Last Wednesday night, protesters gathered at the Ferguson Police station after news broke that Police Chief Tom Jackson would resign. Despite the initial peacefulness of the protesters, the protest ended with two police officers being seriously wounded by an unknown shooter’s fire. Now described as an “ambush attack,” the officers, both now in critical condition, were fired upon from an adjacent residential area.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told the Associated Press one officer was shot in the face, just below his right eye, with a bullet lodged behind his ear. The other officer was hit in the shoulder with an exit wound in his back. Both officers are expected to make a full recovery, despite the severity of their injuries.
Attorney General Eric Holder had said that the violent and lawless response of Ferguson residents to the justified shooting of Michael Brown was an understandable reaction to the “highly toxic environment” created by the Ferguson police over the years. Many in the commentating community cite quotes such as this as motivators for crimes against the police force. In a scenario has tense as we have seen in Ferguson, political justification of murder certainly is dangerous and unwarranted.