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Stan Aten
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3/26/07 Such a waste,
when we have none to spare.
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Last Friday,
Sr. Corp. Mark Nix was murdered by a slime ball in West Dallas. A
33-year old good guy is lost to us, and his murderer is being cared for
at Parkland on our dime. A dedicated police officer is murdered by
a low life who has been arrested numerous times but always plea bargained out.
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You think I'm kidding?
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(CBS 11 News) DALLAS
... Police say Senior Corporal Mark Nix was shot
and killed Friday evening while chasing Wesley Ruiz.
That chase marked the second time in
two weeks that 27-year-old Ruiz had fled Dallas police.
CBS 11 has learned that on March 14,
during a stake out, a U.S. Marshall's Task Fugitive Task Force spotted Ruiz
leaving the Oak Cliff residence of a drug king pin wanted by a major DEA
investigation in Laredo.
The drug king pin has associates that
are confirmed members of the Zetas, a Mexican paramilitary group believed to
be responsible for slipping across the border to carrying out hits for
Mexican drug cartels.
Ruiz escaped in
a car chase after being asked to step out of the vehicle for more
identification.
He has a long record of criminal
convictions, which include multiple drug possessions, auto theft, burglary
of a motor vehicle, gun charges, theft and evading arrest.
But he often received probation and
had avoided doing serious time in state prison.
Last Monday, Ruiz' brother received
probation for a drug possession charge, but the next day his probation was
revoked.
The presence of associates of the
Zetas in North Texas has already been the subject of a congressional
investigation that warned about a spread of violence from Mexico deeper into
North Texas neighborhoods. |
We live in safe, or semi-safe
little worlds behind locked doors. Most of us work in safe, or semi-safe
little offices or workplaces, which are more and more behind locked doors.
Police officers are hardly ever in even semi-safe places. Just walking
down the street in a uniform puts them in more danger than you or me in our
civilian duds.
I'm head of my neighborhood crime watch, so I know several officers at Northwest
Substation. I didn't know Sr. Corp. Nix, but I went to his candlelight
vigil to support his surviving colleagues. As you might expect, there were
lots of hugs and tears and sad faces and a few shared laughs. Apparently,
Mark Nix was as funny as he was dedicated to being a police officer.
I hate being at the age where I think of a 33 year old man as a "good looking
kid", but there I was at his vigil, looking at his navy picture and thinking
"what a waste, he was such a good looking kid". Corp. Nix was more than
that. He was a man's man, a hero. Deputy Chief Charles Cato
(Northwest Substation) talked about him as a warrior, as are all soldiers.
He said the reality is that warriors are frequently in situations where someone
dies. Sometimes the warrior. Sometimes the enemy (the criminal).
Sometimes an innocent bystander. Chief Cato talked about Corp. Nix being
willing to be the point man when someone had to approach Ruiz in the car, so
they could arrest him. It wasn't unusual for Mark Nix to be the point man.
Looking around at the officers in attendance, it was impossible not to feel
their pain. It was also impossible not to feel an attachment to the "good
looking kid" in his navy uniform. He wasn't a stranger. He was an
officer I probably would have eventually met had he stayed at Northwest and
stayed on his career path to make DPD Police Chief.
As I've said hundreds of times, I'm a cop's kid. My dad has been dead 20 years
this month, but I'm still a cop's kid. I know how hard cops work to make
ends meet, so their families aren't deprived while they do their jobs.
There were several young wives at the vigil. You know they were feeling a
myriad of emotions - sad for Corp. Nix's fiancé and family, grateful to have
their husband standing at their side, fear of future vigils.
That's the tragedy of Corp. Nix's murder. He's an echo of past murdered
cops. He's a harbinger of murdered cops to come. Every officer at
the ceremony knew this won't be the last candlelight vigil he or she will be
attending for a murdered colleague.
Maybe my being a cop's kid makes me totally unsympathetic to people who steal,
to people who push or buy drugs, to people who hurt or kill. Not holding
thieves or drug dealers or armed robbers accountable for their actions does not
give them an opportunity to mend their ways. Plea bargaining only lets the
bad guys have another chance to improve their illegal skills. Plea
bargaining only diminishes what little respect the bad guys or bad girls have for laws and
societal rules.
I left that vigil with a sense of rage toward the scum bag who killed Mark Nix.
I would love to be on the jury who sends his evil butt to the death chamber.
Then, I started thinking about who we have for a DA these days. What if
our bail bondsman blows the prosecution of Ruiz? What if one of the new
incompetent judges mishandles the trial, so that a possible conviction of Ruiz
is overturned on a technicality? This is a good time to be a criminal in
Dallas County.
If I'm thinking about the possibility of Ruiz skating after murdering one of our
finest, you know many cops are worried about it. Why are they willing to
do what they do for us? Why are they willing to be the one to step out and
challenge the bad guys, knowing they may die for doing so? Knowing this
county elected officials who do not like cops?
By a reverse token, why do bad guys do what they do?
Why does someone take something that doesn't belong to them? How does a
thief justify stealing? What happens when the thief becomes a victim of
theft? Does he or she feel a sense of violation like the pain they caused
their own victims?
Why does someone buy or sell drugs? How do you cross into that nether
world of criminal activity knowing that nothing good will result?
Why or how does someone kill another human being? How do you stab someone?
I mean think about what a sick person it takes to stick a knife into another
human being. Or beating someone? How do you do that? And, how
do you shoot someone when there is nothing to gain and everything to lose?
Ruiz was surrounded by squad cars in a vehicle he had just wrecked which was
not going to take him anywhere else. So, why would he shoot a police
officer when he could have just given up? Ruiz had gotten off so many
times in the past, he had to have a certain level of confidence that he would be
back on the streets soon rather than spending time in prison. So, why did
he shoot a police officer this time?
To make matters worse, if possible, Ruiz will probably survive his injuries and
is being treated at Parkland Hospital at our expense.
It's a puzzlement, and it is all so sad.
During his eulogy for Sr. Corp. Nix, Chief Cato talked about how other
officers could always count on him as a back up. He said :
"Each of us, when we hear
on the radio a call for cover, we can hear Element 553 saying, 'I've got your
back, I'll be there'."
What a waste!
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