Shoot up in Philadelphia – cops injured. I’m a simple guy and I’m worried.

I spent a lot of my youth in squad cars, police stations and jails.

Before, you libs nod and sputter, “That explains a lot.  That’s why you HATE VATICAN II!”

My folks were cops.

I grew up surrounded by cops, who were a major component of all activities and events, with their families, too.  Great people.  This was wholesome America in tough times and places.  It was a gift and honor.

My default position is that cops are family.

I have LEO friends all over.  There’s something about old cops, old soldiers and old priests… we get each other… we get along.

I’m watching the situation in Philadelphia.  Cops serving a warrant take fire and the perp is still penned up as I write.

I got on the phone to my mother tonight.  In her day, she and her partner served a lot of warrants.  The world has changed. Now, full SWAT teams go. I  texted tonight with a couple of cops still on the job, one of whom ran SWAT in a major city.  He once had a warrant situation that went sideways with serious injuries and a truly horrific ending.  I wound up going to the hospital to visit the officers.

Friends, our society is changing.   Support Law Enforcement.  One of the most evil things I’ve seen in the last few years is the rise of hostility toward cops.

The same attitude has infected the Church.  Anti-nomian libs and bad guys set against Tradition are infesting our Church.  Parallel theological shootouts are going to happen.

Apparently, in Philly the perp is live streaming on Facebook, or some such.  As I write.

DAMN.  How does that work??!?!

These cops had to deal with being shot at through the walls and floors.

Digression.   Did you know that overturned wooden tables don’t protect you from gun fire? You might be less visible, but even small caliber rounds go through walls, floors, cars. You know what? Sometimes anti-gun morons will say something like, “Why didn’t the cops shoot the gun out of his hand?” The sheer IGNORANCE is….

A change to laws. background checks, wouldn’t have stopped this.

I’ll stop.

I don’t know.  As a priest, I yearn for calm and mercy even toward this guy.  Who knows what life circumstances have driven these poor souls to this point?  Who knows how high this guy is?  Who knows?  I can’t imagine how horrible his youth was compared to mine.  It’s hard to understand it.  But these people in general have had no moral examples, no upbringing except by the jungle, and no hope.

But, can I please say it and not be entirely misrepresented?

I’m a simple guy.

It’s getting to the point where some of these perps want to go out in a blaze.  They say this guy is LIVE STREAMING.  This is the apex of his life?  (Now short.)

If he is taken, however, taken alive… I think they should be… here it comes… made example of.

Charlies Daniels made a compelling argument.

Charlie Daniels Band – Simple Man

I ain’t nothin’ but a simple man
They call me a redneck I reckon that I am
But there’s things going on
That make me mad down to the core.

I have to work like a dog to make ends meet
There’s crooked politicians and crime in the street
And I’m madder’n hell and I ain’t gonna take it no more.

We tell our kids to just say no
Then some panty waist judge lets a drug dealer go
Slaps him on the wrist and then he turns him back out on the town.

Now if I had my way with people sellin’ dope
I’d take a big tall tree and a short piece of rope
I’d hang ’em up high and let ’em swing ’til the sun goes down

Well, you know what’s wrong with the world today
People done gone and put their Bible’s away
They’re living by the law of the jungle not the law of the land
The good book says it so I know it’s the truth
An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth  [Lex talionis… not so much…]
You better watch where you go and remember where you been
That’s the way I see it I’m a Simple Man.

Now I’m the kinda man that’d not harm a mouse
But if I catch somebody breakin in my house
I’ve got twelve gauge shotgun waiting on the other side

So don’t go pushing me against my will
I don’t want to have to fight you but I dern sure will
So if you don’t want trouble then you’d better just pass me on by

As far as I’m concerned there ain’t no excuse
For the raping and the killing and the child abuse [! hear that,”brethren”?]
And I’ve got a way to put an end to all that mess

Just take them rascals out in the swamp
Put ’em on their knees and tie ’em to a stump
Let the rattlers and the bugs and the alligators do the rest

You know what’s wrong with the world today
People done gone and put their Bible’s away
They’re living by the law of the jungle not the law of the land
The Good Book says it so I know it’s the truth
An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth
You better watch where you go and remember where you been
That’s the way I see it I’m a Simple Man

Now the libs will have a spittle-flecked nutty and say that I am against Francis and the change to CCC 2267 about capital punishment.

