On the day when Miami officially mourned two police officers murdered while trying to execute an arrest warrant on a subject wanted for murder, two St. Petersburg, Florida officers were murdered trying to execute an arrest warrant on a subject wanted for another violent crime, aggravated battery.
If you listen closely you can hear the blame beginning to spread beyond where it should be. In Miami, it's why Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officers weren't deployed to arrest a suspect wanted for the ultimate crime. And in St. Petersburg it will be, "Why didn't they learn from Miami?"
Of course we should protect our law enforcement officers with weapons and tactics and armor and any other "special" means we can. That is not enough. It should not be enough. It should not be necessary to cloak our law enforcement officers in kryptonite for them to do their jobs. If, no not if, since the streets of America are that unsafe for our law enforcement officers Americans should look for answers from, and to blame, that which these officers are employed to enforce, the law. It is America's system of laws, my profession, that has failed those murdered in St. Petersburg today, in Miami on January 20, in Tucson on January 8. The law has failed America.
