In more than 30 years of police work, I have never gotten over the anxiety I feel when making a simple traffic stop, the dangers of which were illustrated in Memphis Saturday night. Officer Sean Bolton, 33, came upon an illegally parked car and stopped to investigate only to be shot and killed by a passenger in that car. He was the 19th police officer murdered in the country this year. Tremaine Wilbourn, 29, whom police had named as a suspect in the killing, turned himself in to authorities on Monday.

#related#But consider: Had Officer Bolton somehow perceived the danger before him, had he drawn his weapon and fired first, had he saved his own life by taking Wilbourn’s, today he would vilified in some quarters as another callous, racist cop, one deserving of condemnation from all right-thinking people, perhaps even to include the president of the United States. And Wilbourn, a convicted robber, would be mourned as a civil-rights martyr who was “about to get his life together,” as people killed by police, no matter how lengthy their criminal record, almost inevitably are described.

Officer Bolton served with the Marines in Iraq, which for him was a safer place than Memphis. May he rest in peace, and may Wilbourn receive the justice he deserves.