A lot happens between apprehension and penalty.

The rot in society was caused in large part because THE CATHOLIC CHURCH abandoned being The Catholic Church.  After decades, we are seeing the inevitable results across the board.

UPDATE: He eventually was talked down and came out on his own. Do I still think a stump and gators are the answer. Ask me again late.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Cri de Coeur, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices, Wherein Fr. Z Rants and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

11 Comments

  1. Gerard Plourde says:

    The report of live-streaming appears to be unconfirmed at this time.

    Thankfully, the six officers have all been treated and released from the hospitals. All are expected to recover fully.

    There were two officers trapped in the house along with some other individuals who may have been held by the gunman. All of these have safely existed the house within the last couple of hours.

    Only the gunman remains in the house and he is totally surrounded by police who are waiting him out.

  2. jgrigorian says:

    Great post Father

  3. KateD says:

    President Trump needs to offer a full pardon to Julienne Assange in exchange for his help in discovering the correlation between the recent shootings. Two is a coincidence, three is a pattern… Especially this close to an election that liberals are so desperate to win. Yes, I believe elements on the left are that depraved…we narrowly escaped having one as president. And we need to start praying those 54 day novenas for President Trump and the nation.

  4. KateD says:

    Also, over a decade ago, a dear friend who was a Leo and a decorated vet from a prestigious unit was responding to a domestic violence call. As the officers approached the front door, one of the denizens of the residence began to fire upon them. The K9 leapt into action and took the fatal bullet intended for his fellow (human) officers. Several back up units arrived shortly after. The point is this is a pretty standard standard peril for Leos. Today bad guys went after them with a gun. Tomorrow it’s a car or a knife. Bad guys don’t like being caught and put in jail. It is the down side of the job. Always has been. It doesn’t diminish the tragic nature of these incidences, but making more gun laws will not prevent them, because by definition criminals are not law abiding citizens. The orchestrators of these shootings (or perhaps it’s just what and how mainstream media is choosing to cover news in the lead up to the election?) don’t want you to think logically about these events…they want a visceral knee jerk response that results in stricter gun control.

  5. Spinmamma says:

    I agree with you, Father Z. As a prosecutor I worked with many officers over the years, did ride alongs, and still have many of them as life long friends. One thing about this situation I find especially tragic. It is true that many people in the African American community believe all of that hype about cops looking for any excuse to kill a black person. (Sadly, there have been a few very rare instances of outright murder by officers, who were convicted.) I do wonder if some of the irrational desperation we see in this kind of situation arises out of the belief that the perpetrator thinks he might as well go down fighting because the police are going to kill him anyway. Statements such as the one from Elizabeth Warren recently only exacerbate this terrible belief and are contributing to the loss of life, both of officers, of innocents, and of the criminals. It makes me heartsick, because I know the vast majority of officers are kind persons who respect the lives of all they contact I wish the political race baiters would just go away until they develop a well ordered conscience. Knowing that is not going to happen, all we can do is pray, and speak up in defense of our police.

  6. Semper Gumby says:

    God bless the men and women of the Police, the Coast Guard, ICE, Border Patrol, etc.

    Libs, most of the USCCB and a few folks in the Vatican should participate in the ride-along program to better educate themselves.

  7. Kathleen10 says:

    I am really hoping the president or Atty Gen Barr puts a “fast track” for the death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer. An attack on an officer is an attack on civil society and order. Taken to the extreme, if enough of those happened, why would anyone be an officer? If we don’t have enough officers, we can see the savagery that exists, we would be living in Thunderdome. They are what separate us all from chaos, mayhem, and mass brutality, so we can’t have this. Too many officers have been killed, it’s become, as you mentioned Fr. Z., a way to go out in glory.
    Glory on their way to hell, but that doesn’t occur to them.
    What is that about desperate times call for desperate measures? Get due process down to 30 days. If there is no doubt you did it, you’re gone. If we did that, these shootings against officers would stop. Few want to die within 30 days, and it’s not so glamorous getting strapped into a chair to be lit up or get a shot. We need to get serious about crime because society is rapidly spinning out of control. People who want to play patty cake with these hard core perpetrators are to me, nuts. They live in a bubble or behind a wall and don’t get it. I’m with Charlie Daniels, 100%.

