Officer Chuck Cassidy

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Philadelphia police officer Chuck Cassidy, killed in the line of duty last Wednesday during an armed robbery. And though it is little solace, there is satisfaction in knowing that the alleged perpetrator has been apprehended and will be brought to justice.

A cop killing is a unique and special breed of crime. As one police officer commented in an article I saw this weekend, if a criminal will kill a cop, they are a mortal danger to every law-abiding citizen.

That is why I favor the death penalty for cop killers. And I hope the Philadelphia district attorney seeks that recourse.

But let me also make an observation, having been up in Philadelphia this past weekend. Any and every police force works a cop killing the hardest of any crime. As they should. For the reason stated above about the threat to the general public, but also as a personal and deadly assault on the “thin blue line” and to avenge a colleague’s death. But I don’t think there is another police force in the country that works such cases harder than Philadelphia’s finest. I don’t know if Philadelphia had a disproportionate number of police killed in the line of duty while I was growing up or what, but from my vantage point no police officer on that force will rest until the killer is caught.