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EDITORIAL
Stood her ground
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Updated: Apr. 10, 2012 | 9:51 a.m.
Cops -- all types of police officers -- know they're not generally going to make the news for doing their thankless jobs the right way, day after day.
When the moment finally does come that they have to make a split-second decision, someone's likely to second-guess them.
Which is why, when a police officer does something really right, someone ought to take a moment to say so.
At the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood, Texas, an Army psychiatrist (enough irony there to fuel a few TV panels) named Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan has been identified as the man who walked into the base's soldier readiness facility Thursday, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" and opened fire with two handguns on 300 unarmed soldiers, killing 13 and wounding 30 others.
Sgt. Kimberly Munley, 35, is an Army veteran married to a soldier at Fort Bragg, N.C. She is a member of the base's "civilian police force" -- a private contractor.
To people at Fort Hood, she's a cop.
Sgt. Munley appears to have been the first armed representative of law and order to walk in on Thursday's ongoing bloodbath in the auditorium.
Sgt. Munley identified the shooter. She did not ask him to share his feelings. She opened fire.
Sgt. Munley's boss, Chuck Medley, told The Associated Press on Friday that Hasan then spun around and charged the sergeant, a gun in each hand.
Could Sgt. Munley, hit in the wrist and both thighs, really be blamed if she'd ducked for cover?
She didn't. From all reports, she stood her ground under fire, calmly reacquiring her sight picture, putting four rounds right where she wanted, in the advancing murderer's center of mass. She fired until he dropped. The killing ended.
As of Friday, though in a coma, Hasan was alive. Perhaps the Army will now get a chance to remind us how justice is supposed to work.
As of Friday afternoon, Kileen police said Sgt. Munley, though hospitalized, was "doing fine."
Good work, sergeant.
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I just hope she's around when I'm in trouble.
There is no doubt that the American people are just about the most gullible on earth.
I applaud Sgt. Munley's response to this terrorist's actions. It's too bad that she didn't just put 2 to the chest and one to the head. That way there wouldn't be any medical costs in caring for this scumbag who is now in a coma. Just pull the plug on him and leave it at that.