police officers lined the streets of new
york city to mourn slain officer jason
rivera killed in the line of duty one
week ago
we love you
please always protect
us your big brother's very very proud of
you
mommy's proud of you
papi's proud of you dominic is proud of
you
we love you i said to you
wake up baby
i'm here
the little bit of hope i had
that you will come back to life just to
say goodbye or say i love you one more
time had left
yeah just heart-rending statements
officer rivera and his partner are among
four officers fatally shot in the line
of duty this year alone about seven
times as many have been injured by
gunfire in just the past 48 hours three
were wounded in this broad daylight
shootout in houston another shot in a
chaotic encounter in milwaukee in which
the suspect stole the officer's squad
car and in saint louis a young police
officer now clinging to life shot in the
stomach while pursuing an suv believed
to be connected to a murder with us now
the former saint louis county chief of
police tim fitch he is now a county
councilman chief thank you so much for
coming on we appreciate it briefly we're
not going to give the name of the saint
louis police officer who was injured we
just want to know chief do you believe
that he is going to survive these
injuries
well i will tell you trace it sounds
promising at this point based on all the
information that i have heard
it was not promising when he was wheeled
into barnes jewish hospital and those
medical professionals there just did a
tremendous job to save his life
but from what i understand he's not out
of the woods yet
now our best to him chief and his family
i just want to put this up on the on the
screen because this is from the new york
times last summer and i think it's very
critical to read this it says a survey
of about 200 police departments then
indicates that retirements were up by 45
resignations by 18
in the period between april 2020 and
april 2021 when compared with the
preceding 12 months you look at those
numbers chief you now look at what many
are calling a war on police this is not
going to help rebuild our police
departments across the country
absolutely not
as those numbers are pretty staggering
we're not able to backfill those those
positions i know just in mind now former
department alone about a thousand
officer department uh there's more than
75 vacancies right now we're having very
little interest
in having individuals join our
department and i know that's going on
around the country as well this will
continue to increase this lack of
wanting to get involved in law
enforcement and it's really there's a
there's a really good sole reason for
this happening and it's called reform
prosecutors that's what we're seeing in
the st louis metropolitan area and all
around the country and we hear that
again and again and i you know i point
not just to
this war on cops the targeting of police
officer but also respect level i point
things out like during a vigil this week
chief for officers jason rivera and
wilbert mora who who died in the line of
duty during that vigil six police
cruisers had their tires slashed i mean
it's just a lack of respect we are
seeing across the country
that's true in in in st louis our two
officers that were tragically shot in
the line of duty on wednesday it
happened in ferguson
i my office is right outside the door
where the shooting happened
and
really this started in ferguson a lot of
this started in ferguson as you remember
the michael brown situation and i'll
have to tell you that the situation has
not improved since then
yeah lastly chief i just want your your
take when you read things from this week
from black lives matter saying you know
just because police officers are shot
does not make them a hero i mean what do
you think when you read things like that
around the media
how could anyone see that video from
houston and not say those officers
chasing this guy down weren't heroes
remember they had been wounded and they
were still chasing this individual down
so to say that they're not heroes
that's just tone deaf is what that is
st louis city councilman former police
chief tim fitch chief thank you for
joining us we appreciate it
thank you trace hey sean hannity here
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