COPS SHOT IN FERGUSON – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  After weeks of unrelenting cop bashing in much of the media, two police officers were shot in Ferguson, Missouri, during the night.  From Fox: 

Two police officers were seriously injured in a shooting early Thursday outside the Ferguson, Mo., police department amid new protests following the resignation of the town's embattled police chief.

A 32-year-old officer from suburban Webster Groves was shot in the face and a 41-year-old officer from St. Louis County was shot in the shoulder, St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar said. Both were taken to a local hospital, where Belmar said they were conscious. He said he did not have further details about their conditions but described their injuries as "very serious," but not life-threatening.

Authorities are searching for the gunman. No suspect has been identified.

The protest up to that point was relatively peaceful, but the sound of gunfire just after midnight sent protesters and police officers running for cover. Police dressed in riot gear dragged the injured officers to safety, The New York Times reported.

COMMENT:  We do not pre-judge, but I hardly think it's coincidental that we had two cops murdered in New York recently, and now two seriously wounded in Ferguson while anti-cop sentiment is being whipped up around the country. 

We now know that the "hands up, don't shoot" narrative was at best a fiction, and at worst a hoax.  In Ferguson, we now know, Michael Brown did not have his hands up when shot by a police officer defending himself. 

We now know that the troubled bi-racial teenager shot dead by a police officer in Wisconsin just days ago had pled guilty to armed robbery three months earlier.  No angel he.

Each case is different.  Each involves different personalities.  There are undoubtedly abuses by some police officers.  They must be exposed and punished in a decent society.  Standards for police officers, the first symbols of authority, must be high.  But generating hatred toward police is no answer to the few officers who go bad. 

I don't know how we get the best young men and women to apply for police work in this atmosphere.  But I do know that we need them.

Oh, by the way, there are no reports of any injuries to civilians by police officers after the shootings in Ferguson overnight.

March 12, 2015