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We need to fire-up
"Old Sparky" in order to provide the best seat in the house for all
cop killers!!!
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On this date, May 23, 1934, Infamous American bank
robbers Bonnie and Clyde are ambushed by police and
killed in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. We will post this article on why the federal
death penalty for cop killers are needed, although we believe the federal death
penalty should be use for all murders.
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Execution of
defendants—Engel, Fischer, Parsons, and Spies
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Why we need
the federal death penalty for cop killers: Opinion
By Donald j. mehalek
and Richard m. Frenkel
May 22, 2019,
5:54 PM ET
The suspect
was sheathed in camouflage body armor, wore a helmet and carried an M4 style
rifle -- a shorter, lighter version of the M16 assault rifle -- when police
arrived earlier this week at the Arrowhead Mobile Home Park in Coffee County,
Alabama in response to a call about a domestic disturbance.
This wasn’t
the suspect’s first brush with the law. According to court records and
reporting by the Associated Press, last November a local woman asked a judge
for a court order protecting her from alleged abuse by the man.
She accused
him of sexually assaulting her while she was incapacitated and feared he would
harm her after learning she was pressing charges, according to reports. The
Alabama judge refused the protection order following a hearing in January,
ruling the woman didn't have a "qualifying relationship" with the
suspect, whom she said she did not know before the alleged assault.
When police
arrived, the suspect allegedly opened fire, killing veteran Auburn, Alabama
police officer William Buechner and wounding two other responding law
enforcement officers.
As we await
the results of the full investigation into the shooting, it’s reasonable to
assume that the suspect knew officers were coming and intentionally waiting to
attack them – hence the body armor and helmet.
Unfortunately,
these types of ambush attacks against law enforcement officers aren’t new.
Over the last
few years, we have seen a steady increase in ambush style attacks and felonious
killings of law enforcement officers with 2016 spiking to over 170 officers
killed in the line of duty overall. Ambush style attacks that year were up 62%
We’ve also
witnessed an overall increase in the number of assaults against law enforcement
officers with 58,627 assaults in 2016 rising to 61, 995 in 2017. Current FBI
statistics indicate that although overall officer deaths from all causes have
declined so far this year, the majority of those deaths have been reported as
feloniously killed in 2019.
In the case
of the Alabama killing, the state charged the suspect with capital murder,
three counts of attempted murder and a count of second-degree domestic abuse,
which carries the possibility of the death penalty, in Alabama. .
“When you
shoot a police officer, we’re going to pursue the death penalty,” Lee County
District Attorney Brandon Hughes reportedly said at a news conference
announcing the charges against the Alabama suspect.
And while
Alabama has a death penalty, it is only one of 32 states that do, even when a
police officer is killed.
Why won’t
states institute the death penalty, at the least for those that kill cops?
“I
feel sorry for the officer,” a candidate for district attorney in Contra Costa
County, California said last year in response to a question about why he didn’t
support the death penalty for those that are convicted of killing law
enforcement officers. “It’s part of the risk they take
as being an officer of the law.”
This was
followed by California’s governor signing a death penalty moratorium, even for
cop killers. Even in Florida, the state Supreme Court overturned the death
penalty for two cop killers.
We have some
states that have and follow death penalty laws and others that don't. We see
local district attorneys and governors that also won't follow their states laws
or -- some may argue --- can go overboard with it. These inconsistencies can
subject the victims and their families to an uneven application of justice.
That ongoing,
uneven application of justice may be what prompted President Donald Trump last
week, at a podium in front of the US. Capitol during the annual National Peace
Officers’ Memorial Service, to declare that “The ambushes and attacks on our
police must end, and they must end right now.”
“We believe
that criminals who murder police officers should immediately, but with trial,
get the death penalty,” he said. “But quickly. The trial should go fast. It’s
got to be fair, but it’s got to go fast.” The statement drew a round of
applause from law enforcement officers in attendance.
U.S. law
enforcement understands all too well that if someone is willing to
intentionally target law enforcement officers for murder, they would likely
target anyone, making them among the most dangerous individuals walking free on
the streets of the nation today.
“If
you murder or target a police officer for murder, you should expect the
harshest possible penalty.”
Senator
Patrick Toomey recognizes this, too, and re-introduced the “Thin Blue Line Act”
which passed out of the House of Representatives last year but never got a vote
in the Senate. This bill would make the killing of law enforcement officers a
death penalty-eligible offense in the federal court system.
In his
remarks, Senator Toomey said that “It’s about the criminal that would actually
single out and kill a law enforcement officer. That is the most dangerous type
of person in our society and that’s why this is an appropriate response.”
“If you
murder or target a police officer for murder, you should expect the harshest
possible penalty,” Toomey added – and he is right.
Clearly,
since only 32 states have the death penalty and many states and their
prosecutors can be more apt to make political rather than policy decisions
concerning cop killers, it would seem the federal court system may be the last
bastion of justice for these most dangerous among us. To be fair, the same
holds true when a state judicial systems fails to police their police and the
federal system steps in, usually with federal civil rights charges.
The American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has questioned the need for a federal death
penalty law -- saying that almost every federal death penalty case that
involved the killing or targeting of a police officer would already include
several “aggravating factors” and that those that kill local police officers
would also be subject to the harshest possible state-level punishments --
including the death penalty in states that allow it.
The ACLU and
others need to look no further than to the states with no death penalty and
even in the ones that do, where political decisions about what punishments to
seek in cop killer cases are made.
Opinions
expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of ABC News.
Richard
Frankel is an ABC News contributor and retired FBI special agent who was the
special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark Division and prior to that, the
FBI's NY Joint Terrorism TASK force. He is currently the Vice President of
Investigation for T&M Protection Resources.
Donald J.
Mihalek is an ABC News contributor, retired senior Secret Service agent and
regional field training instructor who also serves as the executive vice
president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation.
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It should be automatic and it should happen as
soon as the jury says GUILTY.
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SOURCE: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/federal-death-penalty-cop-killers-opinion/story?id=63181782
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