As many of you know, within the course of one week, four police officers were killed in the line of duty. One just forty miles from my home. On May 15th, the 34th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Day Service will be held in front of our nation’s Capitol, with Barack Obama in attendance. The morale of our police officers across the nation is reportedly dishearteningly low. So in response, at least a handful are threatening a peaceful protest of their own. From the Daily Caller:
A law enforcement source told TheDC that some attendees are threatening to turn their backs on President Barack Obama at the annual National Peace Officers Memorial Service at the Capitol, where Obama is scheduled to deliver remarks. Obama made comments in the past that many in the police community found offensive.
I wouldn’t blame them one bit, since he’s turned his back on them. The numbers of officers killed in the line of duty has spiked under Obama’s “watch.” And yes, he should be ashamed. Remember this?
But most officers are not expected to participate in any civil disobedience.
In Solidarity: Thousands of officers from across the nation attended NYPD officer Brian Moore’s funeral. (photo credit: Wall Street Journal)
“This event is not to honor the president of the United States. It’s to honor the officers who have been slain in the line of duty,” [an officer] said. “And I think the vast majority of police officers in attendance understand that the National Police Officers Memorial Service is to honor those in our brotherhood that have passed away and that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. No, we don’t anticipate that happening.”
Some have theorized that because of the current anti-police environment, that perhaps our officers have been forced to become too “hands off,” resulting in more officer deaths. But even if that’s not the case, it’s a sentiment that far too many of our officers are feeling, which endangers us all.
Baltimore police officers are reportedly feeling dejected since the Freddie Gray riots and the indictments of their fellow officers, The Baltimore Sun reports.
“I’m hearing it from guys who were go-getters, who would go out here and get the guns and the bad guys and drugs. They’re hands-off now,” a shift commander told the Sun. “I’ve never seen so many dejected faces.”
Additionally, cops say that the fear of legal and political backlash, similar to what was seen in Ferguson, New York City and Baltimore, is hurting morale.
Are there bad apples in the ranks of our police departments? Of course. Just as in any large body of people, there are going to be those that need rooting out (yeah, I’m looking at you, Obama Administration). Politicians—primarily liberal politicians—like to point their fingers at our police and call them “racist.” They erroneously accuse them of routinely targeting young black men and killing them with abandon. But what they will never admit is that what has truly failed our young men and women of color is not our law enforcement, but corrupt, greedy politicians who’ve led far too many of our major cities into progressive ruin. The truth is this: Those who continually tell certain groups of people—blacks, Hispanics, women, gays, you name it—that they are “victims” of “white privilege” and rampant “racism” are not empowering anyone. THEY are the true oppressors. And that, I would argue, is by design.
Fallen officer and father: A mother and her children created this impromptu memorial to Sgt. Moore.
Last Friday, I drove to Coeur d’Alene to stand with the hundreds of other citizens who wished to honor our own fallen officer, Sgt. Greg Moore. As we solemnly walked around the perimeter of the park where we’d gathered, I carried a sign I’d made that read, #BlueLivesMatter. It included Sgt. Moore’s badge number. As we neared the end of the path, I noticed a young man with a crew-cut to my left who was now strolling directly alongside me. Moments later he pulled his badge from his pocket, discretely showed it to me, and with noticeable tears in his eyes said, “Thank you. It’s nice to know some people still care.” The tears came instantly. “Of course we care,” I said.
Those of us who see with clarity what the federal government and their liberal lackeys are doing as they fan racial division, predominately under Eric Holder’s watch and now continued under Lorretta Lynch, understand their true goal. And none of it is good for America.
Cops don’t need hugs, or kittens, they need a populace with respect for the rule of Law. The years with Barry and Mooch have left us punch drunk, so I don’t blame us so much, but the reason Cops are getting a bad rap is because this Administration lives to break the rules, and we should consider it a wonder that the People who enforce Law are under attack? This Administration has empowered self-pity, resentment, murder, theft, and pride claiming, “we are the ones we have waited for” while they open our purse for the most profligate spending spree in human history.
