While leftists and progressive lawmakers devote themselves to defunding the police and empowering criminals, ordinary police officers are still facing the kinds of life-or-death situations that many of our armchair utopians could never understand.
For instance, on March 1 in Denver, hardly a bastion of conservatism, officers responding to 911 calls had to use deadly force on a suspect at a convenience store.
KDVR-TV reported the suspect, identified as 43-year-old Christopher Cauch, had carjacked a vehicle before heading to the 7-Eleven, according to police.
They said they received multiple 911 calls reporting either a robbery or a stabbing.
When the officers arrived at the store, they learned Cauch was holding an employee hostage using an unidentified sharp object.
Entering the 7-Eleven, they found the suspect had barricaded himself and the employee in a back office, according to The Denver Post. The officers said they heard the sounds of an altercation through the door.
Cauch allegedly refused police orders to open the door.
The officers then did so with a battering ram, an endeavor that took about 30 seconds, the bodycam footage showed.
Whereupon the officers saw "three male individuals," one of them being Cauch, who "was threatening [one employee] with some sort of sharp instrument," Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said.
"Officers recognized that person was in imminent danger and started to fire on that individual," Thomas said.
They recognized that, in this situation, there wasn't much of a choice.
#Watch: #DPD provides a preliminary briefing regarding the officer-involved shooting at W. 5th Ave. / N. Federal Blvd. https://t.co/1V8uyIQjSv
— Denver Police Dept. (@DenverPolice) March 2, 2024
All in all, the officers fired 36 rounds in about five seconds, and, unsurprisingly, Cauch was pronounced dead upon arrival at a local hospital.
Thankfully, the other two men in the room were not hurt. Still, per standard procedure, the Denver Police Department, the State Patrol and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation were investigating the incident, the Post reported.
WARNING: Some viewers may find the following video disturbing.
https://youtu.be/n_6TmXMiA1o?si=FMovm7n0V1ipal5q
Though this story made the news for its dramatic circumstances, it is emblematic of the kinds of life-or-death situations police officers face every day.
Although liberals pontificate about the evils of law enforcement and pass legislation crippling law enforcement's ability to respond to such situations, that doesn't mean they go away.
Obviously, there are and always will be cops who abuse their positions and use their status as police officers to cover their own crimes.
But the vast majority are decent people who just want to do their job of protecting the innocent.
And, in that endeavor, these officers are forced to make difficult, split-second decisions like the one the cops in this 7-Eleven had to make.
It's these officers, along with ordinary citizens, who end up dealing with the fallout of progressive policies that are disconnected from reality.
