The moment we catch ourselves revelling in harm inflicted on others is the moment we ought to reflect on our own humanity.
Yet some, like the man who witnessed Saturday’s ambush attack on two Los Angeles County deputies only to mock the wounded cops in a disturbing video, seem sorrily short on introspection.
The eyewitness was among several people apparently celebrating the shooting moments after it happened, with one man heard shouting “No justice, no peace” as one of the injured deputies attempts to stand up.
“Them n—s just got aired out. They just bust on them n—s, cuz. That’s crazy,” the unidentified man clad in a yellow hoodie says in the clip, which was originally posted to Twitter and retweeted by FOXLA correspondent Bill Melugin.
“Somebody bust on the police, n—. Two sheriffs shot in the face. They trippin’. It’s going up in Compton,” the man says. “Somebody ran up on the corner and bust on their ass, right through the window, in the fact and all, n—. It’s a wrap.”
The two deputies — a 24-year-old man and a 31-year-old mother of a 6-year-old — were shot around 7 p.m. Saturday by an unidentified gunman. Both came out of surgery and are expected to survive in what LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva called a “double miracle.”
However, the cold-blooded shooting has exposed ugly extremes of anti-police feeling in the city, as demonstrators gathered outside the hospital where the officers were being treated Sunday chanting, “We hope they die.”
The sheriff’s department is offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect, who shot the two deputies at point-blank range.