Yesterday a cop was shot and killed in Colorado Springs. The officer, Jarred Jensen, was on duty and actually performing a duty that the citizenry expects from their police, apprehending someone who in the past month stabbed his own sister several times. The criminal, Jereme Lamberth AKA Jereme Scheinhardt, was apprehended later that day.
The failure of the system is for a later post, this one concerns the value that is placed on a cop's life vs the value that is placed upon a citizen's life. Just why is it that a cop's life is so sacred? Why is it that when a cop is shot the entire police force comes out and locks down businesses and schools and streets, but when a citizen is shot the response is to send a few cars and plot the crime scene? It isnt just this one incident. There are many examples, and I am sure that you can think of some yourselves.
Often people will say that it is because cops have one of the most dangerous jobs. That one falls to stats which show that the police are never even near the top 10 (with the exception of 2001 due to 9-11.)
Others will state that it is because cops are there to protect us. This is also not the case as I have posted on before, and the last police officer killed in Colorado Springs was back in 1982 so this is a very safe place to be a cop so it isnt like we hear of their deaths on a regular basis. In fact a citizen is 430 times more likely to be murdered than a cop in this city. (Latest stats carried back 24 years since that last cop was killed. OT, the pictures the city has chosen for these pages are rather entertaining)
So the question is this? What makes the life of a cop more valuable than that of a citizen?