#SgtMoore

Last Tuesday was National Super Hero Day. Saturday was Free comic Book Day. On Sunday, I went to see 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' with a few friends. Yesterday was Star Wars Day (and yes, I did wear my Darth Vader t-shirt to work). So much geekery; I am still recovering from my nerd hangover.

There are many directions I could take this post. I would love to talk about comic books and superheroes. I am planning a movie review for later this week. But today, I just can't.

Not today.

Because at this moment, a real-life hero is in critical condition at Kootenai Health. It was the first thing I saw on Facebook when I woke up this morning and roughly 75 percent of my friends with North Idaho roots have posted something about it on Facebook or Twitter.

A little after 1:30 this morning, Sergeant Moore - a Coeur d'Alene police officer was checking a suspicious individual during routine patrol. That suspicious individual shot Moore, stole Moore's car, and fled the scene eventually abandoning the cruiser near State Line. Police have caught the suspect (a twenty something on felony probation) who was hiding in a nearby Walmart parking lot.

We have heard much about bad cops this past year. From St Louis, to Cleveland, NYC, Tulsa, and Boston. There has been so much emphasis on heavy handed police tactics. Civil rights abuses. Unarmed African Americans killed. Kids killed by law enforcement. Militarization of local police departments across America. Even in North Idaho, we have had our share of officer involved controversy and mishandled incidents.

We hear a lot about bad cops. Journalists love those stories - they bring in ad revenue.

But we don't often hear about good cops. Sgt Moore was a great cop. He was one of the good guys.

Photo courtesy of the Cd'A Police Department

Something isn't right. I know that all of these police shootings are symptoms of humanity's brokenness. It doesn't matter whether the victim was an unarmed black kid or an officer trying to do his job. Both ends of the spectrum end with senseless death. Both ends point to our own spiritual corruption. All of it makes me sick.

The violence has to stop.

It has to.

Because this? What happened today. What happened last month. What happened last August. It is ridiculous.

We shouldn't have talk about stories like this.

We shouldn't see police brutality.
We shouldn't see responding protests and riots.
We shouldn't see officers gunned down in the line of duty.
We shouldn't see kids shooting up their schools.
We shouldn't see bullied teens choose to eliminate their own life.

We are killing our culture.

The violence has to stop.