General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Sheriff's deputy killed in shooting at gas station [View all]branford
(4,462 posts)Last edited Sat Aug 29, 2015, 02:27 PM - Edit history (1)
as well as the individual. It is an assault against the polity at large and puts the public at risk.
That is the reason why the murder of officers and other public officials are more serious crimes, and unsurprisingly, the vast majority of people are quite interested in such a news story.
Moreover, we hear quite a lot more than a "peep" concerning controversial shootings involving police officers. Unless you've been living in a cave the last decade, such stories often totally saturate the news. However, many officer-involved shootings are not "senseless," at least how most people define the term, and were indeed legitimate exercises of lethal force, both as a legal matter and perceived as such by the general public. When an officer clearly defends themselves and the public against dangerous individuals, regardless of race, it rarely warrants more than a blurb on the local news.