    [The problems with our society are not going to be solved with the death penalty. There are so many cracks in the dike, so many problems eroding our mores that it is hard to see a way out. One thing for sure, however, is what Charlie Daniels said: People done gone and put their Bible’s away. So many problems. Still, if there are not serious consequences for perps who attack cops… whether with rounds or with water… the civil unrest is going to be horrific and soon.]

  8. JonathanTX says:

    There is a remarkable video lecture by Yale Classics Professor Donald Kagan, where he discusses the origin of Western Civilization, and its twin pillars of Judeo-Christian fides and Greek ratio. One relevant quote:

    Nietzsche announced the death of God and Dostoyevsky’s Grand Inquisitor asserted that when God is dead all things are permitted. Nihilism rejects any objective basis for society and its morality. It rejects the very concept of objectivity. It even rejects the possibility of communication itself, and a vulgar form of Nihilism, I claim, has a remarkable influence in our educational system today, a system rotting from the head down, so chiefly in universities, but all the way down to elementary schools. The consequences of the victory of such ideas, I believe, would be enormous. If both religion and reason are removed, all that remains is will and power, where the only law is the law of tooth and claw.

  9. RK3 says:

    Violence against law enforcement is uncalled for and will cause a person to end up in hell if they don’t repent and change their lives.

    However, Fr. Z., you may be living too much in the past with your support for law enforcement. [?!?] In leftists cities they have been shown to stand down and not protect innocent persons merely because of the innocent persons’ political and/or religious beliefs. [NO! NO! and NO! They stand down because they fear they won’t be backed by the mayor, chief, press.]

    There is a saying that “power tends to corrupt”; well, that can be modified to say that “powerful, covert government positions in law enforcement with sovereign immunity tends to attract already corrupt and evil people”. Just do your own research on “otherwise illegal activity”; the FBI allows itself to covertly commit felonies – and, it is evident that the FBI is/was run by a bunch of leftists. This is not good. [That’s the FBI, which got that way under the Obama Administration.]

    [The rest was removed… by me.]

  10. bigtex says:

    Read Dr. E. Michael Jones’ book “Slaughter of the Cities”. You’ll understand what happened to northern cities like Philly, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, etc. The ethnic Catholic neighborhoods in these cities back in the mid-20th Century, were gaining way too much political clout as far as the oligarchs in power were concerned (mostly WASPs and Jews). So these two groups conspired together to move blacks up from the South into these Catholic neighborhoods. This was both unjust to Southern blacks who were uprooted from their cultures, and the ethnic Catholics. Crime in these neighborhoods rose, and Catholics fled to the suburbs where they lost their identity and political power. It was all intentional, and the black family ended up being hurt most of all. These cities today are still suffering from the fallout. Most of these suburban Catholics now simply identify as “white”, which makes it easy for the oligarchs to marginalize them as white-privileged racists. So where was the U.S. Catholic Church in all of this mess? Read the book.

  11. Semper Gumby says:

    RK3 wrote:

    “In leftists cities they have been shown to stand down and not protect innocent persons merely because of the innocent persons’ political and/or religious beliefs.”

    To reinforce Fr. Z’s remarks in red, note that after the 2015 Baltimore riots arrests are down significantly while murders have increased.

    Also, there is the situation in Portland. The Mayor is also the Police commissioner, and has been criticized, such as after recent Antifa riots, for ordering police not to intervene.

    A statement by the President of the Portland Police Association:

    “If this violence had been directed at Antifa, there would have been an immediate call for an independent, outside investigation. This is a perfect example of Portland politics at work and why our great City is now under fire in the national news.”

    This raises the Broken Windows approach to law enforcement. If a Mayor in Portland or Baltimore allows one faction to riot, what will follow is an atmosphere of lawlessness and an increase in crime. In other words, to an extent, anarchy.

    “…powerful, covert government positions in law enforcement with sovereign immunity tends to attract already corrupt and evil people.”

    There are rogues in any organization, no regular Joe or Jane doing a tough job wants them in that organization or on their team. The average Joe and Jane are also not amused by the antics of certain political appointees.

    Furthermore, law enforcement has a background check as part of the application process, followed by extensive training. Essentially, the more sensitive the position the more rigorous the screening.

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