This was a terrible tragedy. I feel awful for the kids that will have to grow up without a father. Just terrible.
Full disclosure- I actually thought about being a cop at one point. I decided I did not want to put my own safety on the line every day. Events like this are the extreme, but I don't even want to be the one responsible for jumping in the middle of a barfight or anything like that either. So to any cops reading this, first off you don't get paid anything close to what you deserve, and second off thank you from some who actually understands what you do and fully admits he doesn't have the sack to do it himself.
Having said all of that, we really need to legalize drugs. There are plenty of unsolved murders, home invasions, rapes, thefts, etc. It's not like the cops would be out of a job if drugs were legal. There would be plenty of "better" things for them to worry about. If drugs were legal, the only one out of a "job" would have been the nutjob who just shot all those cops. Or he may have even been a productive member of society if his illegal career was obsolete.
Legalize drugs already. If losers want to destroy themselves, let them. If they do something illegal while they're high or to get more drugs, then arrest them for that. It's not like nobody uses drugs now. If the cops weren't forced to worry about drug dealers, they'd have more resources to target drug users who commit crimes. And if drug use itself wasn't a crime, there would be plenty of room in jail for real criminals.
I really don't see a downside here. It's time we put some common sense into our laws. A legitimate business is illegal, forcing people to become career criminals in order to tap into this lucrative market. Lots of law enforcement resources are wasted tracking these career criminals down. And lots of resources and jail space are spent on the users of this product.
Legalize it, regulate it, tax it, and use the extra resources to stop real crime.
