Ask the community around Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill what carnage was stopped when our first responders, the Pittsburgh Police, entered their synagogue at 9:59 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2018. By the time the police had stopped the killing and subdued the gunman, 11 of the congregants were killed and six people were wounded (including three policemen, one SWAT team member critically).

On April 9, 2009, in Stanton Heights, Officers Paul J. Sciullo II, Stephen J. Mayhle and Eric C. Kelly paid with their lives in an ambush and shootout after answering a call of distress from a mother about the erratic behavior of her son.

Now I see our policemen riding two up in a patrol car as if they are under imminent danger from politicians and citizens with anarchist views. We, the community of Americans, have suffered and lost immensely from radicals on both ends of the spectrum. It’s time we stand up for one another and those of us whose job it is to put lives on the line first.

Walt Peterson

Squirrel Hill

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