03-28-09
- Thousands At Funeral For Fallen Oakland Police Officers (sfgate video) "Some 19,000 law-enforcement officers from coast to coast gathered for a final send-off for four slain Oakland police officers who died in separate incidents hours apart on Saturday in East Oakland" -- Something seems very distorted and out of balance about the opulence and ostentation of this unfortunate event. I'm sure some of the officers attending were actually doing it on their day off; I suspect the majority were not. Oakland apparently gave all their police officers and complete office staffs time off so they could attend the memorial to show solidarity. If the entire gathering were not being paid for by taxpayers all over the country, would the police make such a show of their fallen comrades' memorial? How much crime was not prevented because 19,000 police officers were absent from their usual beats in their nearby and distant hometowns? -- How many of our 4,200+ --not four--fallen Iraq soldiers have received such a sendoff? Most police are a genuine credit to their community and it is indeed unfortunate when a police officer falls in the line of duty. It is also indeed unfortunate when so many hundreds of people receive unnecessary and undeserved death penaltys from the guns and tasers in some police officers' trigger-happy hands. How many of those murdered victims receive a big sendoff attended by thousands of police officers at taxpayer expense?
- Almahata Sitta 15 (Asteroid Fragments) (apod)
