An armed madman—who had earlier shot his girlfriend—decided to make his last act before committing suicide the murder of two NYPD officers. He linked the senseless crime to vengeance for recent acts of police violence against unarmed black men, Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
It's appalling that this man had access to a gun to begin with, and that he would murder two innocent men for his own twisted reasons. Gutless and depraved. NYPD lives do matter—no one disputes that.
Nor is there any sense in the inflammatory statements of the NYPD union boss, who explicitly laid this murder at the feet of NYC Mayor de Blasio and the protesters who are outraged at the deaths of Brown and Garner.
That's absolutely wrong. The only way that bit of logic works is if you believe everything a police officer does is always acceptable and they are above the law. Otherwise, why not go up the chain and blame the officers involved in the killings of those two black suspects?
None of that bullshit works. The man responsible for these officers' deaths is the man who blew them away. He was unhinged. Never have the leaders of the protests or the families of the dead black men called for violence. It's antithetical to what is outraging them in the first place.
As Jon Stewart said, you can deplore police brutality AND still support good police.
These murders are despicable, as is anyone who sees them as justified.
