The Oklahoman

Thankful for police

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I am a 12-year U.S. Air Force veteran and proudly served as a law enforcemen­t specialist. It’s with great pain that I constantly read and hear about the murdering of law enforcemen­t officers. City, county, state and federal law enforcemen­t are sworn to uphold the safety and well-being of all citizens. In essence, they’re the street-level version of Homeland Security. In 1996, our government introduced the Antiterror­ism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which “establishe­d a federal death penalty for terrorist murders and strengthen­ed penalties for crimes committed against federal employees while performing their official duties.” Here is a thought: Move all city, county, state and federal law enforcemen­t officers under the working umbrella of Homeland Security. Any time someone takes the life of a police officer, regardless of jurisdicti­onal boundaries, they are tried under the AEDP Act. If found guilty, their penalty is death. There is no appeal, no plea bargain for a lesser sentence. In other words, you kill a police officer, we kill you.

As citizens, we need to support the men and women who put their lives on the line each day. And we need to thank them. To every police officer nationwide, thank you for your service and protection.

CONGRESS SHOULDN’T ACT

President Obama has asked Congress to approve his Iranian nuclear weapons deal. He has also announced he will enforce this “presidenti­al agreement” no matter what Congress does. Therefore, Congress should not vote at all since the deal’s not a constituti­onal treaty. Since Iran will get $150 billion of “sanctioned” money, Congress should refuse any funding for enforcemen­t of Obama’s agreement. Since the U.N. Security Council voted unanimous support of the agreement and has the nuclear detection agency for investigat­ions, they should get all of their “24/7/365” surveillan­ce costs from Iran, not the USA. Since Secretary of State John Kerry has said sanctions against Iran for nuclear proliferat­ion will be ended, Congress should immediatel­y double the sanctions on Iran for their unpreceden­ted support of terrorism. Obama’s “60-nation coalition” should join in, too.

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