Policing in the US is bloody enough. We don't need Trump stoking up the fire |
Policing in the United States is fraught with danger and very different to other western nations, but Donald Trump's unfettered support for ICE is an invitation to lawlessness under the badge, argues columnist Calum Steele
Woodbridge, Virginia, is not a place name that carries the same notoriety as Ferguson, Missouri. Nor is Ashley Marie Guindon a name that instantly resonates in the way those of George Floyd or Michael Brown do. Her death did not trigger mass protests or weeks of rioting on American streets. Yet, like Floyd and Brown, Guindon’s killing offers a stark insight into the dangers faced on both sides of police encounters in the United States – and is why stories like hers, even when they pass largely unnoticed, still matter.
Ashley Guindon was murdered on her very first call on her first day as a police officer. Having twice served in Iraq, she was not unfamiliar with danger but stood no chance as she was shot and killed as she got out of her police car to attend a domestic violence call, where it turned out her attacker had already murdered his wife.
Ashley was 28 when she was killed. Her name, along with those of 134 other officers, was added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC in May 2017 after the annual service of remembrance on the lawns of the Capitol Building for officers killed in the line of duty. I was privileged to have attended as a guest of honour. The scale of the memorial service was enormous and, following the decision of President Joe Biden not to attend the previous year, the presence of Donald........