Los Angeles agencies are working overtime in the hopes of capturing the suspect responsible for opening fire on two sheriff's deputies over the weekend. The two deputies were sitting in their patrol vehicle in Compton when a "dark-skinned man" in his late twenties to early thirties walked up to their car and opened fire. The incident was reportedly unprovoked and both officers are said to be in critical condition as they recover from their injuries.
A $175K reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest or identification of the perpetrator, and the violent event is a focal point on many news reports as people address violence against police. Blue Lives Matter advocates have used the incident to further their anti-Black Lives Matter rhetoric. It has been heavily stated that people who support the Black Lives Matter movement fiercely believe in violence against police officers, and Rev. Al Sharpton came forward to denounce those claims.
"I think that the protesters that have been, for months, out there now, I among them, should be saying we are not anti-police and we are certainly not for killing or shooting police," said Al Sharpton on MSNBC's Morning Joe. "We are there saying that police should not be wrongfully killing or shooting civilians, particularly in the Black community. And for people to try to associate us with murder and ambushing and death is doing more to hurt the cause than anything else. Some, I suspect in my own way of thinking, could be planted in order to hurt us because that is so extreme from our position."
"Let me be real clear, I pray for the lives of those two officers just like I pray for Jacob Blake who was shot in the back seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin and I pray for the family of George Floyd," Sharpton added. "And I pray for all of them in the same prayer. I don't have separate prayers for police victims and for police that are victimized. The same prayer: that we stop this senseless violence and this senseless lawlessness. This is where we must be. This is Dr. King's tradition. This is what Nietzsche wrote about. John Lewis. Anyone on the other side whether they claim that they're left or right are wrong, that's what they are." Watch Rev. Sharpton's MSNBC clip below.