Funeral Held For 23-Year-Old Jersey City Police Officer Killed On Duty

An armed sheriff's officer guards the funeral procession for slain Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago on July 18.

(John Moore/Getty Images)

A makeshift memorial recently took shape in Jersey City after a 23-year-old police officer, Melvin Santiago, was brutally gunned down in an ambush on July 13. The memorial wasn’t for Santiago. It was for his assassin, a felon with a long rap sheet who was wanted in another homicide at the time he murdered the young officer. Some said the memorial was a way to grieve for a lost loved one. Others used it as a vehicle to express their distrust and hatred toward police.

It has been reported that the cop-killer walked into the Jersey City drug store, assaulted a security guard, stole his gun and waited for police to arrive. He boasted to a witness that he was “going to be famous.” And when Santiago — who dreamed of being a police officer so he could serve and protect his community — responded to the burglary call, he was shot in the head before he got out of his patrol car. He had been on the job for less than a year. Other officers returned fire, killing the gunman.

Ambush-style attacks like the one that killed Santiago are a growing concern. The average number of fatal ambush assaults against police has nearly doubled since 2010, compared with the prior two decades.

In 2010, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department launched a training program for police, called VALOR, “to address the increase in ambush-style assaults that have taken the lives of many law enforcement officers.” It’s intended to prevent and prepare officers for violent assaults by criminals. More than 15,000 law enforcement officers have taken VALOR training.

Today, VALOR training appears more important than ever. In a report just released by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, the number of law enforcement professionals killed nationwide jumped

31 percent during the first half of 2014, compared to the same time in 2013. Twenty-five officers were killed by gunfire — a 56 percent increase over last year's figures — including five in ambush attacks.

Las Vegas has been particularly hard hit by targeted violence toward police.

"We've seen an unprecedented amount of suspects shoot at our officers this year, or shoot our officers," Sgt. John Sheahan recently declared. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has reported 11 officer-involved shootings so far this year, compared with seven during the same time last year.

Certainly, the incident that put an exclamation point on their concern took place on June 8, when a husband and wife walked into a Las Vegas pizzeria and opened fire at point-blank range on two uniformed officers having lunch. Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were killed. Each left a wife and children. The suspects stripped the officers of their guns and ammunition, and covered them with a yellow “Don’t tread on me” banner. One yelled, “This is a revolution.”

Sheahan and others blame this violence against officers at least in part on an increasing distaste for government. After all, they say, police are the most visible and vulnerable symbols of government.

Oklahoma County, Okla., Sheriff John Whetsel echoed that sentiment at a recent officer safety workshop at the National Sheriffs’ Association conference. He said weak-minded individuals may sometimes be influenced to commit violent acts against our officers after hearing the anti-government rhetoric that is so prevalent in America today.

Donna Lamonaco, whose husband, Philip, was a New Jersey state trooper killed in an ambush attack in 1981, wanted to attend the funeral for Santiago. She made a call to the New Jersey State Police, who always escort her on occasions like this one. Sadly, she was told no one was available. Troopers were instead being detailed to Jersey City and the surrounding area for added security, because a violent street gang had declared war on all Jersey City cops and vowed not to stop “until the National Guard is called out.”

Craig W. Floyd is chairman and CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Share your opinion at nj.com/opinion.

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