EDITORIAL: Promoting police

Last weekend, New York City police officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were ambushed while sitting in their patrol car, executed by a lone shooter. The attack certainly resonated here in Las Vegas, where on June 8, Metro officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo were ambushed and killed by two shooters as they had lunch at a pizza place.

The motive these brutal shooters had to commit such atrocities may never be known, but to be sure, there has been an unseemly amount of anti-police rhetoric lately. These terrible crimes should serve as a reminder that such rhetoric is hardly rooted in any reality. The fact is that, as nationally syndicated columnist Larry Elder pointed out just two days before the New York City tragedy, it is extraordinarily rare for a police officer to shoot and kill a civilian.

Excluding practice on the gun range, Mr. Elder noted that 95 percent of all officers never discharge their firearm while in the line of duty, even those who work on larger forces, such as Metro or in New York City.

This is not to say police are infallible. People should demand the creation of systems that hold the very few bad officers accountable — up to and including getting them out of the profession. And in all police departments, there must be policies in place and training available that encourage doing everything reasonably possible to keep that 95 percent statistic stable, if not moving upward.

But in this important debate, it’s equally imperative that we don’t paint an entire department, let alone an entire profession, with a broad brush. Police officers overwhelmingly do a tremendous job, and at times under incredible duress. As we look back on two horrific incidents, it would do us all well to keep that in mind.