Three Pittsburgh police officers lost their lives in a bloody shootout with ex-Marine Richard… Three Pittsburgh police officers lost their lives in a bloody shootout with ex-Marine Richard Poplawski in Stanton Heights on Saturday morning. The incident marks the first time in Pittsburgh that three officers lost their lives in a single incident and the first time since 1995 that a city police officer lost his life in the line of duty.

The families and friends of the fallen officers, Paul Sciullo, Stephen Mayhle and Eric Kelly, have received a huge outpouring of support from the community, including from students here in Oakland. Frankly, the fact that students have come out in support of a wider city issue is wonderful, even if the circumstances that created the support are not.

Too often, Oakland is a community unto itself, disconnected from the rest of the city and only concerned with issues that directly affect students, such as changes to the bus routes or how much money Pitt is going to get from the state. It’s not always clear that students are concerned with Pittsburgh as a city, so to see Oakland as a community joining up with the rest of Pittsburgh’s many neighborhoods and showing solidarity for both the police force and for the friends and families of the deceased is commendable.

We should make it clear that these officers deserve the support and condolences that they are receiving. It can be easy to forget that the police are on our side, and are willing to protect our lives with their own. Especially in a college community, police can be vilified — students rarely have any interaction with them outside the context of busted parties and speeding tickets.

But these three men died while doing their jobs. And perhaps even more tragic is that their deaths were utterly senseless — the circumstances of the shooting make it clear that these officers were victims.

It’s not fair for us to say that the support has been entirely for these men as police officers, because by saying that we lose the fact that they were also regular people. We shouldn’t be labeling these men as only police officers, because they were also members of the community and should be remembered as such.

Allow us to say that, in this regard, our support for the Pittsburgh police is heartfelt and our sincerest condolences go out to the friends and families of the officers. We hope that our actions in the future only serve to reinforce the respect and appreciation we have for these men and for any others who choose to put their lives on the line for our sake.

And we’re glad that Oakland’s student population has shown such a desire to remember these men and support those who are surviving them, from flying flags at half-mast around the campus to wearing black armbands and donating to the memorial fund. We hope that students can keep this level of community support active in the future, regardless of the circumstances.

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