Day 10

Twelve days until Christmas! I have decided to launch a holiday giveaway. I will post a blog every day for the next 12 days. All you need to do to be entered in the giveaway is leave a comment about why you want to read my book http://www.amazon.com/View-From-Sixth-Floor-Oswald-ebook/dp/B00NPCZW6W. I will be choosing a winner every day for the next 12 days to receive a copy as a Kindle copy. On Christmas Eve I will choose one winner to receive a signed copy to be mailed. All I ask in return is an honest review posted to Amazon or Goodreads (or both!) after you finish the book. I look forward to reading your comments and hope this is as much fun for you as it is for me. Good luck!!
Congratulations Wendy Diane Foster. You are today’s winner of a Kindle copy of “View From the Sixth Floor: An Oswald Tale”. I hope you enjoy the book.

On December 20, 2014 two police officers were gunned down in their patrol car in Brooklyn, New York. It was a cold blooded and unprovoked assassination of two men who had dedicated their lives to serve and protect the people of the city. One was Asian and the other was Latino. They were killed by an African-American who claimed to be doing it to avenge the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. The shooter did not know Brown or Garner. Although he had previously lived in Brooklyn he had come from Baltimore where he shot an ex-girlfriend before heading to New York. He had an extensive arrest record and a history of violence.

This murderer did the Brown and Garner families no honor. He did not represent the pain they are experiencing at the loss of their loved ones. He assassinated two men whose only crime was wearing the uniform of the New York Police Department.
I will not mention the shooter’s name because he does not deserve our attention. He committed suicide in a New York City subway. He should remain nameless like the trash that gathers on the tracks or overflows garbage bins. He does not deserve the acknowledgment of those who stand up for what is right and decent.

The Garner and Brown families have stepped up to repudiate the vicious act. Civil rights leaders who have protested the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner as excessive police force have spoken out against the slayings of the police officers. There have been statements made that the shootings were the response to protests which have taken place nationwide protesting the deaths of Brown and Garner. Prior to launching his attack on the police officers who had no opportunity to defend themselves the shooter left this statement on Instagram, “I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let’s take 2 of theirs.”

So now we can add two more families to the toll who will sit down to Christmas dinner without loved ones. There will be no joy in the homes of the Brown, Garner, Ramos, or Liu. Officer Rafael Ramos and Officer Wenjian Liu had been assigned to a critical response detail in a high crime area in Brooklyn. It wasn’t even their usual assignment.

As a field of blue gathered to pay their respects to their fallen brothers, the country and the world watches. Will this bring an end to the violence borne of the events that have occurred in Missouri, Staten Island, and Brooklyn? Only the communities in the U.S. can change things. Only open dialogue and peaceful resolutions can bring about non-violence. Only by working together can our children be saved from more untimely deaths and empty chairs at our dinner tables.