GUEST COLUMN: Officers need support

The latest example of carnage that results from lawlessness appeared on TV screens across the country when a man walked up to a police car in Los Angeles and shot two police officers -- a 31-year-old mother and a 24-year-old man. While a few evil cowards celebrated the attack on social media and even attempted to harass the hospital staff treating the officers, all decent Americans know that how we respond to crimes like this reveals something about our collective morality.

To that end, we need to support the police officers who protect our communities and the elected leaders who stand up for them. U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton has shown leadership by supporting strong policing and sentencing policies that help law enforcement keep our communities safe.

History shows we can save lives by imposing just sentences on the serious criminals our law enforcement officers take off the streets. It is undisputed that violent crime rates sharply declined from 1990 to 2016, during a time when stricter sentencing laws kept violent and repeat criminals in prison for longer sentences. This decline was not an accident, nor was it inevitable. Rather, it was the result of intentional policies aimed at keeping serious criminals off our streets and it reversed a trend of increasing crime rates that began in the 1960s. Because serious criminals were in prison and not on our streets during that time period, many thousands of lives were saved.

We must not disregard the lessons of the past in confronting today's problems. Weakness in the face of violence will only breed more violence. During some of the demonstrations around the country recently, purported protesters have burned buildings, looted businesses and even killed people.

Sadly, there are those who, while not explicitly endorsing violence, make excuses for rioters and criminals if they agree with their political goals. While we must expect our law enforcement officers to obey the laws they uphold, the narrative that blames criminality not on the criminal, but on the exceedingly small number of cases of suspected police brutality, is both false and counterproductive. If we truly care about protecting innocent life, we must support the police officers who stand between us and the criminals who would do us harm.

To pass the American dream to our children, we must demand what is right and never allow blatant crime to be veiled in platitudes. A "mostly peaceful protest" is not peaceful. A "peaceful protest" cannot "intensify" into violence because peace does not produce violence, but lawlessness certainly does.

Criminals threaten our communities. Law enforcement officers protect us. Where law enforcement needs reform, as does every profession, that reform must come through a political process and not through the ultimatum of the mob. As Benton County's prosecuting attorney, I know how important it is for our political leaders to stand up for law enforcement and for the rights of all Americans to have the domestic tranquility their Constitution guarantees.

As we confront these difficult issues, it is tempting to view our country as one of constant division and strife. We must always remember that our country has been built by men and women who believed in the American dream and knew how to love their neighbor. One of these Americans is Lawrence Brooks, a 111-year-old black veteran of World War II from New Orleans. When he went to war, he fought for a country that had yet to live up to its promise that all men are created equal. When asked about the secret to a long life, he is reported to have said "serve God and be nice to people."

If everyone took his advice, there would be no crime. His legacy reminds me of the importance to teach my children that America, with all its faults, is still an exceptional place with more opportunity than any country on earth for the people who work for it. Through character and courage, Americans like Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan, and Lawrence Brooks built our country into a more perfect union. An America built by giants like these must never be surrendered to the lawlessness of criminals.

Despite the violence and unrest on our TV screens, we must remember that we still live in a country where the promise of America can be passed to our children as long as we believe in it and fight for it.