The Minneapolis Shooting
Saints and Sinners - Cops and Criminals
By Dennis Brent Melby
You can feel badly for both of them. A young woman shouldn't end up dead when she was engaged in civil disobedience, even though she went too far. A law officer with ICE shouldn't end up with a shooting on his conscience because he made a split second decision based on his previous experience of being hospitalized from being hit, injured and dragged by another person in another car.
Things are not often black and white, life (and death) but are many shades of grey. We firmly Back the Blue, we're on their side and have hated the Defund the Police movement and racial stereotyping so many have used in the last decade. ...and some of the fiercest critics of bad cop behavior are other cops! They hate it in the rare instances when one of their own has a split second life or death decision. 
In the same vein we all want our rights to demonstrate - it's enshrined in our Constitution (the world's best!) and we've been on both sides. Here in MoCo and greater DC so many folks went to the Capitol four years ago hoping to have a peaceful demonstration and be heard - only to have the event hijacked by a small group of ne'er do wells intent on causing harm to the Congress, the Cops and our political process. Loads of our good folks were there, and they all came back home when they saw the mayhem that developed, mayhem that they didn't want and couldn't stop for hours.We need to step back, understand each other, respect each other and act like great Americans. Dial back the hate. Understand each other a little more, and distrust each other a lot less. No Kings Protest - Campus Rallies - Free Palestine Marches - Shutdowns, Assassinations, Tesla bonfires and the like don't help to form a more perfect union...they do the opposite. And we don't want that.
Yes, saints and sinners, cops and criminals...when what we really need to do is speak to our Better Angels.
__________
Dennis Brent Melby, is the 2026 Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman. He's a previous 4 term Councilmember in Friendship Heights and former local REALTOR President. To reach him email [email protected].
Do you like this post?