Two Des Moines Police Officers Ambushed

Burke M. Pitz                                                                 11/22/2016, Des Moines, Iowa

On the morning of November 2nd, Scott Michael Greene ambushed two Des Moines police officer, Officer Justin Martin and Sgt. Anthony Beminio. They were two separate attacks that happened at 1:06 AM and 1:26 AM.

The first ambush occurred at the intersection of 70th street and Aurora Avenue, the second at the intersection of Merle Hay Road and Sheridan Avenue. There appears to be no motive for the ambushes because neither officer reported a confrontation or made a distress call. Both officers were found shot in their cars at said intersections.

So, when Cooper Craiger was asked about how he felt about the shootings, he said, "It's really sad whenever any innocent lives are taken. It is even sadder when the people killed are police officers who were just doing their job. They were just trying to keep our area civilized and safe. They did not deserve this, nobody deserves this. Nobody".

The police force has been around since 1838, and was created to decrease crime and keep citizens safe. However, throughout the past few months, everything in the media seems to be about the police wrongfully killing or injuring someone, and this is giving officers everywhere a bed reputation. There have been people across the entire country protesting police brutality, and many people have strong opinions about the police in the United States.

However, in the past few months, there have also been several attacks against the police officers in several cities, including the one here in Des Moines. There are theories that there is a direct relationship and that some of the attacks against the police are a kind of retaliation and revenge for police officers who have killed civilians. There is not enough evidence to support these theories, but they appear to be highly likely. This behavior between some officers and some civilians demonstrates that the United States is not a utopia. There are flaws, but the United States was built on the Founding Fathers attempting to minimize the flaws in society and form, "a more perfect Union". So, mistakes are going to be made, such as those recent mistakes involving incidents between the police force and civilians, but it must be understood that America is a "more perfect Union", not a perfect Union.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/02/us/iowa-police-shooting/

http://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-1 

Today, I would like to share my opinion on the men and women who protect our country. Both those who serve overseas and those who serve inside the borders of the United States of America are heroes in my opinion.
They risk their lives everyday to keep Americans safe and most expect nothing in return. Their job is to fight crime and terror and they risk everything they have when they are on the job. Both police officers and those in the Armed Forces sacrifice many of the things they love so that we the people of the United States do not have to sacrifice the things we love. These men and women are also forced to make many tough decisions on the job including many decisions that could be the difference between life and death. These people have true courage. They do not do their job for their own benefits, they do it for our benefit. With the recent incidents involving police officers and civilians, many people are beginning to make assumptions and classifications about police officers in general. These assumptions and classifications are unfair because these incidents only involve a minuscule portion of all police officers. People break out in protests every time a cop kills a civilian, but these people do not protest when a police officer is killed by a civilian. All lives matter. It is not fair to go out and judge police officers and to hate on the people who keep our country as civilized as possible. People are questioning police officers, but the real question they should be thinking about is, why are these police officers being questioned? They are being questioned because of some individuals' actions, but if that is the case, then why not look at some individuals who were on the other side of the killings. When asked why police officers are heroes, Robert Walker had an excellent response. He said, "I guess the policemen in Dallas who were protecting the black protestors and got shot were heroes defending the right to protest. However, you could say they are heroes every day putting their lives on the line to protect others. It takes a lot of restraint and discipline to be able to do so without ‘stepping on toes.’". People probably don't even remember the shootout in Dallas when police officers were ambushed while protecting those who were protesting against the police brutality. Those police officers were helping keep people safe, even though those people were protesting against the police. That goes to show how there are a lot of good cops out there. Some of those police officers in Dallas were killed because they were protecting people's right to protest and freedom of speech. This is a prime example of officers risking it all in order to keep our country civilized and fair, and for that, those officers in Dallas that day were all heroes. However, cops don't have to be killed or attacked in order to be heroes. Every cop is a hero in my eyes because they do everything in their power to ensure that we the people maintain our rights and are acting as law abiding citizens. Many people take this for granted and don't appreciate everything cops do for them. There are countless reasons to be thankful for police men and women, however this article outlines eighteen reasons in paritcular, https://www.theodysseyonline.com/19-reasons-to-thank-police-officer . I think that if everyone would just read that article, they would realize how grateful they should be. They would also understand how uncivilized our country would be if we got rid of the police. For these reasons, I encourage everyone to take a minute and think about how different your life would be if we didn't have the police force keeping us safe. I also encourage everyone to thank the next police officer they see because showing your appreciation means a lot to our officers and it is the least we can do for them after all they do for us.

https://www.quora.com/What-makes-a-police-officer-a-hero

Introduction

 My name is Burke Pitz and I am a sophomore. I enjoy playing basketball, baseball, and golf. I also really like hanging out with my friends. My favorite food is bacon and I could eat it with literally every meal. I like to listen to music in my free time as well.
My blog is going to be about how nice and kind police can be because in today's world, all people tend to focus on is how negative everyone can be and not on all the good that is being done in the world. When people focus on all the bad that is going around, those people tend to be less happy and more stressed than those who focus on the positives and see the good in every situation. There are so many good deeds every day that go by unnoticed by citizens where as if anything terrible happens, people argue and fight about how terrible that is and how awful our society is today. However, the amount of good deeds far surpasses the amount of tragedies but these good deeds are just simply taken for granted.
A prime example of the good being overlooked by the bad is with our police officers. After a few police officers have harmed innocent African Americans, all police officers have had their reputations questioned. However, what people don't notice is the countless lives the police force save each year. The number of people killed by the police is far less than the number of lives saved by the police every year. A blog related to this talks about police brutality and people killed by the police.  http://www.racismreview.com/blog/tag/police-brutality/ However this article does not mention anything about how good the police force is and how they keep cities civilized. Sure there are some bad cops out there who are not doing good, however in general, the police force is good and is taken for granted to an absurd measure. These men and women who make up the police force risk their lives everyday on the job to make sure we can live ours knowing someone is looking out for us and making sure we are safe. A blog related to this is about the two officers who were shot and killed the other week here in Des Moines. http://www.theatlantic.com/liveblogs/2016/11/des-moines-officers-killed/506222/ These two men died while protecting our community and this has sparked rallies to support the police. However, it should not take two men dying to get the community to show support for our officers, this support and respect should be shown on a daily basis because these people have the toughest jobs in the world. They are put in dangerous situations where they have to make split second decisions that will be highly scrutinized. If a wrong decision is made, it could end up in their life being taken away or even someone else's lives. We just need to make sure we always look at the positives of every situation, because whenever something bad happens, there is always a positive and good things that happen as a result. Such as when and innocent live is taken, our community rallies together in support of this person and unifies us. So, just remember to always stay positive and look at the bright side of every situation and you will be much happier.