Three police officers killed in Pittsburgh

The mainstream media were surely depressed by the absence of a white, right-wing perp in the Binghamton immigrant massacre, but now, due to yet another horrific multiple killing, this one in Pittsburgh, a more liberal-friendly narrative is back at the top of the front page. This morning a man named Richard Poplawski murdered three police officers, and, according to the AP, he did it because he feared the Obama administration was going to ban guns:

PITTSBURGH—A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said. Friends said he had been upset recently about losing his job and that he feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Three officers were killed, said a police official at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard would only say that at least five officers were wounded, but wouldn’t give any other details.

Three officers shot dead, and two more wounded, while attending to a dometic dispute? What is wrong with the police in this country? Two of the officers killed by the black killer Lovelle Mixon in Oakland last week were part of a SWAT team entering Mixon’s apartment. Mixon had already killed two other police officers. What did the SWAT team do, stroll into the apartment and say, “Shoot us”?

Here is the entire story. (And note the name of the writer, Ramit Plushnick-Masti. Is that a joke? Did a Mr. Plushnik marry a Ms. Masti circa 1980, and they decided their last names went together so beautifully, and were such an inspiring (or, alternatively, such an in-your-face) expression of American diversity that they would hyphenate the name of their son Ramit, who then grew up and became a reporter for the anti-American, anti-Western AP?)

Police official: 3 officers killed in Pa. Shooting

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer Ramit Plushnick-masti, Associated Press Writer —17 mins ago

PITTSBURGH—A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said. Friends said he had been upset recently about losing his job and that he feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Three officers were killed, said a police official at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard would only say that at least five officers were wounded, but wouldn’t give any other details.

Police planned to release more details at a mid-afternoon news conference Saturday.

The man who fired at the officers was arrested after a several-hour standoff. One witness reported hearing hundreds of shots.

The shootings occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot March 21 in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.

Police did not immediately release the gunman’s identity, but his friends identified him as Richard Poplawski, 23. They described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns.

One friend, Edward Perkovic, said Poplawski feared “the Obama gun ban that’s on the way” and “didn’t like our rights being infringed upon.” Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said Poplawski feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he “wasn’t violently against Obama.”

Perkovic, a 22-year-old who said he was Poplawski’s best friend, said he got a call at work from him in which he said, “Eddie, I am going to die today. … Tell your family I love them and I love you.”

Perkovic said: “I heard gunshots and he hung up. … He sounded like he was in pain, like he got shot.”

Vire, 23, said Poplawski once had an Internet talk show but that it wasn’t successful. Vire said Poplawski had an AK-47 rifle and several powerful handguns, including a .357 Magnum.

Another friend, Joe DiMarco, said Poplawski had been laid off from his job at a glass factory earlier this year. DiMarco said he didn’t know the name of the company, but knew his friend had been upset about losing his job.

The officers were called to the home in the Stanton Heights neighborhood at about 7 a.m., Richard said.

Tom Moffitt, 51, a city firefighter who lives two blocks away, said he heard about the shooting on his scanner and came to the scene, where he heard “hundreds, just hundreds of shots. And not just once—several times.”

Rob Gift, 45, who lives a block away, said he heard rapid gunfire as he was letting his dog out.

He said the neighborhood of well-kept single-family houses and manicured lawns is home to many police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other city workers.

“It’s just a very quiet neighborhood,” Gift said.

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 133 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2008, a 27 percent decrease from year before and the lowest annual total since 1960.

- end of initial entry -

April 5

Alan Roebuck writes:

Consider this line from the news story about the Pittsburgh murders:

The first officer on the scene, Paul Sciullo III, entered the house and was shot in the head by a suspect police identified as Richard Poplawski, 23.

He was not shot by a suspect. He was shot by the murderer. Or perhaps by the perpetrator.

This is the way everybody always talks these days. Every criminal’s a “suspect,” a word which literally means we don’t know whether he did anything. We just are suspicious, but we may be wrong, so we won’t judge him until he’s had his day in court, blah, blah, blah.

I say this not because I hope that this will be the liberal outrage that finally awakens the world. It’ll take a mountain to break the camel’s back. This is just item # 4,765 to watch out for when guarding your mind against the left.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 04, 2009 02:11 PM | Send