gang activity, he should be free to take them out.
That's the kind of reasons that people don't like you officer. When you say stupid things like that you are giving police special elevated status by assuming that everyone's a crook except for you.
The cops seem like they have a war on people!
I think some people are fed up with how the law is administered. Unfortunately it is the cop on the street that pays the price for how their bosses want the police to be percieved.
Nice FAKE propaganda pictures. This just goes to show how low the police will go to drum up revenue.
This is disgraceful that they would try to profit from the deaths of their own
Address the situation, for years the people of the U. S. have excepted people in places of authority abusing the position they hold, Mayor - President etc. In Albuqurque New Mexico for example the Police act like Armed Boy Scouts, killing un-armed people.
Years ago I saw the total abuse of the so-called legal system of N. C. Americans who live here deal with on a daily basis.
Today I have a clean drivers license and record, yet fear the day a police officer pulls me over for what he will call a routine traffic stop, pull his weapon, so he can feel safe.. The pulling of his weapon To this Viet Nam Veteran is assult Plain and Simple.
Police in so-called third world countries are not allowed to abuse there position from the start. In Ecuador which I have spent the most time. I watched the People of the country Make the President leave the country in fear of his life, allow him to return after they had a new election, and Placed a new Man in office. In this particular country I have watch the People solve problems with Criminals, while the police had to stay back.
As we used to here, now a man protects his house or Family from a criminal... He is subject to go to Jail..
Sorry I got carried away, but I realise we Americans are no-longer free.......
in spokane recently washington a cop killed a pastor at 3am who was protecting his property. the police officer was in plain clothes in an unmarked car holding a flashlight in the pastors face. the pastor put his gun away in his belt an then the officer executed him when he was no longer brandishing his weapon. also recently in spokane washington a officer shot a pregnant unarmed woman 1 week before her due date. The executed or murdered what ever u want to call it many innocent civilian recently. just makes you think . but the publicity does not go for these people just for officers. other just get swept under the rug.
And what facts are you leaving out? For instance, the pastor was protecting his property from whom? The pastor put his gun away in his belt and then did what? Did he suddenly raise his hand in a gesture that made the officer think he may have had a second gun? I'm not saying there are police who act criminally at times, but please don't give a few bits of information then make an accusation. That is disrespectful to all involved. You leave out too many pieces of information to allow anyone to make an informed opinion on either case.
I just found several articles on this particular incident. Not one mentioned he "put his gun away in his belt", although some did say the family of the pastor said the pastor complied with the officer's request. And yet all also say the only two witnesses were the officer and the pastor, so how can the family possibly know what the pastor did? Sounds like you've offering your own idea of facts instead of offering actual facts. Then again, since there were only two witnesses and that it happened on his business property and not the property of his home (which was next to his business), no one will really know what transpired.
Making accusations based on a few bits of information does your argument a disservice and puts into question your credibility.
Slums across the country need to be policed differently. Why go into a gang ridden neighborhood to serve a warrant? Made no sense. Makes no sense to me. The courageous officers were I'm sure out gunned and probably out manned going into serve this warrant. We all need to get on the same page about something and quit pissing each other off.
One quick word on our nation's police. Up the requirements, testing, psychological evaluation, IQ test scores, and pay of our police and I believe you will see a drop in senseless police killings throughout our nation. Given the fact that Police are given so much authority over citizens, isn't it just obvious that the people who are given such authority not only be our most courageous but even more importantly to me, our brightest?
When I think about cops suffering from violence against them, all I can think about is the struggles Lenny Bruce went through when he publicly exposed the corruption behind closed doors in the late 50's. He was arrested for drug possession, and a judge in his chamber said if he simply paid $10,000 or so, his record would be wiped clean. Instead, Lenny exposed this and until the day he died was arrested on stage the moment he said anything the cops in the audience didn't like. (Usually Catholic material, or any usage of profanity.)
HBO's 1997 Documentary "To Tell the Truth," explains all this. Lenny was reduced to reading the Constitution on stage word for word as his act. George Carlin's Memoir also talks about this.
I bet if you look at the number of wrongfully accused and/or killed civilians vs. murdered cops, I guarantee the cops have done way more damage. Does that make it right? No. But Cops aren't infallible.
This isn't a party issue or a law enforcement issue. All you have to do is see those 3 young boys sitting at their father's funeral. Period. C'mon.....so their dad was a cop. He went to work that day, unlike MANY lowlifes in this country, to make a living for his family. He was doing his job and he paid the ultimate price. How many accountants can say that? When was the last time a photocopier jumped out and killed the copier repair man? Why does EVERYTHING that happens in this country have to be politically charged or motivated?
Very well put Unbelievable!
Yes, very well put.
My husband is a police officer, a good one and a fair one. Everyday he leaves the house knowing people out there hate him just because of the uniform he wears. Many people complain about having stressful jobs. But they don't strap a gun onto their hip each day when they leave for work. My husband does this and isn't afraid to use it, if that means coming home at the end of his shift. Coming home to two little boys that eagerly await for that patrol car to pull into the driveway. They don't know people out there want to harm him. They just know that he is going to take them fishing tomorrow and they can't wait. They know that he is going to play soccer out back and wrestle on the living room floor with them. He will hold them way up high like an airplane until they laugh so hard they start to cry. He will read them a bedtime story, make sure the night light is on, make sure no monsters are in the closet, tuck them in and kiss them goodnight. These are all the important jobs that daddy has to do. But tomorrow daddy will put on a badge and a gun to go do his other job. And because of this profession that he has chosen and he loves, bad people out there just want to kill him. They want to kill a cop and they are doing just that. But they are also killing our daddys and our husbands.
This photo breaks my heart because all I see are three boys and their mother who just wanted daddy to come home from work that day.
James...Just look at it this way...If 1 out of those 5 people were actually a low down dirty dog - they probably had it coming to them anyway...Those aint bad odds..My hat goes off to the the law enforcement community of Spokane!
darkpoet...Lenny Bruce was a heroin addict..he wasn't in His right mind.
Just remember....The next time the neighbors cat knocks over your garbage can late at night...Who are you going to call?
No one, I protect my self, the police are never there when you are being robed or assaulted, they investigate and fill out reports.
The criminals are the ones with the guns, most Americans are to stupid to understand the freedom they had before they let the government take there guns away.
The demise of America is at hand, in a few months the fiat currency is going to collapse, then you will see that there are others who are in control of America, and there fun has just begun.
All of you that voted for Obamanation I hope you are happy with the change at hand, and what is yet to come, your freedom is fleeing fast, soon you will be like slaves, do what I say our else.
Wake up America or is it to late.
I have noticed this situation changing into what it has changed into for at least 20 years. The United States is not immune to Police killings it is something that is finally arriving where as in other countries it has been going on it is just a matter of time before it start occuring here as other trends have.