One would hope a law-enforcement official would be able to differentiate between a criminal and a tool used in a criminal act. One would also hope a law-enforcement official would use sound, sober reasoning rather than emotion-filled anger when speaking on justice. Unfortunately, the city of Houston’s top cop, Police Chief Art Acevedo, failed on both counts.

Over the weekend, one of Houston’s finest was shot to death in cold blood by a young man with a long criminal history. Sgt. Christopher Brewster was responding to a domestic violence call when he was killed. This clearly emotional moment was the backdrop that Chief Acevedo, a longtime Democrat, used to attack and blame Republicans and the National Rifle Association for endangering law enforcement.

In a public statement following Brewster’s murder, Acevedo directed his message toward GOP Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, asking, “Make up your minds — whose side are you on? Gun manufacturers? The gun lobby? Or the children who are getting gunned down in this country every single day?” Acevedo then continued his rant, “I don’t want to see their little smug faces about how much they care about law enforcement when I’m burying a sergeant because they don’t want to piss off the NRA. You start caring about cops, children and women and everyday gun violence. And that will be the last thing I say this week because the rest of this week is going to be about Christopher Brewster and his sacrifice.”

So, what about the culpability of the criminal who was the only one actually responsible for killing Brewster? The man was a known criminal who was not legally allowed to possess a firearm, and who obtained his weapon illegally. But that major fact clearly matters little to Acevedo — not when he can use the emotion of the moment to push his own leftist anti-Second Amendment agenda, all while standing over the grave of a fallen officer.

The truth is Acevedo is a political activist dressed in a uniform. He calls conservative politicians “cowards” for standing up against those on the Left, like himself, who demand that Americans’ Second Amendment rights be severely limited, if not outright eliminated. In fact, conservative politicians like Cruz and Cornyn are displaying the very opposite of cowardice when they refuse to negotiate away Americans’ hard-won rights.

Expressing emotional pain over the violent murder of a fellow officer is entirely understandable; turning and blaming completely innocent individuals for the loss is unconscionable and beneath the dignity of the office of any chief of police.