4 police officers shot in 24 hours on Sunday.

A person of interest in the San Antonio case. CBS News/San Antonio Police Department

Four police officers were shot, one fatally, in four separate incidents across the country yesterday. CBS News. In San Antonio, officer Benjamin Marconi, a 20 year veteran, was killed while writing a traffic attack in what has been described as an ambush attack. In St. Louis, another officer was shot twice in the face in a separate ambush attack, though that officer is expected to survive. This officer was not involved in any traffic or call but was shot while sitting in his car, and the suspect, who was wanted for violent crimes, was later shot and killed by other officers. In Gladstone, Missouri, another officer was shot in a traffic stop incident that devolved into a gunfight. The suspect in that incident was killed and the officer suffered non-life threatening injuries. Finally, in Florida, a Sanibel officer was shot in the shoulder during a traffic stop. The incidents come after this summer's attacks in Dallas and Baton Rouge and several other incidents where police officers were murdered in ambush style attacks. 

My Comment:

I'm not even going to pretend to be impartial about these attacks. I have a lot of friends who are cops and I am honestly worried about all of them. These kinds of ambush murders are becoming all too common and I am hoping that I won't wake up someday to see someone I know in the news as a victim of one of these attacks. If that happens, I am going to be extremely angry and extremely sad... 

I have to note that the Sanibel shooting has been described by other outlets as a drive-by style attack, and should probably be counted in along with the San Antonio and St. Louis attacks. In all three cases officers were targeted specifically even though they were not doing anything especially dangerous. The forth case, in Missouri, seems like a much more "routine", as if there is such a thing, police involved shooting, and shouldn't really be considered part of the trend. It's obviously still a tragedy though. 

And yes, there is a trend. Cops have always faced danger doing their jobs, but this is the first time in my memory that the police are being targeted for assassination. This goes far beyond the normal dangers of being a cop and crosses over into actual terrorism. 

It's unclear what, if any, cause these attacks were done for. It could very well be that one or more of these attacks were just random. I don't think it is likely but it is certainly possible, there are a lot of crazy people out there that attack others for reasons that make no sense to anyone. We can't discount these being the actions of a lone psycho(s). 

 Another possible motivation is Islamic terrorism. ISIS and other groups have long called on "lone wolf" terrorists to attack and kill police officers. Though there is no evidence that these most recent attacks have any connection to any Islamic terror group, I would be remiss to discount the possibility. Honestly, given how large the threat is from ISIS, I would not be surprised if at least one of these attacks was inspired by the terror group, or failing that, an attack of this nature could come from that direction soon. 

 Of course there is a very obvious potential motive for these attacks. Black Lives Matter. Though the group was not involved directly in the attacks in Baton Rouge and Dallas, the attackers certainly were inspired by the group. Their anti-police rhetoric is almost certainly responsible for the large spike in these kinds of murders and attacks. 

And the worst part is that Black Lives Matter's complaints are mostly fabricated out of whole cloth. They have never, and will never, have a valid point about race relations in America. In almost every case where they have complained about police violence, actual investigation has shown that, at the very least, the cops shot someone who was acting criminal. In many, but not all, of the cases, the incidents were totally justified and BLM had to lie though their teeth to even make it look like there was any issue whatsoever. 

I think the election has a role to play in these attacks as well. The media, to their eternal shame, have tried to paint Donald Trump and his supporters as racists who hate black people. That line of reasoning has never made any sense at all and has very little basis in actual reality. The media, and the Democratic Party should be held accountable for every death that has occurred due to these attacks. 

I guess is isn't surprising. If I took the media seriously, thought BLM had any credibility at all and honestly believed a word that came out of the Democratic Party's mouth, I too would think that there is an actual problem. Even then though, nothing justifies attacks on the police. Violence is almost never the answer, and certainly shouldn't be deployed when there are plenty of non-violent options to protest and change things. Nothing justifies these attacks. 

My sincere hope is that the election of Donald Trump will start to change things. I don't think he is a miracle worker and he has inherited an awful mess from Barack Obama. Though I think Trump's policies have the potential to make things better in terms of race relations, at the very least we won't have an enabler in office cheering on BLM and other groups...