After yet another shooting, the superintendent of Denver Public Schools announced Wednesday that police officers will return to high schools in the district.
The Denver School Board unanimously voted to remove school resource officers in June 2020 after the murder of George Floyd. All officers were phased out from the city's middle and high schools by the summer of 2021. The decision was declared a victory by community activists who had long campaigned to remove police officers from schools.
Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero sent the school board a letter declaring his commitment to put a police officer at each comprehensive high school in the district.
And at East High School — where two staff members were shot on Wednesday after patting down a student — Marrero said he will ensure that two Denver police officers remain through the end of the school year to ensure the safety of students and staff. East High School, in particular, has dealt with a wave of gun violence this school year; a student died after being shot in February, and there was another shooting near the school in September.
"Today was my fourth visit to Denver Health's Intensive Care Unit due to victims of gun violence," Marrero wrote in his letter.
Marrero acknowledged his decision violates the resolution the school board passed in 2020, which specifically prohibits a "consistent presence" of police officers and armed security on school campuses.
"However," Marrero added, "I can no longer stand on the sidelines. I am willing to accept the consequences of my actions."
The 17-year-old student who police believe was responsible for the shooting was later found dead. Officials did not release a manner of death. The student was subject to a school safety agreement that required administrators to search him daily.
The school board said it supports Marrero's decision.
"The Board of Education supports the decision of Superintendent Marrero to work in partnership with local law enforcement to create safer learning spaces across Denver Public Schools for the remainder of this school year," the board said.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock (D) also voiced support for Marrero's decision.
"Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero and I jointly agree that the safety of students and the public require deployment of police officers assigned to the high school for the remainder of the school year," he said in a statement. "I encouraged and strongly support the Superintendent’s decision to bring police officers back to DPS high schools, and I’ve directed Chief [Ron] Thomas to support this effort and deploy our officers accordingly in coordination with the school district."
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A San Francisco pizza joint fired one of its employees this week for telling police officers dining at the restaurant that they were not welcome to eat there.
On Sunday, several police officers entered the Pizza Squared restaurant in downtown San Francisco. But, according to the San Francisco Police Officers Association, one of the restaurant's employees told the officers they had to leave because "they were not welcome in the restaurant."
SFPOA President Tracy McCray told KTVU-TV that officers had frequented the restaurant but had never encountered such anti-police "bigotry."
\u201cToday, a @pizzasquaredsf employee told several of our officers that they were not welcome in the restaurant. The SFPOA notified the owners of the restaurant of the shameful and hateful actions of one of their employees. We appreciate the owners' swift apology...(Tweet 1 of 2)\u201d— San Francisco POA (@San Francisco POA) 1675050124
The restaurant's owners — Christina and Ryan Siu — took swift action, firing the employee who had only been on the job for days.
"This employee was a trainee & on his third day. When our shift manager told us about the incident after it happened, we expressly told him we didn’t share his views & that he was out of line. He was fired at the end of the day. When we notified by SFPOA, we apologized," the restaurant wrote on Twitter.
In a complete statement, the owners explained:
Over the past weekend a trainee was working the counter when several San Francisco police officers patronized our store. Unbeknownst to us, the trainee mistreated the officers. We were since contacted by the Police Officers Association regarding the matter at which time we immediately gave our sincere apology for this unfortunate incident. The trainee was not hired because he was not a good fit. We at Pizza Squared want to make it abundantly clear that we would never refuse service to anyone based on their background, profession, race or gender. This is not political for us, we welcome anyone who comes through our doors with a smile.
The SFPOA praised the restaurant for taking immediate action and apologizing.
"We were pleased to receive an immediate response from the owners, including a sincere apology for their employee’s actions and a commitment to meet with the affected officers and make this unfortunate situation right," McCray said.
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After yet another brutal year in which hundreds of police officers were shot in the line of duty, Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, declared, "Enough is enough!"
Yoes has made clear that the criminals responsible had help from elected officials who are apparently not only anti-cop but "pro-criminal."
The National Fraternal Order of Police issued a report on Dec. 21, indicating that 323 law enforcement officers were shot in the line of duty so far this year.
Sixty officers were killed by gunfire overall, putting 2022 on course to match last year's count, which saw 63 law enforcement officers cut down. That death toll represents a 28% increase over the same year-to-date period in 2020.
The report also noted that 124 officers had been shot in 87 separate ambush-style attacks. Of the 124 officers so wounded, 31 were killed.
These death statistics do not include the hundreds of law enforcement officers who lost their lives in the line of duty as the result of other incidents, such as vehicular assaults.
