Services for another fallen police officer turned into a referendum on the ''anti-police climate'' and the ''woke narrative'' having failed and endangered an officer that was ambushed and shot in the head by alleged gang members.
A Los Angeles police lieutenant did not hold back in his eulogy for Officer Fernando Arroyos, who was killed Jan. 10 in an attempted gunpoint robbery.
''The system and the community that you worked so hard for failed you,'' LAPD Lt. Rex Ingram said Wednesday. ''You expressed your concerns to your family many times about how criminals were not being held accountable for their actions, and how it was frustrating for the police and much more heartbreaking for the innocent victims.''
Hundreds came to mourn the death of 27-year-old Arroyos.
''Your murder will not be in vain, and the violence must stop: Enough is enough,'' Ingram continued. ''You shared with me your worries over the anti-police climate, the refusal to hold criminals accountable, and a woke narrative that only seemed to make things worse, not better. But despite those concerns, Fernando, you always carried on. Because you are Fernando Arroyos.
''Fernando, it is my promise to you that I will continue to wear my badge proudly and continue to protect and serve in your honor.''
Arroyos graduated with honrs from both Crenshaw High School and the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the LAPD in 2018.
''You were a product of your community who represented the best of the diverse melting pot we call home in Los Angeles,'' Ingram said. ''You stood tall, defending life and liberty so that everyone else could live their American Dream.''
''Fernando wore his badge with pride and lived up to its promise,'' he added. ''I ask that all of you continue to do the same.''
Police have charged Luis Alfredo De La Rosa Rios, 29, Ernesto Cisneros, 22, Jesse Contreras, 34, and Rios' girlfriend, Haylee Marie Grisham, 18, on federal racketeering charges. They face the possibility of life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty if convicted.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.