The two law enforcement officers shot Wednesday night in Ferguson, Missouri, were targeted for no other reason than "they were wearing blue," former NYPD Detective Thomas Ruskin said Thursday on
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."
"There's no reason other than that, that someone would've targeted those officers who were protecting the city as well as the police department, and making sure that people's constitutional rights were observed, as they had the right to do, demonstrating in front of the police department last night," said Ruskin.
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"This is what police officers do every single day around this country. There was a Suffolk County, New York, police officer last night doing his job who was shot in the face. They're not targeted for any other reason than they're wearing blue and they're trying to protect people's rights."
Two officers — neither of whom were employed by the Ferguson Police Department — were shot during a demonstration in front of the Ferguson department following the resignation of the city's police chief.
One of the officers, who is employed by the nearby town of Webster Groves, was shot in the face. The other, from St. Louis County, was struck in the shoulder.
Ruskin and Newsmax Managing Editor Alina Hernandez agreed that the family of Michael Brown, the black teen who was shot and killed by a white Ferguson police officer last summer, did not condone Wednesday night's violence, despite Brown's stepfather's initial call for violence after a grand jury's decision not to indict the officer.
"The Brown family has always maintained that they were in favor of peaceful protests," Hernandez said. "They have repeatedly come out and said, despite their disappointment in some of the decisions of the grand jury report ... they've always said they want peace, peaceful resolution and a peaceful means to changing the system.
"This family is in the spotlight by the mere circumstances of what happened, but not necessarily because they're condoning violence against police."
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