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An incident in San Francisco, California is the latest involving shots being fired at police. But is this connected to others that have occurred since two NYPD officers were killed?
Police in San Francisco arrested a man Thursday, charging him with attempted murder after exchanging gunfire with the suspect.
Two officers responding to reports of gunshots early Thursday were fired upon by a hidden gunman, according to South San Francisco Police Department. The officers were not hurt and police officials gave no motive for the alleged shooting incident.
The issue of policing in the United States has been under scrutiny over the last year due to a number of black males being killed by law enforcement.
However, the December 20 shooting of two New York police officers by a gunman who said he was seeking to avenge the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers has been used by conservatives and police officials across North America to condemn protestors.
The head of the police union in New York has claimed that police are being targeted for “execution” and had deliberately worked to link anti-police brutality protests to the killings of the officers. This despite the fact that the suspect in that shooting, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, reportedly had a history of emotional and mental health issues and a New York police detective stated that Brinsley had tried to commit suicide recently. Additionally, Brinsley had shot his ex-girlfriend in the early morning of December 20 in Baltimore before heading to New York and shooting the two police officers.
A day later in Florida, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that a police officer was killed after responding to a shooting. While officials did not speak about motives, quickly speculation began about a possible “copy cat” to the New York shooting. It was later confirmed that the assailant had not premeditated the shooting.
In Los Angeles, police claimed that officers in a patrol car had been “ambushed” and been shot at by two suspects on December 28. That incident triggered a citywide alert with dozens of police officers descending on the area. Police went so far as to claim it was “premeditated”.
Yet a two days later Los Angeles Deputy Police Chief Bob Green recanted that version of events, telling the LA Times, “[We] can’t say definitively it was an attack on police officers or that they drove into something.”
Like his counterpart in New York, the head of the police union in Los Angeles is working to stoke fears that police are being deliberately targeted, claiming in the statement that the shootings in Los Angeles were committed by “suspects who simply wanted to kill police officers.”
These sorts of statements by the police union leaders have been criticized as an attempt to absolve the police of responsibility and accountability in the face of a mass movement demanding police reform.
Despite what appears to be a spate of shootings involving police, it does not appear that these shootings are motivated by a quest for vengeance for police brutality.
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