It was sadly inevitable that the inflamed rhetoric of people chanting for justice – based on supposed eyewitness accounts of the death of the so-called “unarmed teenaged” in Ferguson which were disproven by irrefutable forensic evidence – has in some way led to the assassination of two New York City police officers. That’s not to say that what just happened in Brooklyn would not have happened anyway, but clearly the perpetrator felt strongly enough to post on line his promise that two white police officers must die for every black person killed at the hands of the police. With every mentally disturbed person in our society in possession of a gun – or able to secure one quickly – the chants of “No Justice, No Peace!” can easily be interpreted as a call to retaliation or revenge. “No, no, that’s not what we meant by our slogan,” say the protesters. What then did you mean? You put the words out there, to be interpreted however the hearer wishes to interpret them.  These tragic events are nothing new. Police officers – human beings, don’t forget – have been shot and killed for years for no other reason than that they are police officers, representatives of society’s attempt to keep its populace safe and secure. No one puts on the uniform of the police without being aware that, by doing so, they have become a target to many. No one puts on the uniform of the police without being aware, as well, that there are as many handguns in the United States as people and that it takes but an instant for a gun to be pointed out them and fired.

Now, can anyone be surprised that police officers fear for their lives whenever they find themselves in confrontation with the deranged or with those who have likely committed a crime?