Editorial for May 8, 2008 edition:


It’s a jungle out there

Anybody in the Philadelphia area who watched local TV news this weekend couldn’t help but be touched by the pathetic images on the screen. Grown men breaking into tears in the midst of being interviewed following the execution of yet another police officer. Tears dripping from the stunned faces of veteran police officers who had known Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski a little or a lot and average citizens who had tried in vain to save the dying policeman’s life.
We should be moved by what happened, but horribly, we should no longer be shocked. Three Philadelphia police officers — Northeast residents, all of them — assassinated in two years. One dead cop is one too many, but three in two years? Something’s wrong with this picture, and if three dead cops don’t inspire state legislators to take the National Rifle Association out of their pockets and pass real gun control legislation, they should be impeached.
With all due respect to District Attorney Lynne "Tough Cookie" Abraham, had she not agreed to spare the life of Solomon Montgomery, who killed another beloved police officer, Gary Skerski, two years ago, maybe, just maybe, Sgt. Liczbinski’s killers would have been too scared to shoot a cop this time around. We’ll never know for sure, but the DA made a terrible moral mistake in not pushing to execute Montgomery. She doesn’t make many mistakes, but that one was a big one.
Who among us is sad that Howard Cain, who police believe shot and killed Sgt. Liczbinski, was himself shot and killed by police shortly after the sergeant was killed? If Cain was guilty of murder, he got what he deserved.
And if he was innocent, oh well, sorry about that. The police have a lot on their hands. Unlike Sgt. Liczbinski’s killers, cops are only human. ••

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