So sad...

Well, just in case Philly was missing its bad PR as a violent city, it's back. A police officer who was only 29 years old was shot and killed yesterday, and another was wounded in a gunfight that I can only compare to a shootout at the OK Corral. In the past two years, that's FIVE police officers killed in the line of duty, which is now a record for the City of Brotherly Love. Mayor Nutter said it best - that it's incomprehensible how we've gotten to the point where people think it's just okay to engage in gunfights with the people who are there to protect them. The shooter (who had been pulled over for a simple traffic offense) was killed in the shootout by the officer who had been wounded, but what amazed me is the fact that this guy was on the street in the first place. He had gotten out of prison on parole recently, having served 10 years of a 12-year sentence on ANOTHER violent crime. While in prison, he had been transferred TWICE because he was so violent within their walls. He got out, found a gun, then went off and shot a police officer who was pulling him over for speeding.

Seriously, I vote we start sending these jerks to Fallujah instead of making the taxpayers pay for their imprisonment. They want a gunbattle? Okay fine. We pull out all the honorable troops out of there, put the schmucks in, then lock the gates. Go battle it out with Al-Qaida.