By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Of late, there is a great hue and cry for the reinstitution of the Death Penalty in New York. Found to be unconstitutional by our State’s Highest Court, demand has been made of our Legislators for the passage of a new law. Specifically, the clarion call is for a ‘death penalty for cop killers’. No other citizen is recognized as having a life sufficiently valuable as a police officer such that should one of us snuff one of them, then they want to snuff us in retaliation. To me, that is a wholly unacceptable situation.

I will spare you the standard, “some of my best friends are cops” line; because they are. One of the two men in this world in whose hands I would trust my life and that of my family is a retired police officer. Many are the time have stood up in court and in the press in defense of good police officers.

This past year been very hard on my friends in Blue. With two of their own slain within 24 hours and four within six months, it must be very difficult to separate heartache from anger. I listened to many of them pour out their tears and rage. Hours were spent in discussion on the subject of punishment of the perpetrators.

Of all the conversations I shared was the question of the Death Penalty. Obviously it was unanimous that people willing to kill a cop while in the commission of an offense have absolutely no respect for any of society’s institution and pose the greatest threat to society. Even the worst criminals still yields to the authority of the law and the courts. It is the rare exception that one has no respect and will not submit to the law and is willing to kill to defend that stance.

I personally have some hard lines and serious mixed feelings on the question of the Death Penalty. Since my turn has not yet come where I am asked specifically if that penalty should be employed in a particular situation, I remain mum on any ultimate decision.

On one hand, I stand shoulder to shoulder with Thomas Jefferson’s opening salvo of the American experiment. “Life”, he declared, was a condition inalienable to being human. If so, then absent my consent (query if even that is possible with “inalienable”), my right to keep living is a choice that only I can make. Under that analysis, only God can separate you from your life.

Likewise, assuming you can separate yourself from your life by choice. Do you sufficiently trust the State of New York and its government, politicians, and civil service workers to never make a mistake? How safe do you feel that these same people will remedy a mistake once made? Can you imagine being wrongly accused in a crime that could result in the State taking away your life? Don’t say it’s rare. As of November 1987, the last time I checked, according to the Stanford Law Review, more than 600 American citizens had either been executed or nearly so and who were later EXONERATED for the crime. I am trying to figure out how much restitution Roy Brown is owed.

But, on the other hand, some folks just need killin`. Cannibal and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, Christian Terrorist Timothy McVeigh, and D.C. sniper John Mohammed are some prime examples.

So, from my starting point, my feelings on the Death Penalty are very mixed and will not solidify until someone puts the question squarely to me.

I understand how my friends in uniform feel about the murder of one of their own. While sitting with a large group of them in a bar the evening before the funeral of the New Hartford officer and while fiercely flexing beer muscles, I mistakenly pointed out that the same night the cop was murdered, so too were several hundred other citizens here in the United States. Mothers, fathers, children, siblings … all. Two participants just got up and walked away. It was made real clear to me in about 30 seconds how very different the situation was. Since they had guns, I quickly agreed.

So now I ask my friends in uniform and those out of uniform how should we handle those cops down in New York City who were convicted of multiple counts of murder on behalf of the mafia? If police are worthy of special protection, does that not likewise come with extra responsibility and should not a breach thereof be considered more heinous that if a civilian were so engaged?

The justification for implementing a death penalty for people who kill cops should apply with equal force to police officers who abuse their authority, office, badge, and weapon to execute a citizen. If we need a death penalty to protect police officers, then we need a death penalty to prevent police from crossing the same ultimate line.

Throughout its history, the United States Supreme Court has always tried to distinguish those “routine and regular murders” from those sufficiently heinous enough to warrant a death penalty. As the Court drew boundaries, State legislatures worked feverishly to create situations where the death penalty could be applied. Cop killers always are included for good and obvious reasons. Most importantly, police are the great Pander Bears of any election cycle and any candidate promises all she/he can to secure a police endorsement.

When we entrust someone with the great power and authority of a being a police officer and then that officer not only violates that trust, but uses his position and weapon to enforce a mafia edict and commit multiple homicides, then with all due respect, they too deserve an execution. Such a crime is on par, in my opinion, with treason. It is the ultimate betrayal of society and puts all of us at extreme risk. Police must constantly be on Notice from day one that they too can be executed. Society must always be confident its wishes are being enforced and not those of the local Mafia don.

Remember, a police officer has more power than the President of the United States. Only a police officer can take you, the citizen, off the street and deny you your freedom. Only he can commence criminal process and bring down upon you the full power of the State and its police powers on his or her mere say-so. We trust only the police officer to carry a weapon and give him or her the benefit of the doubt in every situation; too much so in my opinion. With such great public trust and power given to an individual, that individual has to be subject to a higher standard of punishment that if just citizen A murders citizen B.

So, with all the love and respect to all my police friends; if you are going to have a Death Penalty in New York, then first execute those two New York City cops. Otherwise, when then police come knocking at my door, how can I feel safe that they are working on behalf of the People of the State of New York, and not Don Corleone?

Can you imagine a more dangerous situation?