Sometimes, coming events cast their shadows before them. Here are two examples:

• No. 1: On Dec. 26, I wrote, “If we continue to blame all our police for the perceived actions of a few (officers) … we will harm minorities themselves in even worse ways than today.

“That’s because police investigations and arrests in those communities will be inevitably hindered by the belief on the part of many officers that their actions will be judged not by the provisions of the law, but by headline-grabbing politicians and mobs in the streets.”

Three days later, the New York Post reported that “NYPD traffic tickets and summonses for minor offenses have dropped off by a staggering 94 percent following the execution of two cops – as officers feel betrayed by the mayor and fear for their safety, The Post has learned.”

The story continued, “Angry union leaders have ordered drastic measures for their members.” They include “having two units respond to every call,” which “has helped contribute to a nose dive in low-level policing, with overall arrests down 66 percent for the week starting Dec. 22 compared with the same period in 2013, stats show.”

It’s not all minor crimes: “Drug arrests by cops assigned to the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau – which are part of the overall number – dropped by 84 percent, from 382 to 63.”

There’s no satisfaction in seeing this, but it was easy to predict. Blaming cops for high rates of arrests and fatalities in high-crime areas makes them less willing to put their lives on the line.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s support for left-wing demonstrators has led to three occasions in which police turned their backs on him.

People who solely blame cops for that “disrespect” forget where the “order” in “law and order” originates – at the top.

If our highest elected officials vocally turn their own backs on the police to spur on mobs in the streets, they shouldn’t be surprised at the disdain they get from those required carry out the “law” part of the equation.

• No. 2: The Real Clear Politics (www.realclearpolitics.com) summary of national polls on Obamacare shows that its repeal was a consistent desire of Americans in every major national poll taken in the last four years except one.

So the new Republican majority in Congress should prioritize developing a replacement to empower people, not politicians. One suggestion is to call it the “You Can Keep Your Doctor Act of 2015.”

True, even if it passed Congress, President Obama would veto it. But it would be a solid plank for the 2016 presidential campaign.

In a USA Today column Wednesday, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., noted why Obamacare needs repeal: “No quick fix can correct the main flaw: The law takes power away from patients and hands it to bureaucrats. As millions of Americans have learned from their cancellation notices, Obamacare lets bureaucrats decide what insurance plans must cover.

“It buries doctors and hospitals in red tape. And it adds a whole host of new taxes and fees that drive up the cost of care. The law doesn’t make people’s health care decisions any easier; in many cases, it makes those decisions for them.”

Remember professor Jonathan Gruber of MIT, the Obamacare architect repeatedly videoed saying the law’s designers counted on Americans’ “stupidity” to pass it?

Now, the Daily Caller website (dailycaller.com) reported Dec. 30 that, on Oct. 2, 2009, “Gruber said that Obamacare had no cost controls in it and would not be affordable. … At the time, Gruber had already personally counseled Obama in the Oval Office and served on Obama’s presidential transition team. Obama, meanwhile, told the American people that their premiums would go down dramatically.”

So, despite happy-face reports that Obamacare is a proven success, some long-predicted negative impacts (intentionally put off until after the 2014 election) are kicking in.

• The Internal Revenue Service will now penalize people who haven’t gotten approved health coverage.

• Americans who received “excess subsidies” for insurance based on miscalculations of their finances will find the IRS wants that money back, too.

• As The American Spectator (spectator.org) noted Jan. 5, “If you are among the 150 million Americans who get health insurance through their employers, for example, chances are that the coverage your company offered for 2015 has much higher premiums than did last year’s plan” because of new coverage mandates.

• And, amusingly, Harvard professors who praised Obamacare for others are upset now that it is raising their own costs. Faculty members unsuccessfully tried to overturn the university’s new plans, which have co-pays as high as $250.

Do the profs not know that many Americans are struggling with $5,000 co-pays – or more?

Perhaps they will back a Republican plan for repeal, too.

M.D. Harmon, a retired journalist and military officer, is a freelance writer and speaker. He can be contacted at:

mdharmoncol@yahoo.com