The police have come under a lot of criticism lately because of the actions of one out-of-control policeman in Minneapolis and the other policemen with him who failed to act to save George Floyd. However, in concentrating on one bad apple, many have forgotten the things that policemen do almost on a regular basis to help those in trouble. Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article about one such instance.
The article reports:
San Diego K9 Officer Jonathan Wiese has been credited with saving the lives of two young girls after rappelling down a cliff to rescue them from a car their father had driven into the ocean in an apparent murder-suicide attempt over the weekend.
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune, Wiese was near the San Diego-Coronado Bridge responding to a call the girls’ mother made to police Saturday morning, in which she informed them that her husband was suicidal and planned to take the toddlers, both two-year-olds, to the bridge and drive off it.
ABC-10 reports that when Wiese arrived at the cliff area, where the man ultimately drove off, he saw the car had flipped over in the ocean below, and started to think-up a quick plan of action.
“My first thought was jump but I’m afraid of heights,” said Wiese, reports CBS-8.
“I could see him and he had one of the girls in his arms, and I have a two-year-old daughter at home so I imagined, what if that was my wife and kid down there? You’re not going to stand there on the cliff and watch it happen,” said Wiese, who later recalled the rescue effort, reports the Tribune.
Wiese grabbed his K9 leash, wrapped it around himself, and gave one end to the other officers arriving on scene.
“We kind of held on to each other, I’ve never done anything like that holding on to each other’s belts,” recalled Sgt. Briggitta Belz, one of the responding officers.
Wiese then repelled down 30 feet to the rocks below and swam toward the man, grabbed him under the armpit, held them above water, and pushed them toward the shore, reports ABC-10.
San Diego Police Chief David Nisliet called Wiese’s actions “probably the most heroic thing I’ve seen in my 32 years.” Both of the girls were still in the hospital as of Monday, but are expected to recover — a development Wiese said was the “best news you can have.”
“All I care about is that those girls are going to live and have a second chance at life,” said Wiese.
And that is one of many reasons we should never even consider defunding the police.