Cop Killers

A big headline yesterday:
Cop Killer Executed After Last-Minute Appeal Denied
The State of Georgia executed a man yesterday for the murder of an off-duty police officer. The man who was executed proclaimed his innocence apparently until his very last minute.
I'm not here to discuss the merits of the case; I honestly don't know enough about it. I am also not commenting on this because I have feelings one way or the other about the Death Penalty.

I'm here to throw this one out at you: Can you remember when it was absolutely verboten to even think about killing a cop? I can vaguely remember an adult conversation I overheard as a child...I was playing nearby the table after dinner, and my Grandfather's Lieutenant friend had stopped by for dessert...they were talking about a police officer who had been shot, and I can still recall the sounds of disbelief as they resonated around the gathering. I remember my Grandfather saying, "Who would be crazy enough to kill a cop?!"

Whether that man or somebody else killed the cop in question...? Either way, a cop is dead. And as I hearken back to a more innocent time, I think wistfully upon the way we once saw certain things: there was a time when something was wrong, and there was no other way to slice it or dice it.