Editorial: Police attacks started with the danger of domestic violence

Given the amount of attention focused on gun violence, it is worth noting violence itself is not so well aimed.

A gun can be expertly targeted. A good hunter, for instance, wants to be as accurate as possible. He doesn’t just point toward the woods and have faith he will hit a deer; he wants to hit a specific deer. This isn’t fishing where you drop a line and hope for the best.

But violence — yes, even gun violence — is not a sharpshooter’s rifle.

Violence is a bomb that explodes in every direction at one time. It may hit its intended target, but the shockwaves and shrapnel never stop there.

And that is what happened Wednesday in North Codorus in York County.

The headline on the tragic incident is about the casualties. Three Northern York County Police Department officers were killed: Detective Sgt. Cody Becker, Detective Mark Baker and Detective Isaiah Emenheiser. Two others were seriously wounded.

The 15-hour engagement ended with gunman Matthew James Ruth, 24, shot dead by police.

The brutal loss of police lives is what gains attention. So many lives lost in one incident is shocking. A police line-of-duty death does not happen every day even though the very nature of the job means it could happen any day.

But this explosion of violence was not a bomb set for police. Ruth’s target, police say, was his ex-girlfriend.

This was domestic violence that claimed unexpected targets when the ex-girlfriend and her mother fled the house where they were being stalked.

This is not new. These officers are not the first to lose their lives on a domestic violence call. In fact, domestic-related incidents are among the most dangerous for police. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund showed that, in one study, 41% of police fatalities involved a domestic call. They even pointed to the likelihood of ambush tactics like those used in York County.

The police are heroes for showing up knowing that’s the math. A woman was in trouble, and the police responded — and the woman survived.

But this is a reason we cannot address violence just on a piece-by-piece basis. It isn’t just gun violence or child abuse or drug crimes. Any potential for violence must be tackled head on — preferably with programs that prevent and mitigate.

Violence is a stick of dynamite with an unreliable detonator. Violence in all its forms must be addressed to reduce the impact when it explodes, because we never know what the fallout will be.