PA: Armed Citizen Saves Police Officer from Mob Attack

Superintendent Chitwood

There have been a number of cases where armed citizens have saved police.  It is not a common occurrence, but it is not extremely rare.  It is part of why police come to see armed citizens as allies instead of enemies.   In this case in Upper Darby Township, which is a part of the Philadelphia metroplex, less than three miles from downtown Philadelphia, a legally armed man saved a police officer from a mob.    Murder of a police officer seems a bizzare affair for a group of High Schools students, but we are in the aftermath of the media blitz that engendered the "Black Lives Matter" attack on police authority and legitimacy.  From philly.com:

An officer who broke up a fight between two teen boys that had attracted a large crowd at that location was holding one of the combatants at bay when the teen's opponent attacked the officer, Chitwood said.

"As he breaks up the fight, he takes one kid and then the other jumps [on] him. Now he's fighting two of them and he's calling for an assist officer at the same time," Chitwood said. "There's a crowd of 40 or 50 kids watching the fight, and they all move in towards the officer."

That's when the good Samaritan, who lives on the block, came out of his house with a gun in his hand and told the teens to get away from the cop, Chitwood said.

The officer suffered significant injuries to his hand, and the backup officer who was called suffered a significan injury to his leg.  They may not be able to return to work for some time.

Some will say that the officer should have left them fight.  Then the officers are criticized when severe injuries occur.  This isn't the first time that Superintendent Chitwood backed up an armed citizen.  A year ago, in another incident, Chitwood had this to say, from 6abc.com:

"He was really shook up - really upset. And I told him point blank. I said, 'You did what you had to do and as far as I'm concerned I don't see any criminal charges forthcoming,'" said Supt. Chitwood.

When the officers back off, homicides go up.  We are seeing it in many metropolitan areas across the country.  It even has a name: The Ferguson Effect.  Some people are predicting that the homicide rate for the entire United States will measurably rise as a result.

Two things are likely to result from this altercation.  The police will be less likely to intervene, and they will be more tolerant of armed citizens.  Cooperation between legally armed citizens and police is a powerful antidote to lawless behavior.

©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.  Link to Gun Watch