[…] they have just released it to the public. Considering the volatile often deadly ‘anti-police‘ atmosphere they and their fellow men and women in blue find themselves engulfed in, I […]
[…] disturbing“, they have just released it to the public. Considering the volatile often deadly ‘anti-police‘ atmosphere they and their fellow men and women in blue find themselves engulfed in, I […]
The numbers of officers killed in the line of duty has spiked under Obama’s “watch.”
I need to call BS on this one, Jodi. The numbers went down in 2013, making 2014 look like a spike. But, in reality, the numbers have hovered around 50ish for some number of years now. (BTW, your link provides no info at all, just goes to the front page of a police organization.)
“I’ve never seen so many dejected faces.”
Also, though I understand where this is coming from, it proves nothing. I’m sure that Secret Police goons were totes sad, too, when some of their buddies were arrested. That doesn’t mean the arrests were wrong.
Are there bad apples in the ranks of our police departments?
The issue goes beyond that. Yes, there are bad cops, and they need to be dealt with. But there are two other issues that are intertwined:
1) Because of the job police tend to bond together. This can create the “blue wall of silence”. Though it isn’t as ubiquitous (much like those white cop on black near-innocent shootings and beatings) as many people make it sound, it IS a real problem. If the “good” cops don’t rat out the bad ones, then that one rotten apple spoils the whole bunch.
2) Because of our society’s evolution into an aristocracy of elite jobs, we often treat cops as special people. “They are the only thing standing between us and chaos!” is an example of this. The only thing standing between you and chaos in a free society is … you. A policeman is supposed to be nothing but a citizen we pay full-time to do what all of us should be doing, part-time, anyway.
Where they intertwine is that the second reinforces the first. When we treat the police as ‘elites’ who are better than the people they guard, it becomes near impossible to NOT develop that “blue wall of silence”. After all, “How dare they tell us how to go about protecting them! Don’t they know……” It also leads to treating those citizens who might not be stellar examples of a Law-based society as something less than human – tempting toward abuse.
There are only two possible solutions for this dilemma: we can restore the culture and re-generate that “moral and religious people” that Adams spoke of, or we can go full totalitarian. I prefer to not go the second route.
Thanks for your comments, GWB. Well thought out, as always. 😉
My apologies for the wayward link. It should work for you now.
I’m aware that the numbers of killings have decreased. You’re correct. That said, I don’t think there’s any coincidence between the irresponsible blanket-message coming from the Feds and the Bill de Blasio’s of the nation that “cops are bad,” and the spike in 2014.
I’m also aware of the “blue wall of silence.” This wall, if you will, can be found in any large bureaucracy, one that’s grown, under the Obama Admin, to a level of lawlessness I’ve never seen before. That’s not to say I’m justifying it; just that it’s not unique to law enforcement, and why, I’d argue, law enforcement make easy scapegoats. And speaking of “law enforcement.” Who makes all these ludicrous laws that our police must then enforce?
As far as going “full totalitarian.” I’m a cold, dead hands gal who puts her money where her mouth is. I’ll just leave it at that. Suffice it to say: That won’t change. 😉
Concur on the “wall of silence” being something that can develop in any bureaucracy. Police are particularly susceptible to it, imo.
And my point about “elites” goes beyond the police – they are merely a more potentially violent form of the problem. Dealing with the problem as a whole is the only way to go.
It’s uncomfortable to say so, but the police lose a little of the citizens’ respect every time they shoot somebody’s dog through a fence, or get caught up in a corruption investigation, or kick in the door of the wrong house during a drug raid, or bring faked or questionable evidence into court.
It doesn’t make their jobs any easier or any safer to act like trigger happy thugs, and the only reason the bad cops get by with it is that the bad cops let them.
Sorry That last sentence should read: “It doesn’t make their jobs any easier or any safer to act like trigger happy thugs, and the only reason the bad cops get by with it is that the good cops let them.”
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carter says: 
Jodi G. says: 
GWB says: 
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