On June 25, 2013 the Los Angeles Times reported that two LAPD officers were ambushed as they were waiting for the gate to open at the station parking lot. On the same day, in a different part of town, another LAPD officer and a parole agent were shot inside a home during a search.
Although it appeared that both shootings were unrelated, it brings up the dangers that police throughout the United States face on a daily basis. Both situations were on different ends of the threat level meter. One occured out of nowhere, while officers are sitting in a relatively safe area in a police vehicle waiting to enter the police parking lot. They were ambushed from the rear and fired on in a location where the threat level would be considered very low.
In the second shooting, the officer and the parole agent were in a much more heightened threat level as they searched a residence for a suspect.
Police work is a job that can go from sheer boredom to extreme danger in the blink of an eye. Cops are always looking, their minds working like a computer that can register things in a nano-second that 'don't seem right' or are 'out of place.' The work is extremely mentally taxing.
Cops are the ultimate symbol of authority in our society. They are the ones that can take away a person's freedom. They are the ones who stop people from acting out there worst behavior on others. There are really bad people out their with a grudge against society and the people that stand between them and us are the police. These people obey their own code, and shooting a cop is their ultimate defiance against the society they hate.
Whether there uniform cops on patrol or detectives working on cases, once they hit the street, they are always on alert. Even when off-duty, they're always looking. You cant turn it off. The price they pay for that over a career is often high blood pressure, broken marriages and alcoholism. It comes with the job. But they are the sheep dogs who protect the sheep from the wolves who would prey on them.