\u201c\ud83d\udea8ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS YEARS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT: The American Police Officer is Facing a Heightened Level of Danger\n\n\u26a0\ufe0f 323 Officers Shot This Year\n\n\u26a0\ufe0f 60 Officers Killed by Gunfire\n\n\u26a0\ufe0f 124 Officers We\u2019re Shot in 87 Ambush-Style Attacks\n\nWe still have 10 days left in 2022\u2026\u201d— National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) (@National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)) 1671619491
In a statement accompanying the FOP's latest report on law enforcement casualties, FOP president Patrick Yoes underscored how it is important to recognize that these numbers "represent heroes — fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters."
"As crime rates continue to rise, more citizens in this country are justifiably living in fear, constantly wondering if they too will become a victim," said Yoes.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association reported in September, on the basis of a survey of 70 major police agencies, that overall violent crime across the U.S. spiked earlier this year.
Yoes, who served as an active law enforcement officer for nearly 36 years, said this fear and bloodletting is "what happens when elected officials embrace pro-criminal, revolving-door policies and make decisions that put the interests of violent offenders ahead of public safety."
"These decisions — failures to prosecute violent offenders for their crimes or, even worse, releasing repeat offenders arrested for crimes who show a propensity for escalation of violence — make our communities less safe. These rogue prosecutors are putting innocent lives at risk. When there are no consequences for breaking the law, more people will break the law and crime will increase," he wrote.
Philadelphia's recently impeached Larry Krasner is one among many so-called progressive district attorneys accused by Republican legislators of contributing to "a catastrophic rise in violent crime at the expense of public safety."
Krasner and others have been enabled in part by leftist billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations network.
Fox News Digital reported that Soros' network funneled at least $35 million into anti-police groups and initiatives last year, extra to spending even more backing leftist prosecutors.
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, said, "Not only has billionaire George Soros spent millions propping up pro-crime prosecutors, but now we've learned he's spent the last year bankrolling efforts to defund the police as well."
While leftist elites fill the coffers of anti-police groups, criminals having been filling coffins with police officers.
"Truthfully, the violence against those sworn to serve and protect is beyond unacceptable; it’s a stain on our society, and it must end," said Yoes. "It is incumbent upon our elected officials and community leaders to stand up, support our heroes, and speak out against the violence against law enforcement officers."
He expressed hope that the Republican-controlled Congress will pass the "Protect and Serve" Act, which would impose federal penalties on criminals who deliberately target local, state, or federal law enforcement officers with violence.
Bodycam footage shows police officers in Wausau, Wisconsin, responding to a wild break-in at an apartment complex on Friday.
Doris Madden, a resident at City Walk Apartments in Wausau, became suspicious after she noticed a broken window. She alerted management that someone appeared to have smashed through a second-story window and broken into an apartment.
“We had no idea what had caused it, or if anybody was even home,” Madden told WSAW-TV.
The apartment manager sent maintenance to investigate, and they found the suspect inside the apartment.
It was a wild turkey.
“When he opened the door, there’s the turkey. And so he thought, ‘I’m not going to try to catch that thing.’ So he called the police station for animal control,” Madden said.
Officers from the Wausau Police Department were called to remove the fowl invader.
“We have one humane officer, so a lot of times the first response in any call including animal calls are our patrol officers. They just have to try to do the best they can with the information that they have and the equipment available to them,” Wausau Police Department Patrol Captain Todd Baeten said.
Bodycam footage released by the department shows officers equipped with gloves and a net preparing to capture the turkey.
"I want the gloves and the net, though, is what I'm saying, because when I go in there I want to be able to, like, get it," one officer tells his partner.
"It's a turkey, not a tiger!" the other scoffs.
"Yeah, it's gonna scratch!" His partner replies. "Have you hunted turkey before?"
The video shows the officers enter the apartment, where the turkey was gobbling around like it owned the place.
"All right, should we just go in at it?" the officer with the camera asks. They attempted to apprehend the bird, which resisted arrest and dodged the officer's net several times before it was cornered.
The officers were able to release the turkey outside unharmed.
"It's a Turkey, Not a Tiger!" | BTS Body Cam youtu.be
Baeten said he was proud of how his officers handled the situation and how they captured the turkey without harming it.
"It really underscores the unpredictable nature of the job that our officers are asked to do at any given time,” Baeten said
This was not the department's first encounter with wildlife.
Last year, officers were called to wrangle a deer that managed to crash through a window at a local nursing home.
'Portland is uniquely ill-equipped to deal with this problem because its police department is uniquely understaffed,' the report found.
The new law allows foreign citizens who hold American green cards or have DACA status to become police officers.
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