Police Officer Killed by Political Failure

Police Officer Christopher Wilson was shot and killed in October of 2010.  By every account Wilson was a fine man.  His death was our loss.  Let us work backward and trace the failures that led to his death.  The officer was part of a team serving a federal warrant on two paroles when he was shot.  The paroles had guns.  Several of them.  Many of them.  That is illegal, but the laws did not protect Officer Wilson.

Where did the paroles get their weapons?

It appears they bought some of their guns from Fernando Gallo.  Fernando is also known as Fernando Olvera Gallo, Enrique Gonzalez, Fernando Gonzalez and Ruben Gonzalez.  I’m not a law enforcement professional, but I’d guess that having five alias names is known as a clue.  Gallo had four weapons.  There is nothing unusual or illegal in that..unless..  Yeah, you guessed it.  Gallo is an illegal alien.  He was deported to Mexico four times, but was not imprisoned.  He returned each time.  It is illegal for Gallo to own weapons.  In addition, Gallo was convicted of transporting cocaine in 1995.  Gallo is a convicted felon and was finally arrested for weapons violations last week.  The felony drug conviction alone prohibit a US citizen from legally owning a firearm.  None of these laws saved Officer Wilson.

Keep digging.  Where did Gallo get his handgun?

Gallo bought the gun from a man in Nevada.  The gun was originally sold to a third party in Las Vegas.  Gallo is prohibited from buying, owning or transporting a firearm by California law.  That didn’t save Officer Wilson.

I can hear the politician call for more gun control, though we have 23 thousand gun laws already.  We have immigration laws and failed to apply them.  We have drug laws and failed to enforce them.  We failed to keep career criminals in jail.  We failed to monitor our borders.  We failed to jail illegal immigrant felons.  Our public policy failed in depth.  Officer Wilson paid the price.

Calling for gun prohibition is an act of political theater in the face of failed public policy.  Law enforcement already has the tools to make us safer.  They can not make us absolutely safe, but we could be much safer.  They know how.  We know how.  We have not given our legislators and law enforcement management the political will to make it happen.

Officer Christopher Wilson died because we did not ask our legislators, sheriffs and police chiefs to enforce the laws we have.  They bowed to political pressure.  Time after time they looked the other way.   That is why you and your family are not as safe as they could be.  That is why Officer Wilson died.