![]() With the hot summer of protests turning into an equally angry election autumn, issues of police violence, and the breakouts of violent anti-police protests are sure to dominate the nation's attention. The brazen attack on officers was widely condemned, but it also was a reminder of the perils that police officers face every day – real dangers that the anti-police protesters largely overlook. County sheriff’s deputies were shot and injured in a violent ambush by an unidentified individual in Compton. The incident also comes at a sensitive time for the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-police sentiment generally. ![]() As polls show a tightening race in Pennsylvania, undoubtedly voters in the Keystone State and across the country will be closely watching how Biden responds to the incident, and whether he defends the police and condemns the violent protestors in a city he just visited last week. With President Trump centering much of his reelection campaign on issues of law and order, Trump is likely to quickly seize on the riot in Lancaster as further evidence of the need for more, not less, aggressive policing in America. The fact that the incident occurred in a smaller city, and in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, also poses a significant challenge to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Riots like those that occurred overnight in Lancaster also play into the hands of those who are claiming that the anti-police protestors don’t discern between the conduct of police who are doing their job, and those who are acting improperly or in a racially-motivated manner. Conflating incidents like the one that just occurred in Lancaster with ones where there is much greater evidence of police misconduct dilutes both the power and the purpose of rightful outrage against unjustified police actions. The obvious fact is, not every police-officer initiated shooting is the same, and reacting to each one with similar violent protests is not only wrong, but it is shortsighted.
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