My new column is up, inspired by National Police Week as well as a number of news items involving cops this week. The intro:

When was the last time you thanked a cop? And wouldn’t it be nice if, for just a brief moment, the mainstream media would hold a ceasefire in its incessant cop-bashing crusades?

There are good cops and there are bad cops. But national press outlets, predisposed to harp on law enforcement as an inherently racist and reckless institution, hype the hellions at the expense of the heroes. Case in point: The hysterical feeding frenzy this week over reports of a cop shootout gone awry in Compton, Calif., and of a Seattle officer who reportedly Tasered a pregnant woman over a speeding ticket.

As Jan Golab writes in a cover story for The American Enterprise magazine this month on how political correctness undermines policing: “Today, cops all across the United States battle a foe as destructive as crime itself: the presumption of common prejudice. This view has been fanned by a media elite which has made ‘diversity’ its virtual religion.” The anti-cop bias, Golab notes, comes through the national MSM’s “sins of omission— the stories never told. Propaganda, as Orwell said, is in what gets left out.”

Meanwhile, the chase is on for a suspected illegal alien fugitive wanted for gunning down Det. Donald Young in Denver (previous coverage here). Authorities believe the killer may have fled to Mexico, just like the illegal alien thug who murdered LA sheriff’s deputy David March and remains on the loose despite President Bush’s promise to March’s widow to bring him to justice.

My column mentions another officer who went down in St. Paul, Minn. last week–Sgt. Gerald Vick was gunned down by an alleged gang member from the Vice Lords. Here are highlights from his incredible record of service. He leaves behind a wife, two children, and many grateful residents whose lives he saved or improved.

Daniel Felten, a former policeman and Army soldier who lives in the area, drove past the Vick crime scene and reflects on what it takes to be a cop day in and day out.

More tributes to fallen officers who’ll be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and honored at a candelight vigil in Washington this Friday here.

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Related:

LAPD officer Jack Dunphy (pseudonym) writes a terrific column for NRO. Check out his archive.

If you know of any other cop bloggers, give me a holler or trackback and I’ll highlight.